# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1861_S60
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

60 Church and Contemporary Notes.

Church and Contemporary Notes.

I. America.

The Missouri Synod. The just-published "Tenth Synodical Report of the General German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, for the Year 1860" lies before us. It is, cover included, exactly 100 pages long, and may be obtained postage-free for 17 cents through the Synod's General Agent, Mr. M. C. Barthel, St. Louis, Mo. It contains the opening sermon delivered by the President of the Northern District, the Rev. Pastor Fürbringer; further, the synodical address delivered by the General President, the Rev. Pastor Wyneken, together with a report on the past three-year synodical term; as well as the reports of the district presidents on the district's synodical year just concluded; then a paper "on the intimate connection between the doctrine of absolution and that of justification," presented by the Rev. Pastor Brohm, together with an excerpt of the discussion held on it; further, a statement of the reasons for relocating, respectively uniting, our institutions in St. Louis and Fort Wayne; a report on missions to the heathen and so-called home missions; instructions for the General Agent; and finally, besides a number of specially discussed matters, all sorts of statistics. From the latter we take the following. The Synod consists of 253 standing members, namely 174 preachers and professors and 79 schoolteachers. Of the former, 118 are voting and 56 advisory members, which together with the schoolteachers therefore make up 135. According to the districts, the proportion works out as follows: the Western District numbers 104 standing members, namely 71 preachers and professors and 33 schoolteachers; of the former, 38 have a vote. The Middle District numbers 71 standing members, namely 55 preachers and professors and 16 schoolteachers; of the former, 41 have a vote. The Northern District numbers 49 standing members, namely 31 preachers and 18 schoolteachers; of the former, 25 have a vote. The Eastern District numbers 29 standing members, namely 17 preachers and 12 schoolteachers; of the former, 14 have a vote. The Western District has its members in Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, and Iowa (to which California is shortly to be added, through Pastor Beehler, sent out by the Synod to San Francisco though not yet formally received); the Middle District has its members in Indiana and Ohio; the Northern in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota; the Eastern in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and in Canada (an English possession). At last year's meeting of the General Synod at St. Louis (in October 1860), 248 synodical members were present, namely 169 voting and 79 advisory; of the voting members, 100 were pastors and 69 congregational delegates, and among the advisory members were 37 schoolteachers. There were also present two members of the Norwegian Lutheran Synod of Wisconsin, the Rev. Pastors Brandt and Preus, who were not only heartily welcomed by the Synod but were also received as advisory members pro tempore.

The Christliche Volksblatt, organ of the local Mennonites, recommended the observance of the 30th anniversary of the death of Menno Simons on January 13, when "Reformation sermons" were to be held and mission collections taken up. A Mennonite recently visited the Mennonites scattered throughout Pennsylvania and found that they fall chiefly into five classes. The first class is opposed to the training of preachers, Sunday schools, catechetical instruction, mission, tract, and periodical work, and the salarying of preachers; they insist strictly on a certain manner of dress, are opposed to the use of civil government, practice foot-washing and baptism by pouring, and will have nothing to do with any reform. The second class stands almost entirely opposed to the first; it too, however, disapproves of the use of civil government, the swearing of oaths, and the waging of war, and maintains no regular prayer meetings. The third class, it is reported, is enthusiastic and Methodistic in character; the fourth and fifth are unionistic. The Volksblatt therefore declares: "The reason why the Mennonites, especially in America, have not yet fully risen as a