# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S325
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 111 —

The other two attorneys of the St. Louis committee, Messrs. Rowell
and Zumbalen, write in their opinion:

"As corporations these churches and congregations can exercise
no spiritual functions or religious offices whatever, but the congre-
gations, considered as a religious body, remain purely voluntary
associations without any of the attributes of a corporation. . . .
It follows as a necessary corollary that your churches or congre-
gations as corporations have no power to become members of the
corporation styled The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Mis-
souri, Ohio, and other States."

The whole matter of incorporation has been thoroughly investigated
and conscientiously examined from every side by your Milwaukee
committee. As a result, your committee has arrived at the firm
conviction that there is only one way for the Reverend Synod to
escape from these so thoroughly unfavorable conditions; this one way
is for the Reverend Synod to have itself newly incorporated, and
indeed in a state where the state constitution and laws are favorable
to our circumstances.

What is at stake here is the right of ownership of property, given
that, for by far the greater part of it, title does not stand — and
cannot stand — in the Synod's name until the Reverend Synod's
incorporation has been set in legal order.

In closing, the members of the Milwaukee committee venture once more,
in all earnestness, to call the Reverend Synod's attention to this so
exceedingly important matter, especially as it concerns the right of
ownership of property, and ask the Reverend Synod to deliberate on
this matter without further delay and to take a position on the
foregoing report.

If the Reverend Synod wishes to be regarded before the law as the
true owner of the property entrusted to it, it is absolutely necessary
that it also conform to the laws of the state.

Only a short time is needed to deliberate on the evidence, for it has
been drawn up clearly and briefly. Any further postponement of this
very important matter could, under certain circumstances, bring
incalculable harm to the Reverend Synod.

By the foregoing frank and open statement on this whole matter, the
members of the Milwaukee committee disclaim any further
responsibility.

Most respectfully,
Your Committee from Milwaukee on Incorporation:

G. E. G. Küchle.       Aug. Kringel.      W. A. Starke.
Dr. H. Dümling.        F. Rünzel.         F. H. Höck.
J. A. Theiß.           A. G. Semmann.     B. Sievers.
J. H. Beyer.