LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 159

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RESOLUTIONS 159

To Authorize Commission on Worship
to Develop an Updated Agenda

RESOLUTION 3-13

Report: 3-03 (CW, p. 160); Overtures 3-109—1 10
(CW, p- 192)

WHEREAS, Pastors are asking for an agenda which
would include new and updated forms, rites, and
occasional services helpful in the worship of the Synod,
and

WHEREAS, The Commission on Worship has found
the need valid and requests the authorization to proceed
with such a project, and

WHEREAS, According to Bylaw 11.115, such a service
book shall be given official status only by a convention
ofthe Synod after a process of exposure and testing has
taken place; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod authorize the Commission
on Worship to prepare such an agenda in keeping with
Bylaw 11.115; and be it further

Resolved, That the Commission on Worship present
this new agenda to the next convention of the Synod for
acceptance as an official service book of the Synod.

Action: Adopted (13).

To Utilize Available Educational
Material Warning About Cults

RESOLUTION 3-14A
Overture 3-17 (CW, p. 165)

WHEREAS, The proliferation of cults and new reli-
gious expressions in the past two decades has continued
unabated; and

WHEREAS, The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as
taught and confessed in the Lutheran Church is denied
by groups such as the following: The Unification
Church, Mormons, J ehovah’s Witnesses, and The Way
International, and by practitioners of Hare Krishna,
Scientology, Christian Science, and Transcendental
Meditation; and

WHEREAS, The Commisson on Organizations, Lu-
theran Research and Information Center, and Con-
cordia Publishing House, have materials available
which describe the history of these groups, their methods
of recruitment, their religious teachings, and which
offer guidance on how to witness to them; therefore be it

Resolved, That all congregations, pastors, and
teachers of the Synod be urged to utilize these materials
so that Christians of all ages may not be led away from
Christ’s flock, but be prepared to make a defense and
witness of their sure hope in Jesus Christ based upon
sound Scriptural teachings.

Action: Adopted (13).

To Speak
to Campus Fellowship Concerns

RESOLUTION 3-15
Overture 3-81 (CW, p.- 185)

WHEREAS, Article VI of the Synod’s Constitution
lists as one of the conditions for acquiring and holding
membership in the Synod the renunciation of “taking
part in the service and sacramental rites of heterodox
congregations or of congregations of mixed confession”;
and

WHEREAS, It is the policy of the Synod that its
pastors and congregations, except in situations of
emergency and in special cases of pastoral care,
commune individuals of only those Lutheran synods
with which itis in altar and pulpit fellowship (1967 Res.
2-19); and

WHEREAS, The 1975 Resolution 2-07 encourages the
pastors of the Synod “to continue to minister to the
spiritual needs of those on the college and university
campus, exercising a sincere pastoral concern for the
members of the campus community and applying the
Communion guidelines of Lutheran military and insti-
tutional chaplains”; and

WHEREAS, The guidelines state that “in exceptional
cases” where a member of one Lutheran Church “seeks
admission to the Lord’s Supper conducted by a repre-
sentative of the other group, the individual care in each
instance will be considered by the pastor concerned”;
therefore be it

Resolved, That pastors and congregations including
those serving the college and university campuses carry
out their ministry in accordance with the Synod’s
understanding of altar and pulpit fellowship and in
accordance with evangelical pastoral care.

Action: Adopted (14).

To Decline Consideraton of
Overture 3-10 (To Study Authenticity,
Canonicity, and Inspiraton)

RESOLUTION 3-16
Overture 3-10 (CW, pp. 162—163)

WHEREAS, Some of the questions raised in Overture
3-10 have been addressed by previous statements of the
Commission on Theology and Church Relations; and

WHEREAS, Other questions raised in this overture are
currently being studied by the CTCR; and

WHEREAS, The remaining questions raised are not of
a nature to cause serious or widespread concern in the
Synod at this. time; therefore be it

Resolved, That the convention respectfully decline
Overture 3-10.

Action: Adopted (14).