LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 162

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162

OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS

submitted two resolutions to the Synod stating that the current
practice be retained and that the current practice be clarified. These
were placed in an omnibus resolution, referring them to the Board
of Directors of the Synod (1973 Proceedings, 168–69).
A task force had been established by the 1975 Anaheim convention that was to study and propose revisions to the Constitution,
Bylaws, and organization of the Synod. Several overtures to change
the franchise within the Synod were submitted to the 1977 Synod
convention. Two new issues were added to the charge given to the
task force formed in 1975: one was to consider the way delegates
were elected, and the other was to consider allowing advisory delegates to vote, with a proportional increase in the lay votes (1979
Workbook, 59–63).
The task force in 1979 proposed significant wording changes
to several articles of the Constitution of the Synod, and in addition
proposed changes to the eligibility of the delegates who would cast
the two votes of the congregation or parish. One vote was to be cast
by a pastor or teacher who is in full-time office in the congregation,
and the other by a duly elected lay delegate of the congregation
(1979 Proceedings, 111, 137). A congregation also presented an
overture requesting that teachers be given a vote. The convention
responded by simply adopting a resolution to retain the Constitution in its present form and to defer allowing teachers to vote (1979
Proceedings, 111, 137).
At the 1981 convention, the President of the Synod, in his address to the convention, recommended a change to allow teachers
to vote (1981 Proceedings, 64). Resolution 2-14 proposed that the
delegates of an electoral circuit be a pastor and anyone else from a
congregation of that circuit. Preferably, it should be a layman, but
any teacher or ordained minister who was not the pastor of one of
the congregations would also be eligible. After lengthy discussion,
this was referred to a committee to be appointed by the President
of the Synod for a report to the 1983 Synod convention (1981 Proceedings, 141).
In its report to the 1983 convention, the task force formed by the
1981 convention gave a report detailing the length of its research.
It identified the various possibilities that have been suggested and
discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each. In the end, it
concluded that the disadvantages of any of the suggested ways to
change the exercise of the franchise in the Synod outweighed what
would be gained by such a change. It termed the current exercise
of franchise a long-established and well-working procedure (1983
Workbook, 213–15). The floor committee’s Res. 5-23 resolved that
no change be made in the Constitution or bylaws pertaining to the
franchise. However, no action was taken, and it was apparently not
brought to the floor of the convention (1983 Proceedings, 190).

ministers to vote. The overture presented by the Commission on
Structure, after noting that any change allowing the commissioned
ministers to vote would change the basic franchise principles of the
Synod, called for the elimination of delegate conventions. Instead
of delegate conventions, each congregation of the Synod would
send two delegates. One was to be a rostered member of the Synod,
and the other was to be a layperson (2004 Workbook, 264–65). The
floor committee essentially ignored the suggestion of the Commission on Structure, instead bringing a resolution that proposed a
blue-ribbon committee be formed to study the structure of conventions, including whether to allow commissioned ministers to vote.
This resolution was declined by the convention (2004 Proceedings,
157–58).
Resolution 8-04A, developed by the floor committee assigned
to the material from the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Structure and
Governance, would have essentially allowed congregations to send
whomever they saw fit as their voting delegates at district conventions (2010 Today’s Business, 2:379–81). Resolution 8-04A was not
presented to the convention for action.
The 2016 convention of the Synod amended the Constitution,
eliminating the category of assistant pastors from the list of “advisory members only” in the Constitution (2016 Proceedings, 202–
3). The effect of this change was that any pastor who is called by
the congregation, full-time or part-time, is eligible to cast the pastoral vote of a congregation. In addition, an overture was submitted
that called for a discussion; it culminated with action by the 2019
convention of the Synod to allow the franchise of commissioned
ministers at future district and Synod conventions. This was placed
in the convention’s Omnibus B, assigning the topic to the President
of the Synod and the CCM (2016 Proceedings, 269).
Several overtures related to this question were submitted to the
2019 convention. The result was the adoption of Resolution 9-17.
This called for the formation of this committee by the Commission on Constitutional Matters and the Council of Presidents, which
was to study the current and historic voting practices and prepare a
report prior to the 2022 convention (2019 Proceedings, 201). This
report is submitted in fulfillment of this resolution’s assignment.

Conclusions to Part I

Twenty-first century proposals of commissionedminister franchise

The basic principle of the polity on which the franchise within
the Synod was established is that the Synod consists of an organization of equal congregations (Pfarrgemeinden), which are the possessors of all ecclesiastical power; the franchise belongs to these
equal congregations or parishes (Pfarrgemeinden). To maintain the
balance in authority in the Synod between the pastor, resident in a
divinely instituted office, and the laity, who make up the substance
of the church in each place, the priesthood of all believers, each
of these congregations or parishes (Pfarrgemeinde) received two
votes. One was given to the pastor of the congregation and the other
to the lay delegate of the congregation. While our particular mechanisms of church polity are adiaphora, neither commanded nor forbidden by the Scriptures, the Pfarrgemeinde polity does reflect the
fact that the church is where the marks of the Church are: Word and
Sacrament. There may be other aspects of the Church’s work, but
the center is the congregation, and the Synod is for and on behalf of
the congregation (Bylaw 1.1.1).

The 2001 Res. 8-10 referred the matter of equitable representation at conventions of the Synod to the Commission on Structure.
While the commission was directed to look at various aspects of
representation, one of these was the inability of commissioned

Essentially all proposals to broaden the franchise to include
teachers (commissioned ministers) have floundered because they
would have negated this basic principle, which is consistent with
our understanding of Church and Office. Unless and until it can be

A congregation submitted an overture to the 1995 convention of
the Synod that called for all ordained and commissioned ministers
to be eligible to vote (1995 Workbook, 23–31). The convention addressed this by placing it in its “Omnibus B Resolution,” declining
to act on it and referencing the past action of the Synod, specifically
that of 1983 (1995 Proceedings, 160).

2023 Convention Workbook