# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1896_S40
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

40 Proceedings of the sixteenth convention

to the form which they had used in their midst at this Sacrament, and no longer regarded it as free and indifferent whether one yields to the enthusiasts in this matter or not. For where, through the use of a certain ceremony, the appearance is given that error is truth, there the use of the in itself free thing indifferent [Mittelding, adiaphoron] is no longer indifferent. And where therefore the use of wafers [Hostien] has become a sign of distinction between Reformed and Lutherans, a Christian congregation should take good care not to deny what it is, not to give the appearance as though it too were at bottom a Reformed church. The breaking of the bread at the distribution has become so clearly a mark of the Reformed church that, where the Union was introduced and the Reformed way came to dominance, they abolished the wafers and introduced ordinary bread. In order to live to please the Reformed, this sign of this church, incorporated against God's will, has been stamped on. The use of wafers on the one hand and the breaking of the bread during the distribution of the Sacrament on the other hand have become churchly marks of distinction. There, where it matters, in order thereby to confess, and where omission includes a denial, we are not to think that here we could do and leave undone as we please. The form of the bread and the mixing of the wine is and remains a Mittelding; but the use of a certain form of the bread or the use of unmixed or mixed wine has not everywhere remained a free Mittelding. Yet one cannot say that the wafers have now become a matter of confession for the whole Lutheran Church; there can be Lutheran congregations, and there are such, where one can quietly use baker's bread without thereby making oneself guilty of any denial. Indeed, there can be a congregation, and there are in this country congregations, in whose midst baker's or household bread is used in order to distinguish themselves from Reformed congregations which use wafers in order to break them apart at the distribution.
Here Thesis V was adopted.

Thesis VI.

Insofar as church life is carried on first of all as the life of the Christian local congregation, the congregation, in its free arrangements regarding church practice, must first take account of its local circumstances and the churchly interests of its members.

Our Lord Christ knows as the Church first of all the local congregation: "Tell it to the congregation!" He says, and thinks thereby of the local congregation.