LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1986, Sheet 114

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GREETINGS FROM THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA 113

such as theological discussions and issues, will be done
internally between the two church bodies.

Another major change is that the staff of the Lutheran
Council in Canada has been reduced. Having heard that
there were 153 on the staff of Lutheran Council USA, I
would like to inform you that I am the Lutheran Council
in Canada. There is one executive position, which happens
to be mine, and I’m just beginning it as of June 1 of this
year. However, I do have, thankfully, a council of six (three
from Lutheran Church-Canada, three from the ELCIC),
who constitute the governing board, and I am looking for-
ward to working with them in the work which I am to do.

A further major change was the decision to move the
offices of the council from Winnipeg, where they have been
since the inception of the council, to Toronto, primarily
because most of the agencies and the committees on which

I will be working are in central Canada. But, also, it gives
the Lutheran Church in Canada a presence in the city
where most of the headquarters of the major Canadian
church bodies are located.

As a representative of the two Lutheran Churches in
Canada I would like to thank President Bohlmann for the
invitation to bring this brief greeting to this convention.
We pray that you have a successful and fruitful convention,
and although the changes that I have outlined are taking
place in Canada there will always be, I know, the closest
of relationships between the churches in Canada and those
in the United states because of our common heritage, our
common language, our common interest and concerns, and
most of all because of our common desire to serve our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you.

Rev. L. R. Likness

9. Greetings from the Lutheran Church of Australia

Reverend President and worthy representatives of The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod:

I don’t think it is sufficient to merely convey greetings
to this convention from the Lutheran Church of Australia,
honored as I am to be invited to do this, both by you, Rev-
erend President, and by President Grope of our Australian
Lutheran Church.

The greetings to be conveyed are at bottom related to
fellowship in the Gospel and loyalty to the Lutheran
Confessions, to which both of our churches are in principle
committed, however much both of our churches may fail
to carry out this claim to confessionalism in practice. It is
a teaching of the confessions and of the Word of God that
the true church of Jesus Christ, the one sacred, holy, and
apostolic church, exists where the Gospel is purely pro-
claimed and where the Sacraments are rightly adminis-
tered in accordance with the will of the Lord of the church.
Agreement here is alone necessary for the true unity of
the church.

So my greetings are linked with the prayer of the Lu-
theran Church of Australia that The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod may continue in unswerving devotion to
just these marks of the church and with the earnest wish
that you here are united in the same prayer for us in Aus-
tralia.

Both of our churches should not allow any other con-
siderations, but concern for the marks of the church should
guide us in our working for closer unity and, in effect, in
all our churchly activities. And that’s all I’ve got to say,
and you can’t say that I don’t know what to do as the last
speaker.

Dr. Henry Hamann