# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1899_S82
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

82 Proceedings of the 24th General, or

agree fully with that society. Now if other denominations are not even
thinking of withdrawing in this transitional time, why should we do so?
All church bodies found in North America have their representatives in the
German harbor missions — only the Synodical Conference, or rather the
Missouri Synod, does not. And this for the sole reason that the
Missourians have dared, and continue to dare, to rebuke the German state
churches, in genuine love, for the doctrine that is not merely tolerated in
them but is everywhere promoted and stubbornly defended there. That is the
only reason the German state churches, as such, are so bitterly hostile to
the Missourians that they feel bound to hold back all their emigrating
members from this church body.

"To maintain our work here, 400 marks would be needed for office rent,
light, and heating, and 3,000 marks for my own salary, so that I can support
my family of eight persons — 3,400 marks in all. Of this, about 1,800 marks
were covered last year by commissions on passages, and 500 marks by other
income, 2,300 marks in all. — God willing, last year will be counted among
those in which income stood at its lowest level." (Excerpt from the report
of the Emigrant Mission's missionary, Mr. W. Vopel, at Hamburg, Germany.)

"To the question of whether the pastor currently serving in Hamburg could
not take over the emigrant mission there himself, I must answer with
'No!' For, first, the pastor cannot occupy himself with selling tickets,
handling baggage, exchanging money, and the like, without neglecting his
office. And yet it is necessary that these things be seen to for the
emigrants. And second, the pastor in Hamburg cannot be present at the
emigrants' embarkation, because it takes place on Sunday morning. In my
opinion the right course is to appoint Mr. W. Vopel, who is a licensed agent
of the Hamburg-America Line, permanently as the 'Missouri' emigrant
missionary in Hamburg, and to place the whole emigrant mission in Hamburg in
the hands of the Pilgerhaus Society founded in Germany, as is already the
case with the emigrant mission in Bremen. In order that the Pilgerhaus
Society may also be able to sustain the work over the long term, it would be
desirable for 'Missourians' in America to join the society, and for the
Missouri Synod to promise to cover any deficit in the society's treasury.
This deficit, for Bremen and Hamburg together, would probably not exceed
the sum of $800.00. Indeed, only very rarely would the deficit reach as high
as $800.00." (Excerpt from a letter of the Rev. Pastor J. M. Michael at
Hamburg, Germany.)

Note: The principal provisions of the bylaws of the society named above, at
whose head stands the president of the Saxon Free Church,