# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S67
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11th Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1905. 67

...from the South Australian Synod, in which our Synod was asked for help
with home mission work in Western Australia. Likewise a petition had come
from New Zealand, asking for support for the home mission work and the
mission among the Maori that the Hermannsburg Free Church carries on in
New Zealand. The Delegate Synod could not act on these petitions because it
did not have all the relevant facts before it — facts that were all the more
necessary because a member of our Synod who had formerly belonged to the
South Australian Synod believed himself bound in conscience to raise a
protest "concerning certain grievances in that Synod." (See the report of the
10th Delegate Synod, p. 111.) It did, however, direct the Reverend *Präses*
[president], as well as Mr. D. Gräbner and the undersigned committee, to act
in the matter to the best of their judgment once Mr. D. Gräbner had returned
from Australia and Germany. After Mr. D. Gräbner's return, the deputies held
a meeting in Chicago. At that meeting Mr. D. Gräbner gave a detailed report,
described the distress of our brethren there, and warmly urged the granting
of their petitions. He also made clear that the protest of the one member of
our Synod was not justified, and he undertook to resolve that member's
concerns. In the meantime a petition had also come from the Hermannsburg
Free Church, asking for support for its mission in New Zealand. After
thorough deliberation the deputies became convinced that they would be
acting in the spirit of the Reverend Synod if they granted the petitions.
They therefore resolved unanimously that our Synod should support both the
South Australian Synod in its mission work in Western Australia and the
Hermannsburg Free Church in its mission work in New Zealand, among our
fellow believers there and among the Maori. And since the Reverend Delegate
Synod had resolved in 1899 "that when special missions are placed by the
Synod under the Committee for General Home Missions, special funds shall
also be set up for such special missions," this committee further resolved to
establish a special fund for the mission in Western Australia and New
Zealand. Both resolutions were made known to the Synod at large through the
*Lutheraner* of December 23, 1902. The deputies hope that the Reverend Synod
will approve their course of action and make these resolutions its own.

"In both cases the matter at hand is, first and foremost, the sending of
missionaries.