LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — August 10–12, 2012, Page 5

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

Education also had the responsibility to grant prior approval for initial appointment of theological faculty
at the Synod’s colleges and universities. Prior to the 2010 Synod convention, the Board for Pastoral
Education had similar responsibility to grant prior approval for initial faculty at the Synod’s seminaries.
Prior to the 2010 convention, the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Synod Structure and Governance made
recommendations to the Synod, many of which were adopted by the 2010 convention, to restructure the
national office around two mission offices. Res. 8-08A eliminated the Board for University Education and
the Board for Pastoral Education. Some of the responsibilities of the eliminated Board for University
Education were given to the boards of regents of the colleges and universities and some were revised into
the responsibilities of the Board of Directors of Concordia University System. No board other than the
seminary boards of regents was given responsibilities for the seminaries.
The responsibility to grant prior approval for initial appointments of seminary faculty members in any
body other than the boards of regents of the seminaries was eliminated with the elimination of the Board
for Pastoral Education (2007 “Handbook Convention Version,” p. 263 of 2010 Today’s Business). Prior
to the changes of the 2010 convention, a parallel reference to the responsibility to grant prior approval of
initial seminary faculties by the Board for Pastoral Education had also been placed in the bylaw section
for seminary faculties (Bylaw 3.8.2.7.3, 2007 Handbook). This section was stricken in the 2007
“Handbook Convention Version” (p. 286 of 2010 Today’s Business).
The responsibility to grant approval of initial theological faculty to the Synod’s colleges and universities
was stricken from the text of the responsibilities transferred from what had been the Board for University
Education to the Board of Directors of Concordia University System (2007 “Handbook Convention
Version,” p. 256 of 2010 Today’s Business). This responsibility for prior approval of initial theological
faculty at the Synod’s colleges and universities was then not included in the bylaws delineating the
responsibilities of the Board of Directors of Concordia University System (Bylaw 3.6.6.5, 2010
Handbook). Prior to the changes of the 2010 convention, a parallel reference to the responsibility to grant
prior approval of initial theological faculty by the Board for University Education had been placed in the
bylaw section for college and university faculties (Bylaw 3.8.3.8.3, 2007 Handbook). This section
(renumbered as 3.10.5.6.3 in the 2010 Handbook) did not get stricken in the 2007 “Handbook Convention
Version,” (p. 297 of 2010 Today’s Business) and remains in the 2010 Handbook, with the exception that
the reference to the Board for University Education was changed to the Board of Directors of Concordia
University System.
The responsibility to revise the Handbook of the Synod after a convention is that of the Commission on
Handbook and the Commission on Constitutional Matters. Bylaw 3.9.4.2 (b) indicates: “In consultation
with the Commission on Constitutional Matters, [the Commission on Handbook] shall revise the
Handbook of the Synod immediately after each convention to bring it into harmony with the resolutions
and changes adopted by the convention.”
After the 2010 convention, the Commission on Handbook and the Commission on Constitutional Matters
worked diligently to make sure the extensive changes made by the convention would be reflected in the
2010 Handbook. The problem brought to the Commission on Constitutional Matters by the Board of
Directors of Concordia University System which had not been noted by the 2010 convention itself could
have, indeed should have, been noted by one or both of those two commissions. It was not. Had it been,
the inconsistency created by the two places in the Bylaws indicating the responsibility for prior approval
of initial theological faculty at the Synod’s colleges and universities by the Board of Directors of
Concordia University System could have been resolved earlier. Now that the inconsistency between the
two references has been brought to the attention of this commission, this commission and the
Commission on Handbook have the responsibility to resolve the inconsistency.
294