# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1906_S35
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1906. 35

gregations preserved to the synods concerned. That is right and means to deal with one another in the spirit of peace.

Further: The officers of the synod must sometimes act in cases of collision. For example, a pastor or also a congregation reports for admission to a synod and says: Our synod has dealt with us and has done us wrong; we have in consequence lost confidence in our synod. It may even happen that after closer examination one sees that the synod or its officers have indeed made a mistake. How is one to act there, so that the bond of peace may continue to encircle us? Then we do what we have agreed upon among ourselves and have held to until now: we refer the people with their complaints to their own synod and say: This is none of my business whatever; you owe it to your brethren that you, if you have a complaint against them, present it to them yourself. If he says: "I have lost confidence," one should tell him: Now you are slandering your brethren; for that means: I can find no justice there any more. Even in the case, then, that one is convinced that proper action was not taken, the complainant is to be referred to his synod. We must hold strictly to this principle of the Synodical Conference [Synodalkonferenz], that no synod of the Synodical Conference concern itself in any way with a case that has not already been settled in the synod concerned. And even if we have not stipulated this, it follows quite of itself from the circumstances in which we stand. Even in such a case where a sister synod had finished with the case, through the last instance, and one would outwardly be justified in taking up the matter and proposing a joint investigation by both synods, one should nevertheless again not intervene if the plaintiff claims to have new material for his case which had not yet been before his synod. With this new material one should refer him to his own synod.

If among us someone speaks ill of another synod joined with us in faith, we should begin to praise the other synod concerned. We have right and duty to do so, for it has a doctrine determined through and through by God's Word and likewise practice. If shortcomings show themselves there too now and then, they are shortcomings such as cling to every upright Christian and every upright church body. It is a denial of the fraternal relationship and involves a breach of the peace if, in the face of an accusation, one does not take the part of the sister synod and speak well of it.

The greatest outward good that the Church of our time has in the whole world is this connection which we call Synodical Conference; for it is now the only large connection in the whole world in which things stand as they should stand in the Church of God, namely that God's Word is the determining factor for doctrine and life. What a squandering of a blessing of God it would be now if we