# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1898_S4
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

4 Proceedings of the seventeenth convention

C. From the English Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States.
Prof. F. W. H. Dau; Mr. H. H. Niemann.

Number of delegates from the ministry..........32
Number of lay delegates.......................23
Total.........................................55

In addition, the following members of the Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States took part in the proceedings as guests:

Central District: Pastors C. Kretzmann, P. Eickstedt, J. H. Klausing, E. Wilder, A. v. Schlichten Jr., C. F. C. Schmidt, H. A. Bentrup, T. Zoch, C. P. Schutz, H. Henkel.

Southern District: Pastors H. Bakke, J. W. F. Koßmann, J. C. Schmidt.

Western District: Pastors C. J. O. Hanser, R. Kretzschmar, J. A. Friedrich.

Illinois District: Pastor A. Frederking.

In all, eight sessions were held, four in the mornings, in which the doctrinal proceedings were conducted, and four in the afternoons, in which the business proceedings were conducted. Pastor A. v. Schlichten Jr. served as chaplain at the opening services.

Doctrinal Proceedings. [*Lehrverhandlungen*]

Of the theses on uniformity in church practice, on which Prof. A. Gräbner had presented his paper [*Referat*] two years ago, the last five still lay before the convention for discussion. The essayist [*Referent*] took up Thesis VII, and its treatment then occupied all four morning sessions.

"It is not good that the man should be alone," God, the LORD, already said in Paradise. And God also saw to it that man need not be alone. Indeed, this was already foreseen in the creation decree, and in the blessing that God spoke over the first human couple: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it." It is true that it also says: "A man shall leave his father and his mother," but it says immediately after: "and cleave to his wife"; one bond is to take the place of the other, in so far as it brings about living together. And so God the LORD, in the old covenant too, presented the Old Testament church not as an aggregate of individuals who were to stand beside one another, but as one people, as one