# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S79
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

13th Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1911. 79

2. to reimburse the $293.15 advanced for Director Brohm's move;

3. to express the synod's thanks to teacher H. G. Röcker for his
selfless service in giving instruction in singing.

Pro-Gymnasium at Portland, Oreg.

The Oregon and Washington District, to which this pro-gymnasium
belongs, had submitted the following memorial to the Reverend Synod:

The Oregon and Washington District of our synod takes the liberty of
submitting the following memorial to a Reverend Delegate Synod,
assembled at St. Louis, Mo., for its kind and thorough examination and
resolution.

Already in 1903, on the occasion of the district's synodical meeting,
the question was discussed whether it would not be fitting and
advisable to open a pro-gymnasium of our own in our district, since
experience had shown that a good many young men failed to enter the
service of the Church because the distances to the already existing
institutions were so very great. At that time, however, no resolution
of any kind was reached. But when, at the next district synodical
meeting in 1904, this matter again came before the synod for
discussion, the Reverend Vice-President of the General Synod, P. P.
Brand, informed the district that the sister district, the Reverend
California and Nevada District, had likewise taken up the same
question and had also resolved to found a preparatory institution on
this coast and to take the steps necessary for it. The Oregon and
Washington District likewise appointed a committee for further
deliberation on this matter. (Report 1904, p. 121.)

Through the negotiations of the committees of these two sister
districts, however, it then became clear that the Reverend California
and Nevada District had in view the founding of an institution of its
own in its own midst, which would provide no relief for our district,
since, for example, the distances from Portland, Oreg., to San
Francisco, Cal., were about the same as from Portland, Oreg., to
St. Paul, Minn.

The district conference of the Oregon and Washington District then
further discussed the matter for its own district, and it was
resolved to seek the advice of the Reverend General President of the
synod in this matter. This was done, and he wrote, under date of
December 6, 1904: "My personal opinion is that the Pacific districts
should from the outset plan for two institutions. For a single
institution you live much too far apart. Both districts will also
develop more quickly as churches if each has an institution in its
own midst. An institution brings new church life and inner cohesion
into a district."

So then, on February 1, 1905, a circular letter was sent to all