# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1884_S84
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

82 Proceedings of the tenth convention

property, which until now was registered in the name of the Lutheran congregations in New Orleans and Little Rock, will take place in the near future. (In the meantime it has already been done in Little Rock.) The constitution drawn up for the purpose of incorporation is put together from the provisions laid down by the Venerable Synodical Conference (see especially: Proceedings of the 6th convention of the year 1877, p. 45 f.), and has been approved by the Reverend President of the Synodical Conference.

A member of the Commission, Pastor Sapper, accepted a call to Bloomington, Ill., in May of last year and accordingly left St. Louis. The Commission put to itself the question whether Pastor Sapper thereby ceased to be a member of the Commission. It could not, however, answer this question in the affirmative, since the instructions of the Synodical Conference (see loc. cit., p. 46) say only that the mission board should "if possible" live in one place. Naturally the circumstance that a member of the Commission does not live on the spot causes now and then some inconveniences; on the other side, however, it weighed that with Pastor Sapper the oldest and most experienced member would have left the Mission Commission. So, on earnest urging of the other two members, Pastor Sapper remained on the Commission. The Venerable Synodical Conference may itself determine how this point is to be handled.

As to the periodicals published by the Synodical Conference in the interest of the mission, the "Missionstaube" [Mission Dove] and the "Pioneer," the former is printed in 12,500 and the latter in 5,000 copies. The surplus, which in the year 1883 amounted to $836.99, has been used for the benefit of the mission, as the treasurer's report shows.

Since the beginning of this year the Commission demands from the missionaries not merely generally descriptive but also quarterly special statistical reports. Precisely these latter reports too the Commission held necessary if it wanted to be informed as exactly as possible about the work of the missionaries and the state of the mission. It has also repeatedly instructed the missionaries to keep in view that the Negro congregations are one day to support themselves and are therefore directed to contribute something for church purposes. In New Orleans the contributions from the Negroes in 1883 amounted to $169.40.

Finally the Commission permits itself to submit the following to the Venerable Synodical Conference:

For quite some time the contributions for the Negro Mission have diminished alarmingly, as the treasurer's report shows. Not only have the contributions from the Venerable Synods of Wisconsin and Minnesota flowed very sparsely, but the same is also the case with regard to the Venerable Synod of Missouri since the Jewish Mission came into being in it. In order merely to cover the current expenses and to keep missionaries and teachers at