# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1926_S193
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. 1926. 448

District Presidents as First Court of Appeal |
in Intersynodical Disputes.
(Memorial 403. — German Report, p. 229.) i

Our prevailing practise has been to allow only the President of
Synod to act in intersynodical disputes. This practise was based on
the assumption that our Synod as such — not the individual Dis-
tricts — was received into membership of the Synodical Conference.
From this the inference was made that only the President of Synod
could be recognized in intersynodical disputes.

As long as the same condition obtained in the other synods,
Wisconsin and Minnesota, we had no special reason to change our
practise. Conditions in these synods, however, have changed. They
have united into one synod under the name of Ev. Luth. Joint Synod
of Wisconsin and Other. States with eight Districts. The presidents
of these Districts act officially in intersynodical disputes.

The undersigned therefore recommend that our prevailing prac-
tise be so changed that each District president be empowered to act
as first court of appeal in intersynodical disputes.

Instead of offending against our constitution, this practise, on
the contrary, conforms to it; see §12,6.7. This practise conforms
to that of the Ev. Luth. Joint Synod of Wisconsin and Other States,
whose District presidents are on a level with those of our Synod and
have the same authority. Compare the Constitution of our Synod,
§ 12, 6—9, with the Constitution of the Districts of the Wisconsin

4 Synod, chap. 5, No. 1.
a Our reasons for this change are the following : —

1. It would very desirably relieve the work of our President.

2. No small — and needless — expenditures would be saved.

3. Quicker action, often if not always profitable, would be
achieved,

4. The District president in question must act anyhow if such
intersynodical dispute necessitates a suspension.

The North Wisconsin District also presented a memorial to the
President of Synod, (No. 404), petitioning him to use his good offices
in having the Synodical Conference determine a mode of procedure
in intersynodical disputes.

Report of Committee 13.

We recommend that Synod adopt the change recommended in
Memorial 403, to wit, that the District president in question be em-
powered to act as first court of appeal in intersynodical disputes in
order to allay the dispute as soon as possible, since this does not
offend against our constitution. (See § 12, 6—9.) This, in our
opinion, covers also Memorial 404, We therefore recommend to
Synod that the Synodical Conference determine upon a mode of
procedure in intersynodical disputes. ; :

The report of the committee was adopted.