LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — August 17–18, 2018, Page 3

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Such is the case with the term parish in Const. Art. V A, and it is in relation to its particular use in this
article that a definition is sought. This article deals with the voting rights at the conventions of the Synod:
In conventions of the district it states that every congregation or parish is entitled to two votes, one by the
pastor and one by the lay delegate. This arrangement precedes the creation of district conventions,
originating with the pre-delegate (directly representative) conventions of the Synod, from 1847 to 1872.
The matter of voting rights at conventions of the Synod was first established by the 1847 Constitution at
the founding of the Synod, and has remained consistent (as presently applied to district conventions)
throughout Synod’s history:
Article 3 – External Organization of Synod
1. The “synodical personnel” is made up of the ministers (Der Diener) of the Church and the
delegates of the congregations (Pfarrgemeinden), each of which has the right to elect one delegate.
If pastors or delegates are absent for a good reason they may in a particular case deliver their vote
in writing.
Article 3 describes the organization and conduct of the annual conventions of the Synod, with Section 1
dealing with those who may vote. Those who may vote are the ministers and delegates of the
Pfarrgemeinden. The 1847 Constitution includes an important explanation of what is meant by this term,
translated here as congregation. In the original German text, the term Pfarrgemeinden is footnoted as
follows. Note that we have translated Pfarrgemeinde as congregation in the article and parish in the
footnote, but the word is the same—reflecting that congregation-or-parish (Const. Art. V A) corresponding
to one pastor.
A parish [Pfarrgemeinde] is either one single congregation or the sum of the individual
congregations which the pastor serves [bedient], as, in Germany, the territory in which he serves is
called Kirchspiel or Kirchensprengel. The pastor may serve 3 or 4 or more congregations, locally
separated; they are in relation to him essentially only one congregation and must, therefore, jointly
send to the convention one delegate.
Thus, how the Synod from its inception viewed the right to vote is clear. The vote belongs to the
Pfarrgemeinde, the congregation-or-parish and is exercised by the pastor of the congregation-or-parish and
a lay delegate designated by the congregation-or-parish. From the beginning of the Synod, the term
Pfarrgemeinde or congregation-or-parish (to use the present Const. Art. V language) was understood to
mean a single congregation or two or more individual congregations being cared for by the same pastor.
When the Synod divided into districts in 1854, the same wording applied to both the district conventions
and the conventions of the Synod. In 1872, when the Synod authorized the holding of delegate conventions,
it was not felt necessary to change the wording of the Constitution. The first three Synod Handbücher
(1873, 1879, 1888) retained the 1847 language in this section, but omitted the footnote defining
Pfarrgemeinde. The 1873 Handbuch (p. 105) indicates a decision of the Northern District reflecting the
1847 definition: “While it is hoped for and desired that the various congregations of one pastor might each
send its own [lay] delegate…only one at a time can represent [as voting lay delegate] the interests of the
parish [Parochialbezirks].” The 1899 Handbuch included a footnote indicating: “A parish [Parochie]
consisting of several congregations but having only one pastor [aber nur einen Pfarrer hat, emphasis
original] can send only one voting [lay] delegate. Others sent are…only advisory members.”
This language and meaning of Article 3, Section 1, remained unchanged until the Constitution of the Synod
was revised and translated in 1924. The wording selected in 1924, as Const. Art. V A, is still the current
wording. The revised language did not alter in any way the meaning regarding who was designated as
authorized to vote in conventions. The new wording did, however, attempt to make clarifications: The
procedure followed after the Synod began to hold delegate conventions was now placed into the
Constitution. In describing who was to vote at conventions of the districts, the phrase congregation-orparish was used to describe what had been the practice of the Synod from the beginning, namely that the
CCM Minutes – August 17–18, 2018 – Page 124