# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1938_S231
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Intersynodical and Doctrinal Matters 231

communion of the saints, it has been felt by some that, if this
expression, “the visible side of the Church,” were permitted to
remain unexplained, it might give occasion for the fostering of
false doctrine, such as the Romanizing teaching which represents
the Church as an external religious or social institution. Your
Committee finds that our synodical fathers conceded that the Word
and the Sacraments may in a certain sense be considered as
belonging to the essence of the Church. Therefore a difference
in this point need not be divisive of church-fellowship when this
expression, “the visible side of the Church,” is understood in the
light of our Synod’s pronouncement by Dr. Walther in Das Buf-
faloer Kolloquium, 1866, p. 9.

(d) In regard to all other fundamental doctrines the Com-
mittee found itself in accord with the teachings of the Declaration
of the American Lutheran Church representatives. While the
phraseology employed was sometimes not that which we use, we
feel, especially in view of the explanations by our Committee on
Lutheran Union, that these statements contain the truth as ex-
pressed in the Scriptures and our Lutheran confessional writings.
We have accepted these statements as the sincere expression of
the American Lutheran Church representatives.

After conducting many meetings and a number of public hear-
ings, after reading various communications sent us in connection
with Overture 513, and being confronted with the duty of recom-
mending resolutions to Synod concerning the Declaration of the
American Lutheran Church representatives, your Committee sub-
mits the following resolutions:

Resolved:

1. That we raise our grateful hearts and voices to the Triune
God, thanking His mercy for the guidance of the Holy Spirit by
which the points of agreement have been reached and imploring
His further guidance toward the consummation of the efforts to
bring about church-fellowship between the Missouri Synod and
the American Lutheran Church, even though we believe that
under the most favorable circumstances much time and effort
may be required before any union may be reached.

2. That Synod declare that the Brief Statement of the Missouri
Synod, together with the Declaration of the representatives of
the American Lutheran Church and the provisions of this entire
report of Committee No.16 now being read and with Synod’s
actions thereupon, be regarded as the doctrinal basis for future
church-fellowship between the Missouri Synod and the American
Lutheran Church.

3. That in regard to the points of non-fundamental doctrines