LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 112

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of the President of the general Synod. In 1864 the duties
of the President of the general Synod were described as
supervision “over the individual districts as such,”
without including the words from the 1854
Constitution, “over the pastoral conferences, and over
the individual congregations of the district-Synods.”
However, this was not intended as a diminishing of the
supervision authority of the President of the general
Synod, since the convention added an addendum to the
Handbook stating, “The Synod declared that the
synodical President is directed to serve as inspector of
the district presidents, and that he therefore has the
right and authority in cases where he is convinced that
the district president has erred in his dealings [with the
local congregation / member] to convince himself of
the situation by a personal investigation at his
discretion.” This wording remained in the Synod
Handbooks from 1864 through at least 1899. Beyond this
specific reference, the President of the general Synod
had supervision of the districts of the Synod, which
consisted of the individual members of the Synod and
the congregations of that district.
The process for removal from the Synod, by which
decisions regarding termination of membership in the
Synod were decided at conventions of the districts with
a right to appeal to a convention of the Synod,
remained in place through the major revision to the
constitution that began in 1917 and concluded in 1924.
However, due to the growth of the Synod, adjustments
were occasionally made to the process. One example is
that rather than a matter being debated on the floor of
the convention, it was delegated to a special
committee. After examining the matter, the committee
would then bring a recommendation to the convention
for ratification.
While not changing the substance of the 1854
constitution, the 1924 constitution did significantly
alter its structure, putting it into the format which is still
current today. Gradually, the process of expulsion from
the Synod began to grow in detail.
Without explanation, the 1924 revised Constitution,
bylaws, and regulations of the Synod, excluded the
specific 1864 reference to the authority of the President
of the Synod to conduct a personal investigation of a
case when he was convinced that a district president
had erred in his dealing with a local congregation or
individual member of Synod. This was not intended to
reduce the authority of the President of the Synod,
because he still was given ecclesiastical supervision
over the districts of the Synod, which consist of the

112 | PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2019 (67TH) LCMS CONVENTION

congregations and individual members of the Synod in
each district.
Regularly, conventions of the Synod attempted to
refine the process for removal. Both the 1932 and 1935
conventions struggled with the problem of properly
dealing with the appeals from conventions of a district
that were coming to the conventions of the Synod. The
Committee on Constitutional Matters brought a
recommendation to the 1938 convention of the Synod
that appeals of a suspension should be handled by a
permanent committee. The proposal was referred to
the committee working on a revision of the Handbook.
A new procedure was adopted at the 1944 convention:
There was to be a Board of Appeals for each district and
for the Synod. In the event that an individual member
was charged with an offense and did not plead guilty,
the district president was to present the case to the
district board of appeals. If the district board of appeals
found him guilty, the district president was to suspend
him. The suspended member could appeal for a
rehearing before the district board of appeals, and if the
decision did not change, he could appeal to the district
convention. A committee would be formed at the
convention that was to review the matter, which was to
determine if the board of appeals had made an error in
procedure or if new evidence had been produced. Since
the bylaws in the 1945 Handbook were somewhat
unclear, subsequent conventions would regularly
refine the process. One such adjustment limited the
decision of the convention to determining if there was
an error in procedure.
While the specific circumstances which prompted the
resolution are not identified, the 1956 convention
determined that it was necessary to clarify
Constitution Article XI B 1–3 regarding the authority of
the President of the Synod, and adopted 1956
Resolution 6-11, specifically as a clarification of Const.
Art. XI B 1–3, concerning the powers of the President, in
the event that district officers fail to act, in cases
involving ineligibility for service of pastors, professors,
or teachers. The resolution added a bylaw (1956 Bylaw
5.23) authorizing the President of the Synod to take
action in such a case. This was essentially similar to
what had been put in place in 1864. Without
explanation, the 1989 convention transferred this
authority from the President to the Praesidium of the
Synod.
After 1956, the procedures remained basically
unchanged for several conventions of the Synod until
the 1965 convention, which eliminated all appeals of an
expulsion from Synod to a convention of a district or
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