# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1876_S52
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 52 —

[illegible] to state synods has come about,
[illegible] works the natural and sufficient found-
[illegible] salutary [illegible; evidently "existence", but the middle of the word is blotted] is lacking. A general seminary must
rest on the foundation of a general synod.

So also such synods as already own theological teaching institutions on which their students are trained would, at the establishment of a joint seminary, meet with resistance among their pastors and congregations, who might think that the establishment of such an institution cannot be demanded of them, since their own needs are, after all, sufficiently provided for.

To this it was objected: However weighty these misgivings may be for some, they are nevertheless not weighty enough to counterbalance the reasons that are to determine us to the establishment of a joint institution. They can easily be removed. First of all it is to be considered that the *Synodalconferenz* [Synodical Conference] is only an advisory body, which cannot force upon the congregations any resolutions for execution, but can only express publicly its conviction that the establishment of such an institution is, among other things, the most effective means for the prosperity of our Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to maintain pure doctrine and right practice in its midst, and that a joint institution will also promote in the strongest manner the so desirable territorial delimitation of the Lutheran Church. All our resolutions must indeed be laid before our synods and the individual congregations in them for their opinion. If the congregations declare against it, nothing can come of the matter. We, as representatives of our synods, can only bring our moral influence to bear that such an institution be called into life. This we can in any case undertake without hesitation, for we shall all have the lively conviction that such an institution is a pressing necessity.

If it should now really succeed, with God's help, in winning our congregations for it, it is not said that we must also at once begin the building, but we can quietly wait for a more convenient time to undertake it, and all the more as the present need is provided for and the students of other synods meanwhile find admission with joy in the existing institutions, as has indeed happened hitherto at Springfield and St. Louis.

If a synod should now be in the position that under the present circumstances it would not be possible for it, through raising funds, to take part in the establishment of a joint preachers' seminary, it would indeed be wrong if we demanded this of it. It can then wait until it is possible for it to support the seminary materially too. Yet it should not, because of its present oppressive situation, stand in the way as a hindrance, but rather with joy