# LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters Minutes_St. Louis Missouri_May 14 1990_S1
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

a.) require consultation with responsible individuals and groups including "the Vice-Presidents,
the Board of Directors, the Council of Presidents, or the Council of Administrators" before
exercising executive power because the affairs of the Synod require it; [Emphasis added]
b.) allow for the calling of a special session of the Synod "by the President with the consent of
two-thirds of the District Presidents" when "all congregations and other members of the
Synod" have been "notified thirty days in advance and told for what purpose the extra
meeting is being convened;" and
c.) provide for submitting "business matters that permit no delay" and which "turn up between
convention of the Synod" "to a vote of the congregations by means of the official periodicals"
in which case "at least one-fourth of the synodical congregations must register their vote."
In the light of what has been said, the Commission has clearly not held and does not now hold that the
President may "negate or set aside wrong, faulty, or unsupported doctrinal interpretations and statements"
simply because they are not in keeping with his personal theological opinion. He may take such action
only by utilizing the procedures set forth in those sections of the Constitution and Bylaws previously
cited. The President obviously may not by his own action determine doctrine for the Synod.
ADOPTED APRIL 3, 1990
COMMISSION ON CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS

Minutes of the Commission on Constitutional Matters - Telephone Conference - May 14, 1990
36. Interpretation of Bylaw 8.69, "Any provision to the contrary in bylaws notwithstanding. (Cf.
Bylaw 8.09)" :On March 26, 1990, the President of the Synod had addressed a question to the
Commission on Constitutional Matters relative to the interpretation of Bylaw 8.69. This request was in
response to a previous communication of the Commission on Constitutional Matters in which a number of
questions posed by the President had been answered and which invited the President to forward any
additional questions for clarification, if necessary. In a series of telephone conferences, the Commission
on Constitutional Matters, on May 5, 1990, adopted a response to the question of the President regarding
the interpretation of Bylaw 8.69, with the understanding that final editing of the response would be
required before it was forwarded. Copies of the adopted response had been faxed to members of the
Commission on Constitutional Matters and in a telephone conference on May 14, 1990, the following
opinion was approved for forwarding to the President. It reads as follows:
In a letter of March 26, 1990, you asked the Commission on Constitutional Matters to address the
following question:
In stating that all final decisions of the Commission on Appeals shall be binding upon all parties
to the case and not subject to reversal, Bylaw 8.69 adds the phrase, "Any provision to the contrary
to the Bylaws notwithstanding. (Cf. Bylaw 8.09)." What is the official interpretation of the
aforementioned phrase and under what circumstances would it be applicable?
In responding, the Commission first cites a statement from its document entitled, "Opinion of the
Commission on Constitutional Matters Regarding Certain Issues Relating to Interpretation of the
Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod in Matters of Adjudication and Appeals," issued on March 19,
1990. In that document, in referring to responsibilities of the Commission on Appeals, the
Commission on Constitutional Matters stated, "Further, when all efforts of reconciliation have failed,