LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — June 10-11, 2002, Page 2

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Article XI B defines the duties of the President and imposes on and grants to him the ecclesiastical
supervision of the Synod. These duties and powers are further defined in Bylaw 3.101, including the
provision that "the President of the Synod has ecclesiastical supervision of all officers of the Synod and
its agencies,…" (Bylaw 3.101A 1) with the power to “call up for review any action by an individual
officer, executive, or agency which, in his view, may be in violation of the Constitution, Bylaws, and
resolutions of the Synod…” (Bylaw 3.101 B 5).
The Synod in its 2001 convention, by Resolution 7-03C, also charged both the President and the Board of
Directors with specific responsibilities:
Resolved, That the President and Board of Directors of the Synod shall see to it that the
Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod are observed; and be it further
Resolved, That when a failure to comply with the Constitution and Bylaws is discovered,
the President or Board of Directors, whichever is charged with supervision or oversight,
shall act to correct such failure to comply as quickly as possible; and be it finally….
The action of the Board of Directors was taken following the issuance of CCM opinion 02-2243, and
before the issuance of opinion 02-2251 which clarified the information to which the prohibition of
publicity applied. While the Board of Directors may allocate funds to the President and hold him
accountable for their use, the Board of Directors may not control his ecclesiastical purposes, including the
expenditure of funds for ecclesiastical activities. The Board of Directors cannot, consistent with the
Constitution, restrict the ecclesiastical power of the President and his communications in fulfilling that
responsibility. The resolution as passed restricts the President in the performance of his ecclesiastical
responsibilities. In doing so, the Board of Directors acted outside the scope of its authority in its
resolution as directed to the President.
Question 2:

“Does the Board of Directors likewise exceed its jurisdiction and authority to act by
attempting to restrict the means by which the President may distribute such information?”

Opinion: It is the responsibility of the Board of Directors to “allocate available funds to the program
boards, commissions, councils, and departments of corporate Synod and hold them accountable therefore”
(Bylaw 3.183 d). Insofar as the administrative offices of the Synod are included in the “departments of
corporate Synod,” the Board is responsible for the allocation of funds and for holding the recipients of
those funds accountable, so long as other provisions of the Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod are not
thereby violated. As discussed above, however, the Board of Directors cannot, consistent with the
Constitution, restrict the ecclesiastical power of the President or the means chosen by him in fulfilling that
responsibility within the resources available to him.
Question 3:

“The Board for Communications Services and its staff would face a conundrum were the
Board of Directors to order the Editor of the official periodicals or other BCS staff not to
disseminate certain information while at the same time were the President to specifically
direct that the same information be disseminated. To whom would the BCS respond
affirmatively in this situation, the Board of Directors or the President?”

Opinion: The Board for Communications Services is created by Bylaws 3.811 and 3.813. It “serves in a
specific area of program or ministry in accordance with the Synod’s Constitution and applicable Bylaws”
(Bylaw 1.07 d). As a program board, it is “charged with developing policies and programs for an
operating function of the Synod and supervises their implementation” (Bylaw 3.51 h). The “operating
function” that the Synod has charged the Board for Communications Services with is delineated in Bylaw
3.813. Included in that operating function are to “have responsibility for the official periodicals of the

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