# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S319
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 105 —

Should not a fixed period — best of all, probably, the calendar year
— be established for all the financial reports of the General Synod
and of the districts? The Concordia Publishing House could, to be
sure, without disadvantage — and this is in fact urgently desired by
the House itself — keep its own fiscal year, though not its present
one, but rather one running from about July 1 to June 30. The Atlantic
District therefore ventures to propose this change, which our General
Treasurer, Mr. J. F. Schuricht, as well as our General Agent, Mr.
E. Seuel, also heartily recommend.

2. Simplification of the Treasuries.

We evidently have an unnaturally large number of treasuries. This
brings with it many disadvantages, which is why complaints about it
are frequent. Our treasurers usually have to keep 40 to 60 accounts in
their books. The congregations scarcely know how to go about
remembering every treasury each year. Often a treasury, once a special
cry of need has gone out for it, has a surplus for a year or even
longer, while several others are meanwhile struggling with want.

It would be a modest help if a number of treasuries were merged. The
Synodical Treasury and the Building Fund could become one treasury;
the treasuries for the European free churches, London, Australia, New
Zealand, and Brazil could be merged into one — the one for Home
Mission Abroad — and the Indian mission could be added to the heathen
mission.

A far more thorough remedy, however, would be to introduce a sweeping
simplification, say in such a way that the whole multitude of our
treasuries would be reduced to the following five:

1. The Synodical Treasury. Through this would pass all gifts for all
purposes of the Synod, including new buildings. This is in accordance
with our constitution. According to Chapter VI, I, 5, the money that
pastors and teachers pay into the Synodical Treasury, and that is
collected from the congregations for this treasury, is to be used:
"a. to defray the general expenses of the Synod (officers' outlays,
stationery, printing costs for the synodical report, postage, and the
like); b. to accomplish churchly purposes (the founding and
maintenance of church institutions for the training of future pastors
and teachers, and the like)."

Later, alongside the Synodical Treasury, a Building Fund was
established. As the number of institutions grew, a separate treasury
was established for each one. This, however, was soon recognized as an
ill and was therefore changed. The synodical report of 1869 states on
page 99: "Resolved, 3: that henceforth, instead of the separate
building funds hitherto kept for the various buildings, only one
general Building Fund shall be established." In 1905 it was resolved
that henceforth the expenditures for such new buildings, repairs, and
improvements...