LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 161

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OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS
to conceive of a form flowing more naturally from the doctrine of
Kirche und Amt than a polity based upon equal representation of
parishes by their basic constituent elements: their preachers and the
priesthood of all believers.

Individual membership and advisory delegates;
nineteenth-century proposals of teacher franchise
While Pfarrgemeinden (pastor-congregations) were designated
as the only voting members, membership in the Synod was not limited to them. The 1847 Constitution of the Synod established three
categories of individuals who were designated as advisory members. The first category included pastors not authorized by their
congregations to vote [3]; the second, candidates for the office of
pastor; and third, teachers of the parochial schools of congregations
of the Synod.
In 1854, when the Synod divided into districts, the wording of
Const. Chapter III regarding voting did not change and was applicable to both district and Synod conventions. When delegate conventions for the Synod were begun in 1872, the Synod again did
not change this wording. The practice for conventions of the Synod
would simply henceforth be that each pair of delegates, one a pastor
of a Pfarrgemeinde and the other a layman, now came from a group
of congregations.
Apparently some congregations were interested in their parochial schoolteachers or instructors at the institutions of the Synod
being allowed to vote in place of a lay delegate at district conventions. The question came to the 1874 Synod convention, and it was
resolved that no district may seat these individuals as a lay delegate
at one of its conventions (1874 Proceedings, 79). To do so would
have violated the principle of equality between the clergy and the
laity.
The matter of allowing teachers (today, commissioned ministers) to vote was discussed at the 1887 convention. The proposal
was to allow teachers to vote in the election of officers but not in
financial matters. The convention rejected the proposal, noting that
the proposal would drastically change the representative principle
on which the Synod had been founded. In addition, it observed that
it would be too difficult to distinguish what was a financial matter
and what the impact might be on a vote that was neither an election
of officers nor a financial matter (1887 Proceedings, 85).
The matter was also a topic of discussion at the 1893 Synod
convention, though the report of the committee assigned to consider the matter and bring proposals was essentially the same as
in 1887. The committee stated that the question of allowing teachers (today, commissioned ministers) to vote could not be separated
from a fundamental principle of the structure of the Synod. From
the beginning, there was a distinction between voting and advisory
members, and the reason for this distinction was that the Synod
was constituted by equal congregations that had freely joined together for ecclesiastical purposes. It was these member congregations alone that had the right to vote, and the committee stated that
these principles are best be carried out when each parish sends two
delegates: one the pastor and the other a properly accredited lay
delegate (1893 Proceedings, 124).
To grant franchise even in a restricted sense, limiting it to the
election of officers, it was determined, would violate this fundamental principle. If this were enacted, the result would be that some
congregations would have restricted voting powers while others
would have too much power. In addition, were the right of voting to

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be granted to teachers, it could equally be argued that it should be
given to other advisory members as well. In such a case, this group
of advisory members could ultimately be the determining factor
in any election, contradicting what might have been the will of
the congregations. Upon these considerations, the Synod adopted
a resolution, in view of the reasons presented, to retain the present
well-established order and not grant the vote to the teachers (1893
Proceedings, 125).

Twentieth-century proposals of teacher and other
advisory franchise
Following the 1893 convention, the topic of teachers voting did
not occur again in the Proceedings of the Synod until 1962. In
response to a memorial requesting that the right of franchise by
members of the Synod be reconsidered, the Synod declared simply
that the Synod was organized on a congregational basis, with each
congregation or parish limited to two votes, namely its pastor and
a layperson, and that giving the right to vote to advisory members
of the Synod would alter the representative structure of the Synod.
It therefore resolved to decline the memorial (1962 Proceedings,
129).
Several overtures were submitted to the 1969 convention of the
Synod regarding the right of franchise, and the floor committee
was of the opinion that it did not have sufficient time to thoroughly
consider all of the implications, so it presented a resolution to the
Synod calling for the President of the Synod to appoint a special
committee to consider the question and present a report to the following convention. This resolution was adopted (1969 Proceedings, 117–18).
Regarding the franchise of teachers, the Committee on Organization that had been appointed reported to the 1971 convention of
the Synod. It pointed out that the topic had frequently been raised
before in the Synod, and that the Synod had always consistently
answered, maintaining the principle that the vote belonged only
to the congregations, with each congregation or parish having two
votes, one its pastor and the other a layman, in order to maintain
a balance between clergy and laity. The report continued by referencing in detail the action of the 1893 Synod convention. The report concluded that no changes should be made in the right to vote
at conventions (1971 Workbook, 218). 1971 Res. 5-09, however,
which indicated that the Committee on Organization appointed following the 1969 convention had not been able to complete all of
the tasks assigned to it, placed the remainder of the items into the
hands of a new Committee on Organization (1971 Proceedings,
155).
The 1973 report of this Committee on Organization included
several topics pertaining to the organization of conventions of the
Synod. Pertaining to voting rights, the topics covered by their report did not specifically deal with teachers voting at conventions
but with other aspects. The questions considered were a more equitable division of delegates among districts, allowing large congregations more than one lay vote, giving a second and third lay
vote to the other congregations of a multi-congregation parish, and
allowing advisory pastors and campus pastors, too, to vote. The
committee rejected all as incompatible with the essential principles of voting rights in the Constitution: that the Synod consists of
equal congregations or parishes, no matter the size, that possess the
franchise, and that there be a balance of lay and clergy vote (1973
Workbook, 208–9). Two overtures were also submitted that called
for an expansion of voting rights. In response, the floor committee
2023 Convention Workbook