# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1860_S92
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

92    Church and Contemporary Notes.

secretary. The constitution of the synod was to be drawn up, in the sense of that resolution, by a convention of delegates on Feb. 2 of this year in Shelby Co., Ind. After its adoption the new synod is to enter into connection with the United Synod of Ohio. —

At a special conference of the ministers and congregations of the Tennessee Synod in East Tennessee, held on Dec. 27 in Greene Co., Tenn., the resolution was adopted, as the "Missionary" reports, that the ministers and congregations in East Tennessee who are connected with the Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod should, at the synod's next session, apply for an honorable dismissal from that body, with the intention of forming a new synod in that state.

Intercessions. "The New York Observer informs us that requests for intercessory prayer can be sent in by mail to the Fulton Street prayer meeting in New York." (Missionary.)

Methodism. "A preacher who has become notorious for his droll anecdotes recently gave a lecture here in Chambersburg, in the Methodist church, before an assembly, about his experiences in the West — consisting almost entirely of ridiculous adventure-tales and religious buffoonery, in which he himself played the leading role. It had previously been announced in the daily papers that this wonderful, eccentric man would give such a lecture, and as bait for the crowds it was further held up as a special merit that he had once spoken in a church in Boston amid 'thunderous laughter!' Admission to the church where the above lecture was given cost 25 cents." So reports the Reformed Church Gazette. It appears that, just as the Negroes believe they have earned, through the burdensome labor they perform for their masters, a right to a couple of merry days for themselves, so that reverend gentleman, together with his hearers, feels entitled, after the labor of the revivals, to some recreation in the house of God.

General Synod. Nine members of the Synod of Northern Illinois, which is connected with the General Synod, have, as may be seen from the Lutheran Observer of Jan. 20, issued an appeal against the formation, intended by some members, of a branch synod of Northern Illinois. The appeal is grounded on the following: 1. The synod is still too weak to be able to bear such a division, because the congregations are too small to support their ministers properly and to build the necessary churches and parsonages. 2. This division would be the beginning of most unfortunate and harmful splinterings of the church, since from it not merely two, but many parties would arise, according to the whims and opinions of various ambitious men. 3. One needs the help and influence of the other in order to fulfill the true mission of the Lutheran church in America, namely, to Americanize the immigrant population. It could not be objected to this, as the advocates of division do, that difference of language and nationality makes unity and joint action unpleasant and difficult, since English alone is the language of church intercourse, and the Germans and Norwegians must be made familiar with it as soon as possible — moreover nine-tenths of them are themselves of German descent. Difference of doctrine could even less furnish a reason for division, since their synods were formed on the basis of a mutual compromise regarding the disputed doctrines, as these concern only matters of lesser importance. That it would be pleasant if everyone had only one language and one way of thinking is no sufficient reason why they must separate; for "the angels in heaven and the spirits of the perfected righteous probably have only one language, and perhaps think entirely alike, but in this imperfect world we cannot expect that." — To this, one of the friends of division now replies, in the name of the rest, with bitter and mocking sallies against the author of the appeal: that among American Christians of their stamp, who know their rights and their standing, all attempts