# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1864_S29
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary Affairs. 29

II. Abroad.

Hesse. We read the following in the Waldecker Sonntagsbote No. 39 of last year: The Evangelical-Lutheran Union in Hesse-Darmstadt, an association of Lutheran pastors for common intercession and work for the Lutheran church, for teaching and defense [Lehre und Wehre], and for home and foreign missions, again numbers about 50 members. And they have given fine testimonies. May the Lord be their shield about them, and His word their dew.

Hanover. On Oct. 6 of last year the often-mentioned pre-synod began here. Minister of Worship Lichtenberg, as the King's plenipotentiary, opened it with an address in which he declared, among other things, "that the only concern here is, while keeping every encroachment on the confession of the church at a distance, to find forms for its constitution that will also prove adequate to greater tasks." Count v. Bennigsen was elected president, and Consistorial Councillor Dr. Rupstein vice-president.

The Palatinate. In the Volksblatt für Stadt und Land a Palatine writes: "The clergy in particular are to be thanked for the poor elections to the synod, and thus for their outcome; in the last analysis they are responsible for it. (Voting was, namely, still conducted under the old, good electoral law, under which the clergy had no small influence. Nevertheless, of the whole number only 6 seats turned out churchly.) Here is the most troubling dark side of our ecclesiastical condition, and the very character of the clergy, their pervasive lack of firm conviction, leaves everything to be feared and little to be hoped for the future." Nathusius remarks on this: "It is of course understood that the writer excepts the faithful band that stands about the Kirchenbote." If we compare with this the elections to the pre-synod in Hanover, they turned out, just so far as they depended on the influence of the ministry over the whole land, as favorably as one could only wish; for although neither Petri nor Harms is found among those elected, we do find among them men such as General Superintendent Saxer, Consistorial Councillor Münchmeyer, the Reverends Ernst, Dr. Münkel, Hardeland, Dr. Lührs, and others.

The schoolteachers in Hanover have vainly put in a word for themselves, that they too, as schoolteachers, should be represented in the synod. The liberals, who in 1848 "took them under their wing in order to do business with them," now want to know nothing of them, because, as the Zeitung für Norddeutschland itself says, they would now strengthen "the clerical element." Dr. Münkel accordingly writes: "We learn from this that the teaching estate too has, since 1848, undergone a considerable transformation for the better. It seems as though, in its disposition, it yields nothing to the preaching estate; some would even have it that it now stands ahead of it, and there has been no lack of evidence calling us to thank God and affording encouraging glimpses into the future. So long as we still stand on the field, and have reason to lift up our heads, as the clerical estate — teachers and preachers — stand together undaunted in unity of spirit and carry on the Lord's work. That is above all what must now be looked to. The church has sunk through the clergy; it must also, through them, be lifted up again and built up in all patience and teaching."

Annual Assembly of the Gustav Adolf Society; the twentieth, held on Sept. 1, 2 and 3 of last year at Lübeck, was not as numerously attended as the previous year, which is sufficiently explained by the location of the festival. Proportionally the neighboring countries had taken the least part in it, and Mecklenburg not at all. Mecklenburg alone still has no Gustav Adolf Society. On Sept. 2 Prelate Zimmermann, in place of Pastor Howard, delivered the annual report. Through 48 new branch societies the Society has grown to 1,200 societies. That it is still growing is shown by the annual income of 175,038 Thaler. Special donations to the amount of 6,000 Thaler have come in from the Prussian King, from the Austrian government — formerly so hostile to the Society — and from private persons. Assistance was given to 346 congregations in Germany, 72 in Hungary, 43 in Prussian Poland, 56 in Austria, 23 in France, 11 in Turkey, 8 in Holland, 6 in Switzerland, 5 in Italy, 4 in America, 3 in Belgium, 2 in Portugal, 2 in