LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 295

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PARISH SERVICES 295

handbook includes valuable information on how to use the
commission, how to select and organize a planning/ building
committee, selecting an architect, developing a written building
program, financing church construction, working with parish
committees, and overcoming architectural barriers to ministry
with the handicapped. Copies are available from the com-
misison.

The commission has begun an inventory of historic build-
ings for potential placement on the National Historic Register.
Frank Sturgeon is in charge of this project.

For its own use and as a resource for others interested in
building facilities for worship and education, the commission
has produced a bibliography on church architecture.

The commission has worked closely with the Lutheran
Church Extension Fund—Missouri Synod to assure that newly
established congregations get the help they need to erect their
first units.

Richard Wiegmann is coordinating the commission’s
project on guidelines for remodeling church spaces. Ernst
Schwidder has submitted a preliminary draft of an article
entitled ‘“General Guidelines for Remodeling.”

The commission has encouraged the Synod’s seminaries to
include the subjects of art and architecture in their courses on
worship.

The most important services of the commission are the
personal consultations its members offer to congregations and
Districts in the early stages of planning a building. Contacts
can be made directly with the architect assigned to the District
by the commission as listed above, or requests can be directed
to the Commission on Architecture, Lutheran Church—Mis-
souri Synod, 500 North Broadway, St. Louis, Mo., 63102.

Otto J. Schumm, Chairman

7-10
To Deal with Teachers’ Call Procedures

WHEREAS, The teachers in our schools receive divine calls to
their positions even as do pastors; and

WHEREAS, The teachers in their doctrine and life are the
responsibility of the District president (Handbook 3.45); and

; WHEREAS, Schools and teachers are the responsibility of the
Circuit Counselors (Handbook 3.77); therefore be it

Resolved, That the teachers use the same method as pastors
when a change of position appears to be needed, and that they
not be charged a fee to have their names on the District or
synodical call lists.

Trinity Lutheran Church

New Orleans, La.

Charles R. Lodriguss, Chairman
Melody Maher, Secretary

Edwin L. Coyner, Pastor

7-11A

To Defend our Parochial Schools
from Public Encroachment

WHEREAS, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has from
its origins in the U.S.A. emphasized the importance of its
Christian day schools as vital agencies of the church in
transmitting the faith and establishing religious values; and

WHEREAS, The Constitution of The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod for many years stressed as one of the major
objectives of the Synod the establishment and maintenance of
parochial schools; and

WHEREAS, The LCMS in 1965 urged its congregations and
members to engage in a more active public role in the discus-
sion and formation of public policy related to Christian
education; and

WHEREAS, Christian day schools, teachers, and parents who
choose these schools for the education of their children have
been faced with increasing cost burdens; efforts to deny
minimal assistance and support; allegations that the main-
tenance of parochial schools may not be in the public interest;
repeated assaults on such important safety and welfare

services as busing, remedial instruction, testing, and counsel-
ing services; and

WHEREAS, In the past biennium new threats to parochial
education have arisen in proposed changes in Internal Revenue
Services regulations involving tax exemption of contributions
by parents to parochial schools and effort to impose on
parochial schools new burdens of proof that recently estab-
lished parochial schools do not engage in racial discrimination;
and

WHEREAS, It has been publicly asserted that the LCMS has
participated and concurred in recent efforts to develop new
restrictive administrative guidelines for parochial education
for, and in consultation with, the Internal Revenue Service;
and

WHEREAS, The United States Congress has withheld fund-
ing for the implementation of such newly proposed IRS
regulations but has not established as policy a commitment to
sustain the current tax status of parochial education; therefore
be it

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
publicly reaffirm its commitment to the important religious
role played by its parochial schools in the lives of its youth, its
homes, and its churches; and be it further

Resolved. That the Synod

1) publicly disavow any allegation that it is involved in
surrendering its emphasis on its schools as religious institu-
tions;

2) dissociate itself from any organization, relationship, or
effort, public or private, engaged in developing restrictive
policies involving its parochial schools;

3) clarify its position that its schools are engaged in
training children for citizenship in both the kingdom on the
right and the kingdom on the left:

4) urge its pastors, teachers, and members to witness
publicly regarding the goals, values, and nature of its parochial
schools;

5) urge its pastors, teachers, boards, and members to
communicate these views to elected and appointed public
officials who are charged with making and administering
public policy related to parochial education;

6) urge its pastors, teachers, and members to inform their
elected public officials of their personal support for those public
policies and laws that encourage and permit the church to
carry on its mission of religious education without the imposi-
tion of undue burdens, present, or proposed, in new fiscal and
administrative policies; and

7) request its Board for Parish Education to provide infor-
mation at the next convention of the Synod on progress made
to sustain and protect our parochial schools from encroach-
ment by public officials and new public policies.

South Shore Trinity Lutheran Church
White Bear Lake, Minn.

Donald Strange, President

James Graham, Secretary

Victor H. Marxhausen, Pastor

Identical or similar:

7-11B

Mount Calvary, Richfield, Minn. Lorenz Degner

7-12

To Permit Teaching of Creation
in Public Schools

WHEREAS, The concept of evolution is being taught in many
public schools as being factual and as the only possible origin
of the universe; and

WHEREAS, Christian people of our nation accept the concept
of a special creation as the origin of the universe, including all
plant life, animal life, and human life (Genesis 1—2, Heb. 11:3);
and