# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S321
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 107 —

...teachers, as well as the poor widows and orphans of deceased
pastors and teachers.

The Synod's provisions in the regulation governing relief matters
(Handbook, pp. 112–115) contain the necessary rules both for the
committees of the Church Building Fund and for those of the Relief
Fund.

5. The Student Fund. All gifts received for named pupils or students
would be sent by the treasurer to the administrator of the student
fund at the institution in question; but all gifts sent in without a
more specific designation of who is to receive them would be sent to
a General Committee of the Student Fund for distribution to the
various institutions according to need. — Precisely those
congregations that have no students at our *Prophetenschulen* [schools
of the prophets, i.e., ministerial training schools] should also do
something for the Student Fund each year.

What would be the advantages of this arrangement?

1. There would be more order, more system, in the matter. Order is
useful in all things, not least in money matters, and especially so
when these are of a manifold and varied kind.

2. Collecting would be easier and more successful. One can certainly
raise a substantial sum for 5 treasuries more easily than for 25 or
50, since one can easily remind people of the few treasuries and keep
them constantly before the people, so that everyone remains aware that
they ought to give something for each of them, whereas the many
treasuries can scarcely be kept in mind by the pastors, let alone by
all the members; still less can they all be remembered regularly, and
according to their actual needs.

3. The distribution of gifts would become more even and more just,
for the administrators of the treasuries would have a better view of
the overall situation. This holds especially for the Mission Treasury.

4. The receipts would be considerably shortened, and at the same time
clearer and more instructive; the treasurers' work would also be made
easier.

The latter would be achieved to a high degree if the following rules
were established, which, given the size of the Synod, would surely
seem wise, indeed necessary — namely:

a. Only the congregation is acknowledged, and that by the name of its
pastor; never the name of the individual giver, unless there is some
special reason for publishing the name.

b. The charitable institutions, too, are not listed by name, except
in the case of extraordinary gifts or endowments. So if gifts are sent
from a congregation at once for two or three such institutions, only
the total sum is acknowledged under "Relief Fund." The treasurer, of
course, lists the individual amounts in his book and forwards them
according to their designation. Likewise for the Student Fund.