# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1902_S77
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Tenth Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1902. 77

...preparing [young men] for the holy preaching office and those
acquiring a general education. It should be noted, then, that Winfield
College especially benefits the congregations of the Kansas and Southern
Districts, so that the German Synod, in supporting this college, is also
at the same time looking after the interests of its own congregations.

"4. Conover is, as is known, a stronghold of faithful Lutheranism of the
English tongue amid a very unsound Lutheran environment. A circle of
faithful Lutheran congregations has formed around Conover. The
director of the Conover institution has been permitted by our Synod, at
its last session, to devote more time to mission work, so that, together
with the brethren there, he may help spread the Kingdom of God
especially in this respect as well.

"Conover has fought through a renewed round of the *Gnadenwahlslehrſtreit*
[the controversy over the doctrine of election by grace] there; this time
the point of attack was directed not against our English Synod but
against our mother synod, and a withdrawal of the needed subsidy could
mean a retreat across the whole field, for the congregations there are
most closely bound up with the institution.

"5. Both Winfield and Conover lie in regions not covered by the German
Synod's institutions — Conover in the southeast, Winfield in the
southwest. So in this respect, too, a real need is being met.

"6. We have also considered the question of whether one or both
institutions might be reduced to progymnasia [lower-level preparatory
schools], but we have come to the conclusion that this would serve the
interest of neither the English nor the German Synod.

"7. The German Synod thus also has a stake in the institutions of the
English Synod — should it not also be willing to help bear their
upkeep?

"8. We believe we can cover all the needs of our synodical budget with
$8,000.00 annually. This alone shows that we handle money frugally.
Now, however, after careful estimation we have come to the conclusion
that we need an annual subsidy of $3,000.00 in order to be able to
maintain our institutions. And for this sum we hereby cordially ask the
Reverend Delegate Synod." (Petition for support of the institutions of
our English sister synod.)

"When in the year 1887 a number of congregations and pastors of the
English tongue connected with our Synod petitioned it to allow them to
form their own district within the Synod, the Synod held that various
inconveniences would grow out of such an arrangement, which could
hinder the work of the Church. It therefore declined the petition and
encouraged the petitioners to found a synod of their own. This advice
was followed; and since then our relationship with those who in our
circles [use] English