# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1911_S331
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 117 —

Concerning Funds for Church Buildings Collected by Circular Letter.

To the Reverend Delegate Synod, assembled at St. Louis, Mo., from
May 10 to 20, 1911.

Reverend, dear fathers and brothers in the Lord!

By the present memorial, the Oregon and Washington District ventures
to submit to the Reverend Delegate Synod, for its kind consideration,
the following petition, which proposes a change concerning funds
collected by circular letter for a congregation's church building.

The money collected in response to such a circular letter is mostly
collected because, as the letter itself states, no money is on hand
either in the district Church Building Fund or in the General Church
Building Fund. Now since this is precisely the reason most
congregations turn to the Synod for help in this way, the money
raised for them ought properly to be collected on behalf of the
Church Building Fund, from which the congregations would in fact
borrow it if money were on hand. It should therefore hold as a
general rule that this money, collected within the Synod for a
congregation for such reasons, be repaid by the congregation into the
Church Building Fund, just like other money that it borrows from the
Church Building Fund.

For another thing, all congregations ought surely to be treated
alike. A congregation that borrows money from the Church Building
Fund must repay it, while one that sends out a circular letter,
simply because there happens to be no money to borrow from the Church
Building Fund, may keep the money collected as a gift. One
congregation thus finds it easier to erect a church building than
another, and for no other reason than that the Church Building Funds
happened to be empty just when it intended to build. In our view, an
effort should be made to achieve equal treatment in this matter.

As to the question of which Church Building Fund the money collected
should be repaid into, the district would recommend to the Reverend
Synod the following approach:

All money collected on a circular letter that circulates only within
a particular district should likewise go to that district's Church
Building Fund and be lent to the congregation by that fund on notes.

But all money collected throughout the whole Synod on a general
circular letter should belong to the General Church Building Fund and
be lent to the congregation by that fund on notes.

If, in this way or some similar one, the money collected within the
Synod could flow into the Church Building Funds, it would in time be
able to serve many congregations, and precisely the great need...