Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 2019 · 67th Convention, Tampa › Page 199

LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 199

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

I. OPINIONS OF COMMISSION ON CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS
The four questions, then, are as follow:
Question 1: Is the Commission on Constitutional Matters
bound to interpret the text of the Constitution
and Bylaws of the Synod on the basis of the text
of the Constitution and Bylaws as currently delivered to the members of the Synod?
Opinion: The Commission on Constitutional Matters is
charged with the interpretation of the Constitution, Bylaws,
and resolutions of the Synod (Bylaw 3.9.2). In interpreting
the Constitution and Bylaws the commission is required to
understand the terms used in their original intended meaning and context and not on the basis of how the meaning of a
term might have changed over time. In addition, when Bylaws
or amendments to the Constitution are adopted by the Synod,
while every attempt is made to make changes to the Constitution or Bylaws clear and precise, there are times when it is later
discovered that the present text of bylaws as adopted does not
provide all the necessary context for a particular bylaw’s interpretation and/or application. In those instances, the commission is required to take into consideration the intention of the
entire resolution by which the text in question was adopted,
and the historical context and standing interpretation of the
terms used.
Question 2: Absent a definition of the term parish in the
Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod as currently delivered to the members of the Synod, is
the commission permitted to import or construct
a definition of the term?
Opinion: While Bylaw 1.2.1 lists definitions of many of the
terms that are used in the Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod, that bylaw makes no attempt to define every term used in
these documents. Many of these terms have had a common use
and understanding within the Synod throughout its history.
In interpreting the Constitution and Bylaws the commission is
required to understand and exposit these terms based on their
historic use in the Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod.
Such is the case with the term parish in Const. Art. V A,
and it is in relation to its particular use in this article that a definition is sought. This article deals with the voting rights at the
conventions of the Synod: In conventions of the district it states
that every congregation or parish is entitled to two votes, one by
the pastor and one by the lay delegate. This arrangement precedes the creation of district conventions, originating with the
pre-delegate (directly representative) conventions of the Synod,
from 1847 to 1872.
The matter of voting rights at conventions of the Synod
was first established by the 1847 Constitution at the founding of
the Synod, and has remained consistent (as presently applied to
district conventions) throughout Synod’s history:
Article 3—–External Organization of Synod
1. The “synodical personnel” is made up of the
ministers (Der Diener) of the Church and the
delegates of the congregations (Pfarrgemeinden), each of which has the right to elect one
delegate. If pastors or delegates are absent for a
good reason they may in a particular case deliver
their vote in writing.
Article 3 describes the organization and conduct of the
annual conventions of the Synod, with Section 1 dealing with
those who may vote. Those who may vote are the ministers and

199

delegates of the Pfarrgemeinden. The 1847 Constitution includes an important explanation of what is meant by this term,
translated here as congregation. In the original German text, the
term Pfarrgemeinden is footnoted as follows. Note that we have
translated Pfarrgemeinde as congregation in the article and parish in the footnote, but the word is the same—reflecting that
congregation-or-parish (Const. Art. V A) corresponding to one
pastor.
A parish [Pfarrgemeinde] is either one single congregation
or the sum of the individual congregations which the pastor
serves [bedient], as, in Germany, the territory in which he serves
is called Kirchspiel or Kirchensprengel. The pastor may serve 3 or
4 or more congregations, locally separated; they are in relation
to him essentially only one congregation and must, therefore,
jointly send to the convention one delegate.
Thus, how the Synod from its inception viewed the right
to vote is clear. The vote belongs to the Pfarrgemeinde, the
congregation-or-parish and is exercised by the pastor of the
congregation-or-parish and a lay delegate designated by the
congregation-or-parish. From the beginning of the Synod, the
term Pfarrgemeinde or congregation-or-parish (to use the present Const. Art. V language) was understood to mean a single
congregation or two or more individual congregations being
cared for by the same pastor.
When the Synod divided into districts in 1854, the same
wording applied to both the district conventions and the conventions of the Synod. In 1872, when the Synod authorized
the holding of delegate conventions, it was not felt necessary to
change the wording of the Constitution. The first three Synod
Handbücher (1873, 1879, 1888) retained the 1847 language in
this section, but omitted the footnote defining Pfarrgemeinde.
The 1873 Handbuch (p. 105) indicates a decision of the Northern District reflecting the 1847 definition: “While it is hoped for
and desired that the various congregations of one pastor might
each send its own [lay] delegate … only one at a time can represent [as voting lay delegate] the interests of the parish [Parochialbezirks].” The 1899 Handbuch included a footnote indicating: “A parish [Parochie] consisting of several congregations
but having only one pastor [aber nur einen Pfarrer hat, emphasis
original] can send only one voting [lay] delegate. Others sent are
… only advisory members.”
This language and meaning of Article 3, Section 1, remained unchanged until the Constitution of the Synod was
revised and translated in 1924. The wording selected in 1924,
as Const. Art. V A, is still the current wording. The revised language did not alter in any way the meaning regarding who was
designated as authorized to vote in conventions. The new wording did, however, attempt to make clarifications: The procedure
followed after the Synod began to hold delegate conventions
was now placed into the Constitution. In describing who was
to vote at conventions of the districts, the phrase congregationor-parish was used to describe what had been the practice of
the Synod from the beginning, namely that the sum of the congregations served by a given pastor are to be considered a unit
when it comes to the matter of voting representation at conventions. Thus, from the beginning of the history of the Synod
a congregation-or-parish, although the term itself was not used
until 1924—when the Constitution was, culminating a thorough
reorganization in German, translated officially into English—is
the total of the congregations served by one pastor.
2019 Convention Workbook