LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — September 7, 2010, Page 1

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MINUTES
COMMISSION ON CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS
Conference Call Special Meeting
September 7, 2010
6. Call to Order and Prayer
Chairman Albert Marcis called the special conference call meeting to order and called on Wilbert Sohns
for an opening prayer. All members of the commission participated in the meeting. Sherri Strand of
Thompson Coburn LLP, LCMS legal counsel, also participated in a portion of the meeting.
7. Executive Session
After Chairman Marcis stated the purpose of the special meeting, a motion was introduced and carried to
move into executive session to discuss with legal counsel a matter of concern. After legal counsel
discontinued her participation in the meeting, a motion was introduced and carried to move out of
executive session, after which the commission moved on to the business for which the special conference
call meeting was called.
The commission discussed at length its response to the following request for an opinion, agreeing to the
following final version of its opinion via an exchange of e-mail communications following the meeting.
8. Ecclesiastical Supervisory Responsibilities of a District President (10-2581)
In a September 4, 2010 e-mail, a district president submitted the following questions to the commission,
also providing a brief background.
Question 1: The Synod’s Bylaws state that I [as a district president] “shall supervise the doctrine, the life,
and the official administration” of the ordained or commissioned ministers in my district
(Bylaw 4.4.5). What ecclesiastical supervisory responsibilities do I hold regarding a
congregation’s doctrine and practice?
Opinion: Regarding the authority and responsibility of a district president, Article XII 7 of the Synod’s
Constitution directs:
The district presidents shall, moreover, especially exercise supervision over the doctrine, life, and
administration of office of the ordained and commissioned ministers of their district and acquaint themselves
with the religious conditions of the congregations of their district. To this end they shall visit and, according as
they deem it necessary, hold investigations in the congregations. Their assistants in this work are the circuit
counselors, who therefore shall regularly make their reports to the district president.

Ecclesiastical supervision within The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is defined in Bylaw 1.2.1 (g) as
follows:
(g) Ecclesiastical Supervision: The responsibility, primarily of the President of the Synod and district
presidents, to supervise on behalf of the Synod the doctrine, life, and administration of its members, officers,
and agencies. Such supervision, subject to the provisions of the Synod’s Constitution, Bylaws, and resolutions,
includes visitation, evangelical encouragement and support, care, protection, counsel, advice, admonition, and,
when necessary, appropriate disciplinary measures to assure that the Constitution, Bylaws, and resolutions of
the Synod are followed and implemented. Thus, ecclesiastical supervision is also the presenting, interpreting,