LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — June 23, 2003, Page 9

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

congregation get permission from an ecclesiastical supervisor who is higher up the totem
pole than their own pastor to grant them permission?)
Opinion: The Commission notes that a congregation does have a direct relationship to the Synod, to its
District, and to the District President as ecclesiastical supervisor (Art. XII 7; Bylaws 4.73 and 4.75).
Questions regarding ecclesiastical supervision on the congregational level should be referred to the
Commission on Theology and Church Relations.

172. Exceptions to Electoral Circuit Requirements (03-2355)
A parish pastor in a letter dated May 25, 2003, requested the Commission’s opinion regarding “the
presidential power to grant exceptions mentioned in Bylaw 3.03.”
Question:

Does the presidential power to grant exceptions mentioned in Bylaw 3.03 apply only to those
visitation circuits not meeting either the 7 to 20 congregations and/or the 1,500 to 10,000
membership requirement? Does the bylaw allow a visitation circuit to be divided into two
electoral circuits and be granted two sets of delegates, two pastors and two lay, by the
president upon request of a District Board of Directors?

Opinion: Visitation Circuits (generally referred to in the Bylaws as “Circuits”) are component parts of the
Synod (Bylaw 1.05 f). They are formed by the determination of Districts (Art. XII 3 c; Bylaw 1.05 b).
Exceptions to membership requirements for visitation Circuits as provided by Bylaw 5.01 can be made
only by the President of the Synod upon request of a District Board of Directors.
Electoral Circuits consist of either one or two adjacent visitation Circuits as determined by the District
according to the requirements for electoral Circuits (Bylaw 3.03). As is the case with visitation Circuits,
exceptions to the bylaw requirements for electoral Circuits can be made only by the President of the
Synod upon request of a District Board of Directors.
Therefore, in response to the above questions, existing visitation Circuits are the basic entities for
determining representation to conventions of the Synod. When one or two adjacent existing visitation
Circuits fail to meet the requirements of Bylaw 3.03 for electoral Circuits, the bylaw provides to the
President of the Synod the authority to grant exceptions in such cases. However, the bylaw does not
provide opportunity to divide visitation Circuits to form electoral Circuits, nor does it provide to the
President the authority to grant exceptions in such cases.
This opinion is consistent with Opinion Ag. 337 of the Commission, “Temporary Electoral Circuit” (July
21-22, 1972), which ratified a response provided by the Secretary of the Synod to a related question. The
Secretary had stated that it was “not permissible to move two parishes from one visitation circuit to
another merely for electoral circuit purposes (the choosing of delegates to a synodical convention).”
173. Confessional Statements and Voting Rights (03-2356; 03-2356A)
In a May 30, 2003 letter from a District President and a May 31, 2003 e-mailed letter from a parish
pastor, the Commission was asked similar questions: (1) Can signers of such documents as “That they
May Be One” and the “Keller Resolution” be voting delegates at conventions, or have they removed
themselves from the particular right and privilege by signing such documents? (2) Are
individuals/congregations who have declared themselves no longer in fellowship constitutionally
authorized to sit as delegates at synodical, District, and Circuit conferences and conventions, and, if so,
under what parameters and guidelines, or, if not, with what recourse for congregational/pastoral
participation?
130