# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1973_S215 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 214 CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS 5-05D Amherst Lutheran Church, Williamsville, N. Y¥., Robert W. Gromer, President; B. Jerry Wagner, Pastor. 5-05E Faculty, Concordia Teachers College, River Forest, Ill. John Groh, Secretary. 5-05F Immanuel Lutheran Church, Palatine, Ill, Theodore A. Braem, Pastor; Warren Hattendorf, Secretary. 5-05G St. Paul Lutheran Church, Mount Prospect, Ill., Raymond Avischious, Chairman; Esther S. Busse, Secretary. 5-05H St.John Evangelical Lutheran Church, Forest Park, Ill, E, Edward Schmidtke, Chairman; Erwin L, Paul, Pastor. 5-051 Cross Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minn., Arlin Paulson, Chairman. 5-055 Faculty, Concordia College and High School, Portland, Oreg., E. P. Weber, President, 5-05K Ascension Lutheran Church, Riverside, Ill., Rev. Paul R. Landahl, Pastor. 5-06 To Call a Constitutional Convention The present Constitution has served the LCMS for 125 years. Drafted by our synodical fathers in the context of mid-19th century circumstances, it has absorbed numerous changes as the years and the church’s situations progressed. Overtures to recent conventions, especially since 1965, when in Detroit the “Mission Affirmations” gave new expression to our self-understanding, have increasingly confronted the delegate assembly with requests for altering the polity of the church. Responsive amendments, rejections, or assign- ments for further study by the convention, while providing some useful dialog and constitutional changes, have lacked the comprehensive evaluation and total revision that is being encouraged and demonstrated in many congregations and some Districts, and that seems to be urgently needed at the synodical level if our Constitution is to provide expression and structure consistent with what we have become and want to be by God's mercy. Some of the specific issues which call attention to that need include: 1. The frequency, size, and business of delegate conven- tions. The amount of time and money spent in preparing for and conducting sessions is a recurring concern. More importantly, the large numbers frustrate efforts at orienta- tion, involvement, and progress on the agenda, much of which is left for disposal by the Board of Directors, 2. Representation and the franchise. If the one man-one vote principle is valid, the present polity presents gross inequities. (A District of 150,000 members represented by 62 voting delegates: another of 258,000 represented by 64.) Based on equal clergy/lay congregational representation, constitutional provisions disenfranchise nearly 23 of the Synod’s professional workers. Additionally, some components of our membership (nonwhites, women, youth, coastal Dis- tricts) suffer de facto discrimination, 3. District practices and relationships to Synod. As Dis- tricts have grown, they have called their own personnel and, while remaining a division of Synod, have established varying polities. We need to review the relationships and relative functions of District and Synod in the light of cur- rent activities. 4. Tenure, autonomy, and authority. Since positions with limited tenure are increasing at all levels in the church, tensions between central authority and individual autonomy have been heightened by pressures for central direction and expression and counter-pressures for local control, A com- prehensive look at a unified polity seems necessary. WuerEas, Some of these and other issues have received the attention of the Commission on Constitutional Matters, the Committee on Organization, the Commission on Mission and Ministry, and other groups within Synod; and Wuereas, The proliferation of concerns demands a com- prehensive and unified approach to the total polity of the Synod in which the issues can be raised, discussed, and acted upon with more deliberate and involving process than that afforded by conventions or individual commissions; there- fore be it Resolved. That the Synod in convention declare its inten- tion of calling a Constitutional Convention, subsequent to the 1975 convention: and be it further Resolved, That the Commission on Mission and Ministry in the Church develop guidelines for the Constitutional Con- vention, including number and selection of delegates, ap- pointment of directional committee, and procedures that will involve all levels of Synod in presenting and discussing the issues that will confront the convention; and be it finally Resolved, That the Commission on Mission and Ministry in the Church present the guidelines to the 1975 convention. CoMMISSION ON MISSION AND MINISTRY IN THE CHURCH L. C. Wuerffel, Chairman a i—} =I To Study the Polity and Structure of the Synod with Reference to Mission and Ministry Wuereas, The LCMS has been responsive and productive in meeting the needs of mission and ministry throughout the 125 years of its history: and Wuereas, The Synod needs to continue its record of posi- tive progress as it adjusts itself in polity and structure to new opportunities and continuing needs; and Whereas, The Synod wishes to be fair and equitable in the treatment of its members and workers; and Wuereas, The Synod has not revised its polity and struc- ture with specific reference to the following matters: a. The role of its advisory members and their inability to contribute to the Synod's development by the exercise of the vote; b. The role of its teachers in synodical elementary schools, secondary schools, colleges, and seminaries and their inability to contribute to the Synod's development by the exercise of the vote; c. The role of its women teachers and the treatment that is accorded them (e.g., lower salaries than men receive for the same work, no franchise, etc.): d. The status of teachers and other church workers with reference to the rites and privileges of ordination and instal- lation; and WuerEas, The above concerns relate to the polity and structure of the Synod; therefore be it Resolved, That the Synod assign the Commission on Mis- sion and Ministry in the Church to undertake a thorough review and study of the Synod’s polity and structure, par- ticularly with reference to the problems noted above but not limited to the examination of those problems only; and be it further Resolved, That the Commission on Mission and Ministry in the Church report its findings and make recommendations for action at the next convention of the Synod. FACULTY Concorpia TEACHERS COLLEGE Seward, Nebr. W. Th. Janzow, President James Nelesen, Secretary