LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 96

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96 SYNODICAL REPORTS

for His restoring him to health. It places the First Vice-President in
a very precarious position when the life of the President is known
to be at risk because of questionable health. Only by the grace of
God has my colleague, co-worker, and friend returned to the “other
side of the wall” (that divides our offices), fully recovered, for al-
most the entire triennium. To God alone be all the glory!

Bylaw and/or policy prescribe some of the responsibilities of
the First Vice-President; assignment or appointment gives others.
By prescription I have served as a member of the Praesidium, the
Council of Presidents, the Board of Directors, the Commission on
Theology and Church Relations, the Teacher Colloquy Committee,
the chairman of the Colloquy Committee for Pastoral Ministry, the
Council of Administrators, the Council on Mission and Ministry,
the Officers Group, the Committee on Lutheran Cooperation, the
Church Relations Group, and the Human Resources Committee.

At the appointment of the President, I have served as a mem-
ber of the Board of Regents of Concordia Theological Seminary,
Fort Wayne, an at-large member of the Lutheran Church Extension
Fund, as chairman of the 150th Anniversary Committee, and as
chairman of the Church Growth Study Committee.

I had the privilege of representing the President at 12 District
conventions, and thus to address on behalf of the President and
share the Word of God with the representatives of about one-third
of the LCMS congregations. Doing this from the East Coast to the
West Coast gives one the opportunity to learn a real cross-section
of the church. Through its 35 Districts our beloved Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod has phenomenal challenges and opportu-
nities for ministry.

Working with members of the staff of the Board for Mission
Services I represented the President at the official signing of proto-
col agreements with two of our partner churches. Such an agree-
ment was signed in Amapyak, Papua New Guinea, with represen-
tatives of Gutnius Lutheran Church and at Hong Kong with
representatives of the Lutheran Church—Hong Kong Synod.

I was involved in two of the three meetings with representatives
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria Russia (ELCIR) at
which the theology of our two church bodies was discussed. At the
third of these meetings, I represented the President at St. Michel’s
Lutheran Church, St. Petersburg, Russia, where consensus was
reached to recommend pulpit and altar fellowship to our respective
churches. This will be an agenda item for this convention.

Sincere thanks to you, the members of the LCMS for allowing
me to hold and fill this office in service to you.

Robert T. Kuhn, First Vice-President

R7-02
Secretary

The last 15 years of service as Secretary of the Synod have been
interesting, exciting, and challenging, but above all a tremendous
privilege and opportunity to serve our Lord and The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod in a variety of ways. I am most grateful
to you, the members of the Synod, and to our Lord for this special
blessing which I have received out of His grace and mercy.

While many of the responsibilities of the Secretary of the Synod
are defined in the Handbook, many others also become attached to
the office under the rubric which states that the Secretary shall
“perform such other work as the national convention or the Presi-
dent of the Synod may assign to him.” This work includes such
things as
* maintaining files on matters pertaining to cases coming before

_ Dispute Resolution Panels;

providing for training of reconcilers and others involved in the
dispute resolution process;

representing the President on the Board of Directors of Concor-
dia Publishing House; .

participating in monthly officers meetings;

* serving as one of the synodical representatives and co-secretary
for the Committee on Lutheran Cooperation, which meets with
ELCA representatives;

* providing staff services to the Council of Presidents, particularly
assisting the Clergy, Call, and Roster Committee with its work;

* assisting, as requested, in providing counsel to individuals and
groups, especially in matters which involve the Constitution or
Bylaws of the Synod.

The Handbook is quite explicit in identifying specific respon-
sibilities assigned to the Secretary of the Synod. It includes such
things as the following:

1. Preparation for the synodical convention and the necessary fol-
low-up. This involves matters such as providing notifications re-
garding deadlines for the election of delegates, forwarding of re-
ports and overtures, and various other matters related to
convention procedures. Also included is the publication of the
Convention Workbook and the first issue of Today’s Business.
Follow-up work includes preparation, editing, and distribution
of Convention Proceedings, as well as preparation and distribu-
tion of ballots relating to constitutional amendments which may
have been adopted by the convention.

2. Serving as Secretary of the Board of Directors, which involves
preparation and distribution of the minutes of board meetings
and implementation of certain actions taken by the board. As of
the preparation of this report, the minutes for this triennium in-
clude almost 350 pages with 450 entries.

3. Serving as Secretary and nonvoting member of the Commission
on Constitutional Matters, forwarding opinions to those request-
ing them, and maintaining files of opinions reached over the
years. These opinions often form the basis for responding to re-
quests for information which come to the office of the Secre-
tary.

4, Serving as member and Secretary of the Council of Administra-
tors.

5. As a member and then, by election, serving as Secretary of the
Board of Trustees of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Foundation.

6. Membership on the Board of Governors of Concordia Historical
Institute.

7. Various other responsibilities identified in the Bylaws such as
the following:

* Providing staff services for the Committee for Convention
Nominations, which requires the gathering of names, infor-
mation, and evaluations of persons to be considered for nom-
ination by the committee. The Secretary calls the initial meet-
ing and provides orientation for the group. A nominations
booklet is prepared by the office of the Secretary and distrib-
uted with the Convention Workbook.

Preparation and mailing of ballots for the offices of President

and First Vice-President and securing agreement of the five

persons receiving the highest number of votes in each cate-
gory to serve as nominees.

Maintaining the rosters of the Synod on the basis of informa-

tion provided by the District Presidents.

* Involvement in editing of The Lutheran Annual.

* Maintaining and updating the file of District Articles of In-

corporation and Bylaws.

In the past the Secretary has been asked to suggest ways in
which to streamline work related to the preparation of the Conven-
tion Workbook. Some of the past proposals have been implemented,
such as simply listing the names and locations of congregations for-
warding identical overtures. The suggestion that was made to sim-
ply provide the overture without this additional listing has not been

. implemented. It is still my opinion that this would be helpful since

what is most important is the content of an overture, not the number
of identical submissions. The next Secretary of the Synod could
give serious consideration to implementing this procedure.

An additional procedure might also be given consideration,
namely, that of somehow giving preference to overtures submitted
by Circuit Forums, by Districts, or by larger units in other areas.
For example, educational institutions or Boards of Regents might
submit proposed overtures to the Board for Higher Education rather
than directly to the Secretary. Unless the issue involves a matter
which has arisen after a Circuit Forum has been held or as a result
of the forum, congregations would be better served to present their
concerns to that forum rather than directly to the Secretary. Fur-