LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — May 1−2, 2006, Page 5

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and practice in all the districts of the Synod. 4. The President shall see to it that the resolutions of
the Synod are carried out….”
Reference should also be made to appropriate sections of the Bylaws:
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Bylaw 3.3.1.1: “As the chief ecclesiastical officer of the Synod, the President shall supervise the
resolutions of the Synod…(c) He shall call up for review any action by an individual officer,
doctrine taught and practiced in the Synod, including all synodwide corporate entities.”

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Bylaw 3.3.1.1.1: “The President of the Synod has ecclesiastical supervision of all officers of the
Synod and its agencies….”

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Bylaw 3.3.1.2: “The President shall oversee the activities of all officers, executives, and agencies
of the Synod to see to it that they are acting in accordance with the Constitution, Bylaws, and
executive, or agency that, in his view, may be in violation of the Constitution, Bylaws, and
resolutions of the Synod. (1) If he deems appropriate, he shall request that such action be altered
or reversed. (2) If the matter cannot be resolved, he shall refer it to the Synod’s Board of
Directors, the Commission on Constitutional Matters, and/or the Synod in convention as he
deems appropriate to the issues and party/parties involved.”

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Bylaw 3.3.1.3: “The President shall have powers and duties that are both ecclesiastical and
administrative…(j) He shall exercise executive power when the affairs of the Synod demand it
and when he has been expressly invested with such power by the Synod in convention. (k) He
shall be authorized, in the event that the affairs of the Synod require the exercise of executive
power for a purpose for which there is no specific directive of the Synod, to exercise such power
after consultation with the vice-presidents, the Board of Directors of the Synod, or the Council of
Presidents, whichever in his judgment is most appropriate. Any member of the Synod shall have
the right to appeal such action to the Commission on Constitutional Matters and/or the Synod in
convention, whichever is appropriate….”

In discussing the authority of the President to act, the Commission on Constitutional Matters has rendered
a number of prior opinions. In discussing presidential authority, the Commission in September of 1972, in
dealing with an issue regarding the President’s authority to affect a decision of a board of the Synod,
stated:
(1) That it is the opinion of the Commission on Constitutional Matters that the Constitution and
the Bylaws of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod give to the President of the Synod
exceptionally broad responsibilities and correspondingly broad authority. (2) That while the
ordinary day to day responsibility not only for administration but also for doctrine rests also with
other officials, boards, and commissions created in the course of time by the Synod, the Synod
has never repealed the broad responsibility and authority vested in the presidential office, but
instead the Synod appears to have increased those powers from time to time. It is therefore
conceivable that the President, acting in accordance with the appropriate articles of the
Constitution and Bylaws of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, may exercise his pastoral
judgment to intervene in situations which, in his estimation, are so important that the exercise of
his ultimate constitutional responsibility is required. (3) That when a synodical President feels
impelled to exercise that responsibility, it is clearly understood that his action is always subject
not only to the regular appeals procedures involving the commissions of adjudication and Board
of Appeals, but also to the approval or disapproval, to ratification or recision, by the convention
of the Synod. (Ag. 330, 340, et.al.)
In dealing with presidential power as it relates to censorship of printed material, the Commission stated
the following in a June 25, 1977 opinion:
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