LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 160

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8. Ecclesiastical Supervision and Dispute Resolution
Introduction
(This introduction to the business of Committee 8 was
provided by Dr. John Brunner, member of Committee 8 and
Chairman of the Task Force on Ecclesiastical Supervision
and Dispute Resolution. It is provided as helpful information and is not to be regarded as a part of the formal resolutions that were adopted by the convention.)
The 61st Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod in 2001 gave the Council of Presidents the
responsibility to discuss, mutually study, and make recommendations concerning Bylaw 2.27 paragraph g which
deals with the removal of a District President from the roster of the Synod. Pursuant to that assignment, Council of
Presidents Chairman Arleigh Lutz appointed a committee
from the Council consisting of President James Keurulainen of the New England District, President Carl Krueger
of the SELC District, President George Wollenberg of the
Montana District, and myself as President of the Eastern
District to serve as convener.
Dr. Lutz’s appointment of me was either fiendishly
clever or downright retributive, since at one point in history I was his pastor and he was my ecclesiastical supervisor and at the time of the appointment I was still basically
a rookie DP with almost no Chapter II experience. Or perhaps, as I suspect, somewhere in the secret COP chairman’s manual is a directive to have all members of the
Council serve on a committee with Dr. Wollenberg at some
point in their career. And it was just my turn.
The charge from the chairman to this group included not
only a study of Bylaw 2.27 g but of all of Bylaw 2.27, including the potential misuse of it and what appeared to be
a blurring of the understanding of ecclesiastical supervision and identification of those to whom responsibility is
given for such supervision.
Specifically regarding paragraph g, the study group
raised the question whether the President of the Synod is
granted authority in the Constitution to suspend or expel
a District President or anyone else from the roster of Synod.
Based on this understanding the recommendation to the
Council was to delete paragraph g. The group also recommended replacing references to the “Praesidium” elsewhere
in Chapter II of the Bylaws with references to the President of Synod as the proper ecclesiastical supervisor, since
it was noted Vice-Presidents of the Synod are not given the
role of ecclesiastical supervision by the Constitution.
In general, current Bylaw 2.27 was thought to meet the
needs of the Synod as an outline for the ecclesiastical supervision of its members. The concern expressed by the
study group to the Council of Presidents and now reported
here, however, concerns access to the system for those with
legitimate needs to call into question the behavior or public
teaching of a member of Synod. The current provision for
the complaint of “any person” to set action in motion is
deemed to be clearly too broad. Limiting the process only
to those who are members of the Synod or of congregations
of the Synod, however, does not allow for access by those

Committee 8 Chairman Ronald Meyer

who do not happen to be members of the Synod or of a
member congregation but may have been victims of sexual
misconduct or other abusive behavior.
Those cases also call into question the extent to which
the provisions of Matthew 18 must be followed and when
they are applicable, since obviously someone in an abusive
situation should not be required to meet individually with
the alleged abuser. The recommendation to the Council was
that access to the process be limited to members of the
Synod or of a member congregation, with the exception of
cases of sexual misconduct or criminal behavior. The recommendation was also made that the District President of
the person bringing a complaint should be asked to play a
greater role in counseling that person at the initiation of
the process.
In a separate but related context, in March of 2003, the
Secretary of Synod, Dr. Raymond Hartwig, convened a
group to study and discuss the dispute resolution process
as outlined in Chapter VIII of the Bylaws. Included in the
conversation were members of the Board of Directors, the
Council of Presidents, the Commission on Structure, the
Commission on Constitutional Matters, and others. While
this group concluded that the dispute resolution process
continues to work well and meets the needs of the Synod, it
recommended that a group of specially trained facilitators
should be recruited and trained to expedite the dispute resolution process.
In May 2003 President Gerald Kieschnick appointed a
Blue Ribbon Task Force on Ecclesiastical Supervision and
Dispute Resolution in The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod to address and propose solutions for the concerns
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2004 Convention Proceedings