LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 65

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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
Note
1. Klaus Detlev Schulz, Mission from the Cross: The Lutheran Theology
of Mission (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009), 146.

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Commission on Constitutional Matters
The Bylaws of the Synod give the Commission on Constitutional
Matters very specific responsibilities. Primarily, the commission is to
interpret the Constitution, Bylaws, and resolutions of the Synod when
requested by a member of the Synod and to ensure that the governing
instruments of the Synod and all its agencies are in accord with the
Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod. Among the additional responsibilities are that the commission, in consultation with the Council of
Presidents, is to develop a Standard Operating Procedures Manual
for the dispute resolution process of the Synod and the various expulsion from membership processes of the Synod, and in conjunction
with the conventions of the Synod, the commission has the responsibility to examine all reports, overtures, and resolutions to make
sure that these are in agreement with the content and language of the
Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod.
Up to this point in the triennium, the commission met nine times
in person, in addition to conference call meetings. The “in person”
meetings are normally from 8:00 a.m. Fridays through Saturday
afternoons. During its meetings, the commission has addressed
approximately 100 agenda items, of which about 20 percent were
requests for opinions from members of the Synod.
Res. 6-16A, adopted by the 2013 convention of the Synod, directed
the Commission on Constitutional Matters to provide resources which
would assist members of the Synod desiring to address the published opinions of the commission, including those who wished to
express dissent or request clarification. In response, the commission
developed a document providing such resources and has posted this
document on the commission’s page on the Synod’s website, under
the tab “Addressing Published Opinions.”
The 2013 Res. 6-16A also directed the commission to meet annually with the Council of Presidents. Two such meetings have occurred,
in November 2014 and in September 2015.
In examining the Articles of Incorporation of the various agencies
of the Synod, the commission regularly noted that specific language
requirements for these documents, mandated by 2004 Res. 4-11,
were missing. In part, the omissions were a result of requirements of
the not-for-profit corporation laws of the various states. This topic
was discussed at the November 2014 meeting with the Council of
Presidents, with the result that a committee was appointed consisting
of members of the Commission on Handbook, the Commission on
Constitutional Matters, and the Council of Presidents. This committee accomplished its task and the result of its work has been submitted
by the commission as an overture to the 2016 convention, entitled “To
Assure Uniformity of Relationship and Asset Disposition Language
in Governing Documents of Corporate Agencies of the Synod.” (This
overture is included elsewhere in the Convention Workbook.)
The 2013 Res. 7-18 required the commission, the Council of
Presidents, and the Secretary of the Synod to give consideration to
providing doctrinal training to Synod’s reconcilers. At the commission’s September 2015 meeting with the Council of Presidents, this
topic was discussed and a proposal was developed, i.e., an overture
to the 2016 LCMS convention submitted by the commission entitled, “To Provide Assistance to Lay Reconcilers Serving on Dispute
Resolution, Hearing, and Final Hearing Panels.” (This overture is
included elsewhere in the Convention Workbook.)
A major portion of the agenda items of the commission pertain
to an examination of the Bylaws and governing documents of the
districts of the Synod. In the course of this work, the commission

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identified an area of the Bylaws for which additional clarification by
a convention of the Synod would be helpful. Bylaw 4.2.1 (a) states:
“The conventions of the districts shall be governed by the bylaws
adopted by the Synod for its conventions, insofar as these may be
applicable.” The commission has found itself constantly needing to
determine in a consistent manner the applicability of bylaws developed for the Synod’s conventions to the conventions of a district. The
problem is that conventions of the Synod are far more complex than
conventions of the districts, particularly some of the smaller districts,
and some of the requirements for Synod conventions are difficult to
apply to district conventions.
For example, Bylaw 3.1.10.1 requires that official Convention
Proceedings of each convention are to be mailed by Concordia
Publishing House to every congregation, and the bylaw goes on to
list who else is to be sent a copy. It would hardly be practical for
Concordia Publishing House to do this for each district convention,
so the conclusion would be that it is not applicable.
But what about Bylaw 3.1.8 (b), which requires a Convention
Workbook to be printed and mailed to all delegates and alternates not
later than 12 weeks prior to the opening of the convention? Other than
perhaps cost, there is no reason for this bylaw not to be applicable also
for district conventions. The purpose of such a bylaw is to allow the
delegates to have ample time to become informed of the issues coming before the convention in order that they might vote intelligently.
However, with today’s new means of communications, could there
be other alternatives for districts to provide the required information
to delegates? And if so, how should bylaws be changed to provide
for other alternatives?
A similar concern occurs in relation to the various convention
timelines for the nomination process and other notifications that need
to be published in official organs of the Synod. In attempting to sort
through these relationships, one member of the commission developed a chart to demonstrate the relationship of the various sections
of the bylaws pertaining to district and Synod conventions. In the
process of discussing how bylaws for the conventions of the Synod
can best be applied to conventions of the districts, the commission
concluded that more definitive guidance would be needed to determine the degree to which the bylaws regarding conventions of the
Synod applied to conventions of the districts. Since the commission
is charged with interpreting the bylaws, it did not seem to be within
the authority of the commission to recommend a solution. Rather, the
commission requests that the Synod appoint a committee to examine this question and propose a solution to give clarity in terms of the
degree to which the bylaws of the conventions of the Synod are applicable to the conventions of the districts.
For many years the commission has provided assistance to
the congregations of the Synod as they develop constitutions and
bylaws for themselves. These guidelines are simply recommendations for congregations to consider, a way to assist congregations
when working with their constitutions and bylaws. This triennium the
commission also developed a second set of guidelines intended for
small congregations, which may better fit their circumstances. These
guidelines, along with many other official documents are located
on the Commission on Constitutional Matters page on Synod’s
website. Some of the other documents that can be found there are
the updated version of the Handbook of the Synod, a Standard
Operating Procedures Manual for each of the Synod dispute resolution and expulsion processes, and the minutes of the meetings of the
Commission on Constitutional Matters.
Those opinions of the commission which are of particular interest to
the Synod are printed as an appendix to this Convention Workbook. All
of the commission’s opinions are posted on the commission’s website.
The members of the commission are as follows: Mr. Thomas
Deadrick, Dr. George Gude (chairman), Dr. Raymond Hartwig (secretary), Judge Neely Owen, Rev. Larry Peters, and Dr. John Sias. The
2016 Convention Workbook