# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1938_S238
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

238 Intersynodical and Doctrinal Matters

Baccalaureate Services in State Institutions
(Unprinted Memorial 9)

Report of Committee 16:

This memorial declares that there is a difference of view and
practise in regard to the propriety of conducting baccalaureate
services in public high schools and State colleges. It asks that
Synod definitely assert or reassert its official position on this mat-
ter and answer these two questions:

1. When and under what circumstances, if at all, may a pastor
of Synod officiate at such a service?

2. When and under what circumstances, if at all, may members
of our congregations who are members of the graduating class
attend such a service?

Because of the unusual amount of work with which your Com-~-
mittee has been entrusted we have not found it possible to accord
this matter the detailed consideration it demands. Since it has
come to our attention that these questions relative to the bacca-
laureate services are to be treated in the near future by the faculty
of our Theological Seminary in St. Louis, we recommend that this
request be directed to that faculty. ,

Action of Synod: This recommendation was adopted.

Investigation of Statement on Chinese Term Question
Report of Committee 16:

This petition asserts that there are false statements in the re-
port of the Foreign Mission Board (Overture 410, p. 147), and
charges the Foreign Mission Board with misleading the members
of Synod.

Because this charge involves an official board and several mat-
ters constitutionally under the jurisdiction of the President of
Synod, your Committee recommends that it be referred to the
President of Synod, to whom it is addressed.

Action of Synod: This report was adopted.

Committee 16 also reported on an unprinted overture object-
ing to the report of Committee 21D of the 1929 convention.

The third paragraph of this overture, dated January 6, 1938,
asks this convention to remember that it must annul or correct
the accepted report of Committee 21D of the synodical conven-
tion of 1929. It asserts that this committee failed to state the
proper principle of Scripture; that this committee was not only
incompetent but also had no power to decide a question of Chinese
language; that the decision proposed by this committee and adopted
by Synod commits our missionaries in China to a practise of relig-