# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1876_S18
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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equally entitled. A Unionist congregation, however, calls and obligates a preacher to its Unionist confession. How can a faithful Lutheran pastor let himself be obligated to a Unionist confession without becoming Unionist himself? No, precisely because they want to obligate him to it, he will decline such a call, because he can accept a call only from a congregation that obligates him solely to the Lutheran confession. Such a call, however, a congregation that is in fact Unionist cannot issue without giving up its previous position. Hence there can be no question of the serving of a Unionist congregation at all, because for serving a call is absolutely required.

It is possible that a Unionist congregation obligates a pastor solely to the Lutheran confession. Such a congregation is then, however, no longer a congregation in fact Unionist. It thereby lets the reins slip from its hands and grants the preacher the good right to refute and rebuke false doctrine.

If, therefore, a hitherto Unionist pastor comes to better knowledge and becomes Lutheran, his call to the Unionist congregation ceases thereby, for it called him as a Unionist pastor. If he nevertheless holds himself to be its pastor, he would be nothing but a Lutheran pope. In such a case a Lutheran pastor would have to declare candidly to his congregation: I have come to another conviction and consider myself obligated to bear testimony against my former false position. If the congregation agrees to this, it is no longer a congregation in fact Unionist.

Since, then, through the expression "continually" [*fort und fort*] in our thesis the appearance arises as if a Lutheran preacher could be the pastor of a Unionist congregation, only that this must not happen for long or continually, which is certainly false, the striking out of this expression was proposed.

Against this, however, it was urged: In the present thesis there is of course talk of a prevailing condition, which as such may not be tolerated by a synod; and it is also certain that a Unionist congregation may not be received into the synodical body; but if a Unionist congregation from earlier times were now among us, then work must of course be done to bring it about that things become different with it, but so long we should have to tolerate it too. In time such abuses should and must be abolished. But the synod would have to deal with such a congregation only after the pastor has done everything to set it right and it will not suffer this. Our aim must always be to make Lutheran congregations of such as have been Unionist until then. For such men who work toward this, one should thank God. If we now struck out the words "continually," it might look as if we wished to take no consideration for the weak in knowledge, but