# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S18
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

18 Proceedings of the 26th General or

doctrine on the basis of Holy Scripture. The General Synod was represented at all the District meetings, either by the General President or by the Vice-Presidents. We must testify that, on the whole, the District meetings gave the impression of spiritual festival days. Interest in the discussion of Christian doctrine is a lively one, especially also among the lay deputies. Matters of church practice were everywhere treated with great earnestness according to God's Word, as the sole rule of Christian faith and life.

Our Mission Work.

The number of preaching stations served in the United States and Canada by pastors and traveling preachers of our Synod stood at 882 at the end of last year, 104 more than at the end of the previous triennium. About $86,000 a year was spent on Home Mission work in this field. Raising the necessary funds caused no difficulty in most districts. The chief obstacle was the shortage of workers. For this reason, 70 calls last year and 69 this year had to go unfilled. A large part of these calls were, in fact, also into mission work. In Brazil the mission work has grown to such an extent, and has been accompanied by such blessing, that it led last year to the formation of its own synodical district there. The General Committee for Home Missions will report the particulars regarding Brazil. The same committee will also give the necessary reports on our cooperative work in Australia and New Zealand. Here too more workers have been sought than we were able to supply. Regarding our church work among the Letts and Esthonians, the Jews, the American Indians, Black people, the deaf-mute, the emigrants, and the Tamils in India, as well as our assistance in the mission of the English sister synod, the respective committees will present separate reports.

Our Educational Institutions.

Our educational institutions are the arsenal for our church's activity. Our business is, after all, the teaching of the Gospel. As a Synod we want nothing else. So we must maintain educational institutions in which teachers and preachers of the Gospel are trained. The training of rightly qualified teachers and preachers of the Gospel has always been the real life-question for the church. It is so for us as well. What is neglected here