# LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters Minutes_St. Louis Missouri_January 20 21 2003_S18
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

129. Voting Rights of Congregations (03-2327)
A retired pastor of the Synod in a letter dated January 14, 2003, recalled how District convention delegate
representation in dual or multiple parish situations was handled during his years of active ministry: “the
lay delegates were chosen alternately by one of the congregations or the other.” He asked a series of
related questions:
Questions:

Is the term “parish” a synonym for congregation, or is a distinction to be made between
them? Was [my previous experience] the correct procedure, or should each congregation
have had the right to send a delegate? If each congregation holds membership in the Synod,
by what right can a congregation be deprived of a separate vote by being the member of a
parish with two congregations served by one pastor?

Opinion: In a May 3-4, 1985 ruling (Ag. 1748), the Commission ratified an opinion that had been offered
by the Secretary of the Synod regarding the voting rights of congregations at District conventions when
several congregations form a dual or multiple parish, namely, “that a multiple parish has only two votes,
that of the pastor who serves the parish and a lay delegate chosen by the parish.”
This opinion took into consideration earlier versions of the Handbook that had provided a definition of
the term “parish,” e.g., “If a pastor serves two or more congregations, these shall be regarded as one
parish and shall be entitled to only one lay vote” (1963 Handbook, Bylaw 3.09). The term therefore refers
to a dual or multiple congregation arrangement served by the same pastor and is not synonymous with
“congregation.” As such, two or more congregations served by one pastor share the right of representation
by one lay delegate and one pastoral delegate to a District convention.
130. Adjournment
Time having expired, the meeting was adjourned with Scripture reading and prayer.

Raymond L. Hartwig, Secretary

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