Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Sheet 566
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Sheet 566

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

THEOLOGY OF FELLOWSHIP 530)

has been understood in the Lutheran Church where it
was loyal to its confessions, is set forth in Augustana,
Art. VII:

And to the true unity of the church it is enough to agree
concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the admin-
istration of the sacraments.

The doctrine of the Gospel is not here to be under-
stood as one doctrine among many, or as a bare recital
of John 3:16, but rather as a doctrine composed of a
number of articles of faith. For the doctrine uf the Gos-
pel cannot be understood or preached without the Arti-
cle of God, which the Lutheran confessors say they
teach magno consensu, (AC, I), the Article of Original
Sin, which shows man’s need for the Gospel, the Article
of the Son of God, who became incarnate and redeemed
man. The true understanding of Article VII of the
Augsburg Confession is correctly set forth by Herbert
J. A. Bouman as follows:

This does not mean that the specific locus “de justi-
ficatione” considered by itself is all that the Lutherans
consider indispensable. Rather they regard the entire
corpus doctrinae as bound up inextricably with justifica-
tion. All doctrines have their place in this doctrine. All
doctrines stand or fall with the doctrine of justification.41
This is also the meaning of the Formula of Concord
when it says, Epitome, Art. X:
We believe, teach, and confess that no church should
condemn another because it has fewer or more external
ceremonies not commanded by God, as long as there is
mutual agreement in [the] doctrine and in all its
articles .. 4%
It should be noted here that doctrine is singular, but
that this doctrine consists of a number of articles.
It should furthermore be noted that our Confessions
use the terms doctrina and evangelium as synonyms:
... the assembly of saints who share the association
of the same Gospel or teaching.?3
Though the subject of pulpit and altar fellowship is
not discussed expressis verbis in the Lutheran Con-
fessions, these confessions themselves became the effec-
tive limits for pulpit and altar fellowship for Lutherans.
Those who subscribed to them were automatically in
pulpit and altar fellowship with one another. Those who
did not subscribe to them, but adhered to other con-
fessions, were, according to the Preface to the Book of
Concord, not condemned as heretics; the Lutherans
could even “have special sympathy with them.” How-
ever, church fellowship, communicatio in sacris, with
them was impossible. This followed inevitably from the
doctrine of the church as it is contained in the Lutheran
Confessions, which demand for true unity of the church
“that the Gospel be preached in conformity with a pure
understanding of it and that the sacraments be admin-
istered in accordance with the divine Word.” +4
However, while communicatio in sacris was impossi-
ble with men who were not considered heretics but
erring Christians, the Preface to the Book of Concord
recognizes a responsibility of Lutherans toward such
erring Christians:
... the responsibility devolves upon the theologians and
ministers to remind even those who err ingenuously and

ignorantly of the danger to their souls and to warn them
against it, lest one blind person be misled by another.*5

In line with this responsibility so-called colloquies
(Religionsgespraeche) were repeatedly held by Lu-
theran theologians with Roman Catholic and also with
Reformed theologians. At the colloquy of Regensburg
in 1601 neither Lutherans nor Roman Catholics appear
to have considered it improper to open the colloquy and
the individual sessions of the colloquy with prayer.
Numerous passages in the official minutes of this col-
loquy state that all meetings were opened with liturgical
prayers and that representatives of both sides changed
off in conducting the opening devotions.*®

At the Colloquy of Thorn in 1645 where Roman
Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformed met, the Lutherans
asked that the same procedure be followed. When the
Catholics refused, and insisted that they alone conduct
the opening devotions the Lutherans refused to attend
the devotions under these conditions.**

From these cases it appears that the Lutherans, dur-
ing the period of orthodoxy, did not refuse, as a matter
of principle, to pray with Reformed and even with
Roman Catholics. They did refuse when they them-
selves were treated as heretics.

C. CHURCH FELLOWSHIP IN THE
LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA

In Europe during the centuries following the doc-
trinal agreement established among Lutherans by the
Formula of Concord, church fellowship was established
by subscription to the Lutheran Confessions. Though
European nations in which the Lutheran church had
found a place, and particularly Germany, were divided
into many relatively small principalities, each with its
own territorial church, nevertheless, subscription to the
Lutheran Confessions assured full church fellowship to
all, and both pastors and laymen could move freely from
one territory or land to another and enjoy pulpit and
altar fellowship with Lutherans wherever they found
them.

However, when the Lutheran Church came to Amer-
ica, where territorial churches were nonexistent, new
units of fellowship came into existence. the so-called
ministeria, and the synods. The ministerium began as
an organization of ministers who generally worked in
one and the same area, and who practiced pulpit and
altar fellowship with one another. The synods, which
were organized somewhat later, were not. as had been
the synods before the Reformation, councils of clergy-
men called together to deal with doctrinal or practical
problems but more or less permanent organizations of
congregations with their pastors for the purpose of work
and fellowship.

Various factors were responsible for the proliferation
of synods which is observable in the Lutheran Church
in America during the 19th century. The country was
still relatively new: distances were great, and the means
of communication and transportation were rather primi-
tive: differences in language and customs complicated
the formation of one Lutheran Church in America still
further. Another very persistent obstacle was difference
in doctrine. Some Lutherans in America had come out