Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 2007 · 63rd Convention, Houston › Page 256
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 256

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

256 PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION

WHEREAS, The Bylaws give no provision as to how or under
what circumstances the circuit forum is convened; therefore be it
Resolved, That Bylaw 5.3.2 be amended by adding a new para-
graph (a) as follows:
(a) The circuit forum shall be convened by the circuit counselor at
the request of any two members of the Synod in the circuit.
and be it further
Resolved, That the succeeding paragraphs of Bylaw 5.3.2 be re-
lettered accordingly.
Bethany
Fort Wayne, IN

7-61

To Conclude All Resolutions with a Final
Resolve to “Fight the Good Fight”

WHEREAS, We are in the church militant; and

WHEREAS, To cease fighting is to surrender and to concede vic-
tory to the enemy; and

WHEREAS, We should continue to fight the good fight; therefore
be it

Resolved, That every resolution proposed by the floor commit-
tees at the 2007 convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod conclude with a final resolve to “fight the good fight”; and
be it further

Resolved, That whether this resolution passes or fails, every del-
egate hum “Fight the Good Fight with All Your Might”; and be it
finally

Resolved, To fight the good fight.

Eastern/Southern Pastors Conference
Montana District

7-62

To Take Action to Certify Herman Otten
for LCMS Ministry

WHEREAS, An overture presented to the 1998 Lutheran conven-
tion by the Washington Circuit Forum of the Missouri District and
published on page 267 of the LCMS’s 1998 Convention Workbook
says in part:

“In 1957 Pastor Herman Otten successfully completed the pre-
scribed course of studies at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and
was granted his Theological Diploma, which says that he is fit and
suitable to preach the Word of God and administer the sacraments
as a pastor in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod....”

“Since 1958 Pastor Herman Otten has been the pastor of Trinity
Lutheran Church, New Haven, Missouri, one of the congregations
in the Washington Circuit of The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod’s Missouri District...”

“In 1960 and in 1984 the Commission on Appeals of the LCMS
ruled that Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, has never shown any

valid scriptural reason why Pastor Often should not be certified for
the pastoral ministry in the LCMS....”

“The rulings of the Commission on Appeals are binding upon
the seminary...”

“The Washington Circuit Pastoral Conference asked the faculty
of Concordia Seminary to send a representative of the faculty to
explain to the pastors of the Washington Circuit why Pastor Otten
was not certified by the seminary...”

“The faculty of Concordia Seminary refused to send a repre-
sentative to the Washington Circuit to present the seminary’s rea-
sons for not certifying Pastor Otten...”

“When the Washington Circuit Pastoral Conference asked to
meet with representatives of the faculty of Concordia Seminary at
Concordia Seminary to receive the faculty’s reasons for not certi-
fying Pastor Otten, the seminary refused the Circuit’s offer to meet
at the seminary...”; and

WHEREAS, Rey. Paul. Burgdorf wrote already in the July 1965
Confessional Lutheran that the expulsion of Trinity Lutheran
Church from the LCMS and the refusal to recognize Rev. Herman
Otten as a pastor of the LCMS constitutes “one of the most offen-
sive situations existing within the Missouri Synod” (“The Concor-
dia Seminary, St. Louis—Otten Case—A Forty Year Battle for
Free Speech,” p. 54); and

WHEREAS, A convention committee of the 1973 LCMS conven-
tion said in a resolution in which the committee wrote to get Pastor
Otten certified: “This continued denial of Rev. Otten’s entry (into
the pastoral ministry of the LCMS) now well into the second
decade, constitutes longstanding unresolved injustice”; and

WHEREAS, The recently published “Marquart’s Legacy” notes
that the late Concordia Seminary, Fort Wayne, Professor Kurt Mar-
quart wrote in the July 1, 1998, Reporter: “For the convention to
pronounce the Herman Otten case ‘closed’ (again!) would be to
signal a shameful kinship with corrupt power cliques which habit-
ually punish whistle-blowers rather than wrong-doers.” ““Mar-
quart’s Legacy” says that Marquart quoted the late great Australian
Professor Hermann Sasse as writing: “Somebody should rise and
publicly thank Herman Otten for his brave fight’ (p. 51). “Mar-
quart’s Legacy” observes that Kurt Marquart and former California
Congressman Bill Dannemeyer repeatedly informed officials of the
LCMS that the final ruling of the LCMS’s Commission on Appeals
in the Concordia Seminary v. Otten case showed that Otten won
the case. “Marquart’s Legacy” reveals that Marquart wrote that the
expulsion of Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Missouri,
where Otten has been the pastor since 1958, from the LCMS “was
an incredible act of sectarianism and schism on the part of the per-
petrators” (Q. 43); therefore be it

Resolved, That the 2007 LCMS convention take whatever ac-
tion is necessary to have Pastor Otten certified for the pastoral min-
istry in the LCMS fifty years after Concordia Seminary gave him a
diploma that said he is fit and suitable to preach the Word of God
and administer the sacraments as a pastor in The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod.

Trinity
New Haven, MO