# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1906_S36
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

36 Proceedings of the twenty-first convention

this connection within the Synodical Conference [Synodalkonferenz] by the bond of peace. Therefore we should all work and strive toward this, that in every case we act as brethren toward one another. Where we have failed, we want to confess it. When an open offense against this principle exists, it lies between us until it is cleared away. Yes, we are to love one another not merely with words, but the action too must correspond entirely to these words. To this surely belongs the saying: "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." When it concerns a congregation that has been connected with another synod, and the other synod has to take part in the action, the synod called in may have only one aim: to keep the congregation with its own synod. Let a Missourian take care that the congregations that are with Wisconsin remain with Wisconsin! Likewise let a Wisconsinite take care that the congregations that are with Missouri remain with Missouri! Likewise in all other cases. Only if we are so minded and so act do we hold one another encircled by the bond of peace and act in accordance with brotherly love. In this sense there are no special interests. None among us has to see to it that as many congregations as possible come to his synod, even at the expense of another synod, but each has to see to it that the congregations that belong to a sister synod also remain with the sister synod. If by God's grace we keep this in view, then there are no so-called cases of collision at all. That at times we have one, two, three complaints on hand comes merely from this, that we have lost sight of this.

If now a congregation of one of the connected synods turns to one of the other synods, one should not only praise the other synod in a perfunctory way, but there should be an honest effort to keep the congregation where it rightfully belongs; and if finally, through peculiar circumstances in the congregation concerned, one is compelled to receive it with the consent of the other synod, one should let the congregation feel that one receives it only with heavy heart, and that it would be the right thing for the congregation to remain in the synod to which it has belonged. Brotherly love demands this also for the reason that every synod calculates the expenses of its budget according to the number and size of its congregations and fields; when a congregation then leaves such a synod, the burden of the other congregations is thereby made heavier.

Here the evil must also be pointed out that in disputes that arise the matters are often drawn out very long, up to six and seven years, before they come to a decision. We should earnestly endeavor to remove such differences as quickly as possible. For the longer such