# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1905_S136
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

136 Proceedings of the 26th General or

...in order to save its good name, the Synod should give consideration to this hardship even now, although some years have already passed since then. It was a great oversight that the congregation did not make its need known at the time.

"3. The congregation formerly had no parochial school. It considered it impossible to establish one. Now it has learned otherwise. In the course of the last few years it has brought a school into being, sparing no sacrifice in doing so. It had to build a school, buy up another one and a half building lots besides, and has had to spend about $2400.00 for this. That was certainly a heavy task, and to many it seemed a hopeless undertaking. Now the congregation houses about 50 children yearly in its school. With few exceptions, these children come to school by streetcar. The fare alone demands a great sacrifice over the year. To get to church, too, most people must use the streetcar. There are families who spend anywhere from 50 cents to $1.00 or more in fares for every service. People come to church from twenty or thirty miles away, indeed even farther. In Denver, churchgoing is bound up with considerable expense, and yet people come willingly.

"The support of the preaching office and the expenses for the school come very dear to the congregation. The scant 60 voting members raise $110.00 a month for salaries, besides the expenses that otherwise arise in a congregation's household. The congregation has to lift and bear what it can, without even taking into account paying down its debt. And therefore the congregation commends itself to the Synod's care and asks for the remission of the debt, especially since the many sick who stay in its midst contribute little to its support.

"4. Owing to the influx of many sick people who attend our services, our little church has for years now become far too small and cramped. The hardship has recently become such that the congregation must create more room. Every Sunday its church is so crowded that it runs into conflict with the state laws. The congregation must, if at all possible, enlarge its space this very year, and that will cost at least $2000.00. Since this addition must be undertaken chiefly for the sake of the guests and strangers staying in our city, we regard it as an urgent duty to describe our plight to the Synod and to ask it to remit the debt, so that the spread of the kingdom of God among us suffers no setback.