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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 521

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

ECCLESIASTICAL SUPERVISION AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION
in accord with the Constitution, Bylaws, and resolutions of the
Synod” (Bylaw 3.9.2.2.2); and
WHEREAS, At no time since the adoption of the Bylaw provisions
in 2004 until CCM Op. 16-2791 had a commission opined that these
expulsion process bylaws were in an unconstitutional state; and
WHEREAS, The 2004 CCM and the 2016 CCM clearly provided
different opinions on the constitutional state of the Bylaws with
respect to Const. Art XI B 1–3 and Const. Art XIII 2 prior to the
2016 Synod convention; and
WHEREAS, The Board of Directors, acting under Bylaw 7.1.2 and
at the express direction of the 2016 Res. 12-14, in May 2017
adopted changes to the Bylaws regarding ecclesiastical supervision;
and
WHEREAS, The Secretary of the Synod, on Nov. 3, 2017,
published an article on the Synod’s website, recognizing the need
to “relieve any confusion regarding these changes”; and
WHEREAS, The Constitution defines clearly, precisely, and fully
the supervisory role of the President of Synod, wherein the
President of Synod has the “the supervision regarding the doctrine
and the administration of: a. All officers of the Synod; b. All such
as are employed by the Synod; c. The individual districts of the
Synod; d. All district presidents” (Const. Art. XI B 1); and
WHEREAS, The President of Synod, as ecclesiastical supervisor,
may assume “only such rights as have been expressly conferred”
(Const. Art. XI A 1); and
WHEREAS, The duties are expressly conferred to be “... the power
to advise, admonish, and reprove ... conscientiously use all means
at his command to promote and maintain unity of doctrine and
practice in all the districts of the Synod” (Const. Art. XI B 3); and
WHEREAS, Synod’s Constitution expressly confers upon the
district presidents the duty “to exercise supervision over” their
district’s ministers and to “visit and ... hold investigations in the
congregations” (Const. Art. XII 7), including the district presidents
being empowered “to suspend from membership” their district’s
ministers (Const. Art. XII 8); and
WHEREAS, Prior to the year 2016 and CCM Op. 16-2791,
numerous CCM opinions (to wit Ag. 1970, Op. 15-2750; 13-2669;
10-2581; 03-2354; 03-2338A and C) interpreted the President of
Synod’s scope of ecclesiastical supervision not to include
supervision over a district’s individual members and congregations
as expressed in Const. Art. XII 7–8; and
WHEREAS, C. F. W. Walther, the first President of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod said that “We have merely the power to
advise one another, that we have only the power of the Word and of
convincing” (1848 Presidential address to the Synod) [See Const.
Art. XI B 4 below in the third resolve]; and
WHEREAS, The Bylaws define ecclesiastical supervision as
including “… visitation, evangelical encouragement and support,
care, protection, counsel, advice, admonition, and when necessary,
appropriate disciplinary measures …” (Bylaw 1.2.1 [i]); therefore
be it
Resolved, That it is this assembly’s formal declaration that such
supervision should take place in relationship between the supervisor
and the supervised, as close to the supervised as possible, and not
carried out by a centralized authority; and be it further
Resolved, That it is this assembly’s formal declaration that this
was and is the intent of the Constitution; and be it further

521

Resolved, That for the sake of clarification, Const. Art. XI be
amended as follows:
PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING

Article XI Rights and Duties of Officers
A. In General
1. The officers of the Synod must assume only such rights as have
been expressly conferred upon them by the Synod, and in
everything pertaining to their rights and the performance of their
duties they are responsible to the Synod.
2. The Synod at all times has the right to call its officers to account
and, if circumstances require it, to remove them from office in
accordance with Christian procedure.
3. The Synod reserves the right to abolish any office it has
established.
4. Conventions of the Synod and of the districts have the right, in
extraordinary cases, to elect a chairman other than the regular
presiding officer.

B. Duties of the President
1. The President has the ecclesiastical supervision as limited in
Article XI B 2 regarding the doctrine and the administration of
a. All officers of thecorporate Synod;
b. All such individual members of the Synod as are employed
by thecorporate Synod;
c. The individual assembled corporate districts of the Synod in
convention and through the ecclesiastical supervision of the
district president when not in convention;
d. All district presidents.
2. The President shall have no ecclesiastical supervision over
individual and congregational members of the Synod except as
listed in Article XI B 1 a–d and shall have the power to exercise
disciplinary, suspension, and expulsion provisions only of district
presidents (Article XI B 1 d).
3. The President has the administrative supervision of all such as are
employed by Corporate Synod.
24.It is the President’s duty to see to it that all the aforementioned
act in accordance with the Synod’s Constitution, to admonish all
who in any way depart from it, and, if such admonition is not
heeded, to report such cases to the Synod.
35.The President has and always shall have and be limited to the
power to advise, admonish, and reprove. He shall conscientiously
use allthese means at his command to promote and maintain unity
of doctrine and practice in all the districts of the Synod. Such
means and authority shall be limited to those rights and duties
specifically laid out in this article (Article XI A, B).
46.The President shall see to it that the resolutions of the Synod are
carried out.
57.When the Synod meets in convention the President shall give a
report of his administration. He shall conduct the sessions of the
convention so that all things are done in a Christian manner and
in accord with the Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod.
68.It is the duty of the President, or an officer of the Synod appointed
by the President, to be present at the meetings of the districts, to
advise them, and to report at the next session of the Synod.
79.The President shall perform all additional duties assigned to him
by the Bylaws or by special resolution of the Synod in
convention, provided that such duties do not conflict with other
provisions of the Constitution.
810. When matters arise between meetings of the Synod in
convention which are of such a nature that action thereon cannot
be delayed until the next convention, the President is authorized

2019 Convention Workbook