# LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters Minutes_St. Louis Missouri_March 3 4 1978_S2
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

1.

Such congregations are eligible to participate until they have been removed from membership.

2.

The Commission recommends that the ballots be preserved so that if congregations should be
removed from membership before the District convention and the District secretary should
discover that the votes cast by such congregation(s) would influence the results of the
Counselor nomination procedure, this fact should be reported to the convention for any action
that the convention might wish to take. It should be pointed out that the convention at all times
has a right to amend the slate of candidates proposed by the congregations within each Circuit.

12. Number of Nominees (Ag. 1243): Secretary Bauerkemper had also asked the Secretary of the Synod
whether congregations were compelled to nominate two for the Counselor position or could nominate
only one. The Secretary had replied on the basis of several previous decisions that a congregation could
not be compelled to nominate two if it preferred to nominate only one or none. The Commission ratified
this reply.
13. Assistant Pastor as Counselor (Ag. 1248, 1248A): In answer to a telephone request from President
Arthur Kuehnert of the Central Illinois District, the Secretary had informed him, on the basis of a 1970
ruling of the CCM, that an assistant pastor who has been properly called as a pastor of the congregation
can indeed serve as a Counselor. The Commission ratified this reply.
14. Emeritus as Counselor (Ag. 1249): Secretary Bauerkemper of the Texas District had asked whether an
emeritus serving a congregation full-time could hold a Counselor position. The Secretary replied that in
1974 the CCM had ruled:
"If the man is under contract to the congregation, he is not eligible to be a Counselor; however, if he
has a call to the congregation, he may serve as Counselor. The Commission suggests, however,
that the District secretary inquire more closely as to this pastor's standing and recommends that his
eligibility for Concordia Plans, if he is not yet 72, should be investigated closely by the pastor and
congregation involved."
The Commission ratified this reply.
15. Lay Minister as Pastoral Delegate (Ag. 1251): President August T. Mennicke of the Minnesota North
District had asked whether graduates of the lay ministry training program who had been called and
installed by congregations could qualify as voting pastoral delegates at a District convention. The
Secretary had indicated that already in 1967 the Commission had been asked regarding lay workers
serving as lay ministers: "May such a lay worker serve as a pastoral delegate to a convention? May he be
chosen by the parish as a lay delegate?" The Commission had resolved at that time to answer "no" to the
first question and to answer "yes, under present regulations" to the second question. Furthermore, the
Secretary indicated that in 1974 the CCM had ruled: "An LLTI graduate is a layman and is eligible to
serve as a lay delegate to the Anaheim convention." The Commission ratified this reply.
16. Selection of Teacher Delegates (Ag. 1258): Secretary J. Robert Cunningham of the Central Illinois
District had asked whether it was proper for a District teachers' conference, through a committee, to
present to the teachers meeting at the District convention a slate of nominees for advisory delegates to the
next synodical convention. The Commission ruled that a nominating committee could indeed be
employed; however, the slate proposed by that committee could not be considered a closed slate, but must
always be open to amendment by the teachers' meeting at the District convention even to the extent of
rejecting the slate entirely.