# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1877_S28
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 28 —

to Christians. If some inaccuracies are found in it regarding the doctrine of the distinction between church and state, and about Sunday, that is not dangerous for well-informed Lutherans. On the other hand the work cannot well be altered, for we would thereby set a bad example. Our opponents would claim that we now also adapt the writings of the ancients to our own taste. Therefore it is reprinted unaltered.
Thereupon the thirteenth thesis was adopted.

A second subject of the doctrinal discussions, to which the Conference unfortunately could devote only one session because the so-called business matters piled up, were the

Theses on the Jus parochiale
that is, on parish boundaries [*Parochialgrenzen*],

likewise begun earlier (cf. Synodalconferenz Report of the year 1873, pp. 20–26, further of the year 1874, pp. 13–36).

Of these, 8 theses had earlier been thoroughly discussed, and of the 9th thesis only the first point had recently been treated. This ninth thesis therefore formed the subject of this year's discussion of the Jus parochiale.

Here too, for the sake of continuity, the theses already adopted follow first.

Thesis 1.

The public ministry [*Predigtamt*, office of preaching] is not a human but a divine order (1 Cor. 12:28–30), and indeed an order for the edification of the body of Christ or the Church for all time until the Last Day (Eph. 4:11–13); it is therefore also God's will that every Christian make use of this public ministry (1 Cor. 16:15, 16; 1 Thess. 5:12, 13), as the Third Commandment already requires.

Thesis 2.

The whole body of individual Christians shall unite into individual congregations in which the Word of God in teaching and discipline is in operation by means of the public ministry (Matt. 18:15–20); it is therefore God's will that every Christian let himself be found as a member in such a congregation (Acts 2:47), take part in its assemblies (Heb. 10:24, 25), serve it with his gifts (1 Cor. 12:4–27) and not be an offense to it (1 Cor. 10:32).

Thesis 3.

Only the apostles had a general call to the whole world; the mediately called preachers, however, shall take care of their particular flock of God (τὸ