LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — November 11–13, 2011, Page 2

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• Article V, paragraph 2 f: The reference to “consecrated ministers” is a term that is foreign to the
Synod’s bylaws governing membership. The sentence would better read: “All ordained and
commissioned ministers on the district roster….”
• Appendix E, “9 Months Prior” paragraph: The reference in the final sentence to the “election”
process should instead refer to “involvement in the nominations process.”
• Appendix E, third paragraph of the “8 Months Prior” paragraph: The list of offices outside the
responsibility of the nominations committee are “the offices of president, first vice-president, and
circuit counselors.”
65. Review of North Dakota District Bylaw Revisions (09-2549A)
Following the commission’s September 3–4 review of the Bylaws of the North Dakota District, the
district committee incorporated the suggestions and recommendations for additional changes provided by
the commission into the district’s documents. As a result and upon final review, the commission offers
the following recommendations to the district for inclusion in its documents prior to their submission to
the 2012 district convention.
• Bylaw 2.07, new paragraph b: The reference to “all other elected district officers” should be
clarified, perhaps if only to determine whether this phrase is necessary.
• Bylaw 2.10, paragraph a: While references to the district have regularly been deleted as
superfluous throughout much of the bylaws document, in this paragraph these references appear
to be necessary and should be retained for the paragraph to make sense.
• Bylaw 2.39, paragraph a: This provision must be changed to honor the provision of Synod
Constitution Art. XII 9 d, which gives the authority to sign official papers and documents to the
president of the district.
• Bylaw 2.39, paragraph c: To make the secretary of the district the secretary of the nominations
committee fails to mirror the caution exercised in the Synod’s Bylaws, which prevent having the
secretary closely involved in the work of the committee (Synod Bylaw 3.12.3.5 [a]).
• Bylaw 2.88, new paragraph c: The second word is clearly intended to read “consultation” rather
than “consolation.”
• Bylaw 2.88, new paragraph u: This paragraph and others around it should be looked at again,
since the validity of some of the deletions is uncertain.
• Bylaw 2.92: The deleted words “and secretary” will need to be retained, as it will not be
appropriate for the secretary of the district to be so closely involved as to serve as secretary of the
committee.
• Bylaw 2.97, paragraph a 1: According to the bylaws of the Synod governing the nomination of
district vice-presidents (Bylaw 4.3.1), voting congregations are entitled to nominate pastors from
the entire clergy roster of the Synod, also for regional positions. Any pastor nominated will need
to provide, along with his consent to serve, assurance that he will reside within the region for
which he would be elected by the time of his installation into office.
• Section III “Pastors and Teachers” should be changed to more appropriate bylaw language:
“Ordained and Commissioned Ministers.”
• Bylaw 3.01, paragraph a: The title to this bylaw (and also Bylaw 3.11) should be changed to the
more appropriate bylaw language “Ordained and Commissioned Ministers.” In addition, this
paragraph’s effort to restate the content of Bylaws 2.5.2 and 2.5.3 fails to honor all of the
provisions included in those bylaws. The commission recommends either restating the Synod
bylaws or referencing them to underscore the district’s intentions to honor them.
• Bylaw 10.02.3: The references to the district throughout this bylaw are essential to proper
understanding and should be retained.
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