LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1965, Page 206

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206 UNPUBLISHED REPORTS AND OVERTURES

Whenever the LWF, for instance, supports a mission
or a minority church, it becomes evidently corespon-
sible for the public teaching or practice going on in this
particular field, and this its responsibility then is auto-
matically shared by the entire Federation in all its
member churches.

The constitutional “changes” have not modified this
aspect of the problem, just as little as the problem was
solved by the fact that (so far!) membership in the
LWF did not mean compulsory or automatical pulpit
and altar fellowship with the other member churches.
The constant pressure exerted on member churches, to
extend such fellowship despite the lack of real unity,
should, we believe, be in itself reason enough to con-
sider with greatest caution the matter of eventual mem-
bership in this Federation, and for that matter, in any
similar ecumenical organization.

6. Once again, we affirm that our plea, addressed to
all our dear sister churches in the world, to decline
membership in the Lutheran World Federation, is in no
wise prompted by a loveless attitude over against the
Federation and its member churches but springs solely
from the solid conviction that our confessional Lutheran
Churches would by participation in the LWF be irre-
sistibly drawn into antiscriptural unionism, and that our
witness, far from gaining weight, would only be
weakened, and our status as churches bound to the
Confessions lose its trustworthiness.

May our Lord Jesus Christ grant His most abundant
blessings on the deliberations of your synodical con-
vention.

Tue EvaNGELICAL LUTHERAN CuHuRCH —

Synop or FRANCE AND BELGIUM

THe EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

Rev. Frep C. KREISS, President

Rev. BERNARD GALICHER, Vice-President

Rev, GUILLAUME WOLFF, Chairman
Committee on Theology

Rev. Jean Bricxa, Secretary

Mr. FREDERIC BACHERT, Treasurer

Mr, PHILIPPE SCHWEICKART

Mr, EMILE KREISS

Mr, GEorrroy LUDWIG

Mr, ALBERT BocH

[3-37 Un]
Communication from the Free Ev.
Lutheran Church of Finland

We would like to voice our deep concern about a
matter of great importance. The matter that is causing
us concern has to do with the Lutheran World Federa-
tion and the proposed Lutheran Council in the United
States of America.

Recently the official periodical of the state church
of Finland published a news item received from the
United States which states as an established fact that
The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod will join the
proposed Lutheran Council in the United States of
America. Only the exact date of joining could not be

stated with certainty. The news item has been the
cause of a great deal of concern not only within our
own church but also within more serious-minded state
church circles. Such a joining, if it actually takes place,
is considered to mean a decisive change in the policy
of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod in its rela-
tions with church bodies with whom it is not in doc-
trinal agreement.

The other two church bodies that would belong to
the proposed Council are both members of the Lutheran
World Federation and are in church fellowship de facto
with each other. Both church associations, the Lutheran
World Federation and the Lutheran Council in the
United States of America, are federations of a churchly
nature. This fact is unmistakably attested to by the
names, the confessional basis, and the activity of these
associations. The Lutheran World Federation has some
very specific confessional clauses in its constitution,
which were expanded with the assistance of The Lu-
theran Church — Missouri Synod during the Helsinki
Assembly. These confessional clauses do not, however,
actually have to do with doctrine but only provide for
a free confessional basis. As to the Lutheran Council in
the United States of America, it clearly spells out the
basis and the form of its joint churchly activity in the
fourth and fifth articles of its proposed constitution
and in the eighth article of its bylaws. This is clearly
cooperation in churchly matters (cooperatio in ecclesi-
asticis rebus sacris).

In judging church associations two factors must be
taken into consideration: (1) what the member

churches are in essence and (2) what their relation to

the larger church associations (LWF, WCC) is. Member
churches of this type are not true visible churches
(verae ecclesiae). For this reason The Lutheran Church
_ Missouri Synod has not up to now been able to take
part with them in joint activity of a churchly nature.
These member churches have not changed, nor have
they sought to establish fellowship with The Lutheran
Church — Missouri Synod, for example through the
Synodical Conference. On the contrary, theological
liberalism has been given full reign in these member
churches at least so far as Europe is concerned. For
this reason our free Lutheran churches have been born.
On the basis of God’s Word they have separated from
the state churches. For these same Scriptural reasons
we are still functioning as separate church bodies today.

That which the fathers of The Lutheran Church —
Missouri Synod have taught according to God’s Word
concerning church matters still applies to conditions
today. Franz Pieper states: “A congregation or church
body which, in spite of the divine order, tolerates false
doctrine in its midst is properly called a heterodox
church. . . . Impure and heterodox churches are... -
also the church bodies which, though bearing the Lu-
theran name, do not profess and actually teach the doc-
trine of the Church of the Reformation” (Christian
Dogmaties, III, 402). C. F. W. Walther states that if
a church body which has departed from the pure doc-
trine in practice still has the true “official” doctrine in

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