# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1898_S27
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1898. 27

brings. And with that, again, a principle of church fellowship is given. We recognize other congregations and congregation members as Lutheran because we are convinced that in the congregations which we recognize, and from which we seek recognition, nothing is to count but God's Word where it is a question of what Christian truth and doctrine is, and that the preachers of these congregations may preach before their congregations nothing but just the pure truth of God. For this reason we do not ask at length, when a preacher from a sister congregation steps into our pulpit: "Is this also an orthodox man? Do we have the right to concede our pulpit to him?" but we look upon him with the good confidence that he will preach to us what God has taught him, and that we will hear our confession, our faith, also from his mouth. And when a Christian member of a congregation from a sister congregation which has this confession, which holds and has this doctrine taught, comes to us with a little slip of paper, and if it is small, on which only the few words stand: "A. B. has been a member of the congregation here and is moving into the area of a sister congregation, to which he is herewith recommended for admission," that is enough for us; we do not first conduct a hearing, do not examine him, but say: Thank God that you are here; be heartily welcome as a brother who has long been one of us. All this ceases, however, as soon as one tampers with the rule that we must practise in the church in such a way that nothing in this principle is violated. If, for example, we were to practice fellowship in worship with false believers or unbelievers, we would thereby violate not only such words of God as: "Be of one mind among yourselves," "Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers," "Depart from them," but we would also break through a principal rule on which the Christian fellowship and the church life together of the congregation rests. We hold joint services, we celebrate joint mission festivals, we invite one another to jubilees of congregations or congregational schools. We do this without first stopping to consider whether we can do so with a good conscience, as soon as we have to do with a sister congregation that is of the same confession as ours and takes it seriously. This would cease as soon as we got involved in celebrating mission festivals also together with others, in carrying on the mission work together with other church bodies; as soon as that became customary with us, or rather an abuse, the living together and working together with our real sisters among the Christian congregations would have ceased to be a testimony to the recognition of their orthodoxy. For if recognition of orthodoxy is to lie in fellowship in worship, then fellowship in worship must also remain limited to those who confess the right faith.