LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 376

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376

STRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATION

The German term used was Pfarrgemeinde, and it was defined
in a footnote to the 1847 Constitution as “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.”
In 1924, when the Constitution was translated into English from
German, the term “parish” was used in reference to situations in
which a pastor served more than one individual congregation and
the term “congregation” was used to reference situations in which a
pastor served only one congregation. Thus, each congregation or
parish (in this specific limited sense) was entitled to two votes, one
by its pastor, and the other by its accredited lay delegate. Today the
term “parish” has been replaced with “multi-congregation parish”
(Constitution Article XII 10 a).
A. The Historic Practice of Franchise at the Conventions of the
Synod
At the time of its inception every congregation or parish was entitled
to send its pastor and a lay delegate to the conventions of the Synod.
When the Synod divided into districts this did not change. Each
congregation or parish sent two delegates to both the conventions
of the Synod and the district. The entire Synod would meet in
convention every three years and the districts would meet in
convention annually.
Originally conventions were held in one of the congregations of the
Synod. As a result of the growth of the Synod, it was becoming
difficult to find host congregations large enough to provide the
necessary housing for all the delegates. Therefore, it was proposed
to the 1864 convention to begin to hold delegate conventions.
However, the congregations in Fort Wayne and St. Louis assured
the convention that they would have no problem serving as hosts,
so no changes were adopted (1864 Proceedings, 3). However, by
1869 this assurance proved to be unrealistic, and C.F.W. Walther
suggested establishing delegate conventions. Professor George
Schick was given the responsibility to develop a plan. This tentative
plan was for two or more congregations to select one pastor and one
lay delegate. When the plan was adopted in 1872 it was specified
that the pastor and lay delegate should be selected from between
two to seven congregations (1872 Proceedings, 96–97).
Presumably, small congregations would form large groupings and
large congregations would form small groupings. While the
convention was originally scheduled for 1875, the first delegate
convention was convened a year earlier in 1874.
The suggestion for a delegate convention, proposed in 1869, was
actually the second grouping of congregations within the Synod.
Prior to this formation of electoral circuits, visitation circuits had
been established by the Synod at its 1866 convention. While the two
existed side by side, they were created for completely different
purposes. Electoral circuits functioned only for the purpose of
selecting delegates to conventions of the Synod. However, the
concept behind the establishment of visitation circuits was to
address a concern considered crucial from the very beginning of the
Synod, which was to ensure and retain the unity of doctrine and
commitment to the Scriptures and Lutheran Confessions within the
Synod.
At the founding of the Synod in 1847 the responsibility for visitation
to ensure unity and faithfulness to the Scriptures and Lutheran
Confessions was assigned to the President of the Synod. When the
2023 Convention Workbook

Synod divided into districts in 1854, one of the major concerns was
maintaining this unity within the Synod, and it was resolved by
giving the responsibility of visitation not only to the president of
each district of the Synod, but also to the President of the Synod as
well. However, with the rapid growth of the number of
congregations in the Synod, it became impossible for the President
of the Synod to carry out this duty of visitation. Therefore, the 1864
convention removed the duties of visitation from the general
President and essentially entrusted all duties of visitation of the
congregations and individual members of the Synod to the district
president. The one exception specified was that if the President of
the Synod was convinced that a district president had erred in his
dealing with a congregation or individual member, the President of
the Synod himself was authorized to investigate personally (1864
Proceedings, 4; 1873 Handbook, 89).
Again, due to the growth of the Synod, these visitation
responsibilities quickly proved to be too great for a district president
alone to carry out. Therefore, the 1866 convention adopted a
resolution establishing visitation circuits of two to seven
congregations in order to help the district presidents carry out their
visitation responsibilities (1866 Proceedings, 85).
When the decision to have delegate conventions was adopted at the
1872 convention, while the guidelines were also set at two to seven
congregations being given one pastor and one lay delegate, which
was the same numbers as used for visitation circuits, there does not
seem to have been any effort to have these two types of circuits
coincide, or even an indication that they should. In both cases,
districts were free to group them as they pleased.
In the ensuing years a significant variation in the size of electoral
circuits developed among the various districts, with many districts
having electoral circuits of two or three congregations. In an effort
to reduce the number of delegates at Synod conventions, the 1893
Synod convention adopted a resolution calling for circuits to
number between five to seven congregations (1893 Proceedings,
125). However, there was no change in Article III “Membership” as
the 1899 edition of the Synodical Handbook does not reflect this
continuing to read: “The power of this corporation shall be lodged
with the accredited clerical and lay delegates of the congregations
in actual membership with this synod. Not less than two and not
more than seven congregations being entitled to one clerical and one
lay representative in this organization at the option of said
congregations, and only such delegates shall be entitled to a vote at
the meetings of this Synod” (1899 Handbook, Fourth Edition, 54).
Synod President Dr. Ludwig Fuerbringer reported to the 1908
convention of the Synod that 77 of the 245 electoral circuits did not
conform to this rule adopted by the 1899 convention, and he
recommended enlarging electoral circuits to at least ten
congregations. However, no action was taken until the 1917
convention, which would then become effective with the 1920
convention. This convention also adopted a resolution indicating
that visitation and electoral circuits should coincide as much as
possible (1917 Proceedings, 108–9). The following resolution is
noteworthy as it explains the reasoning for the change.
Reducing Number of Delegates
On the past scale of representation in the Delegate Convention,
Synod has become too large a body, both for effective dispatch
of business and even more so with respect to the quartering of
delegates. After considering various propositions, Synod