LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — August 17–18, 2018, Page 5

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

responsibilities toward the dual-parish, constitute a parish under Article V of the
Constitution?
Opinion: Presently, based on the standing treatment of parish, if any pastor of a congregation serves any
other congregation, the totality of the congregations served is considered a parish.
Formerly—when Synod was capable of distinguishing the one Pfarrer, the (head) pastor of a given
congregation, from its Hilfsprediger, assistant pastor(s), if any—this was not the case.
In the early period, a congregation had only one pastor (Pfarrer), though it may have had Hilfsprediger,
assistant(s), in addition. Those congregation(s) under one Pfarrer were a Pfarrgemeinde or congregationor-parish. Perhaps independent congregations could have shared Hilfsprediger, though this possibility is
more theoretical than historically demonstrable. The relation of congregations and pastors is now far more
complicated. Today the category of associate pastors has evolved and the once-constitutional distinction of
assistant pastors (Hilfsprediger) as advisory only has, by the 2016 convention, been removed. More pastors
are being shared among multiple congregations, whether by call or by uncalled but still regular service. In
this changing situation, over many decades, interpretation has fallen along the lines that congregations with
any serving pastor in common constitute a parish.
The original intent of Pfarrgemeinde, which grouped congregations based on their sharing of a head pastor,
relied on a distinction not possible to draw using present bylaws: namely, distinguishing “the (head) pastor”
or Pfarrer from any “assistant pastors” or Hilfsprediger of a given congregation. Without such a distinction,
the only viable, practical application of the constitutional principle is as previous commissions have
repeatedly decided: “[T]he principle stands without exception: Two or more congregations being served by
the same pastor constitute a parish with the right of representation by one lay delegate and one pastoral
delegate” (Op. 11-2618, Nov. 11–13, 2011). The commission notes that if such distinctions could again be
drawn, it would be fully consistent with the meaning of the original constitutional language to define a
congregation-or-parish as (a) congregation(s) with a (head) pastor of its/their own, who is not the (head)
pastor of any other congregation(s). Multiple congregation-or-parish representation units could share
assisting pastors without thereby becoming together one congregation-or-parish. Without clarifying bylaw
changes, however, such a solution is impossible to implement today. Given such distinctions, however, it
would be entirely consistent with the foundational, constitutional Pfarrgemeinde or congregation-or-parish
concept practiced from Synod’s inception.
An example from the early history of the Synod is the practice of forming a Gesammtgeminde as
Lutheranism expanded in certain cities. Perhaps the most notable of these was the Gesammtgeminde in St.
Louis. In 1847, due to the growth of Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis, where C.F.W. Walther was the
pastor, the congregation started a school and church on a second location, which took the name of
Immanuel. Initially Immanuel was not an independent congregation, and at the 1854 convention of the
Synod the pastor of Immanuel, J. F. Buenger, was listed as an advisory delegate. In 1856 a third school and
then church were added, which caused a re-evaluation of the arrangement. The solution was the division of
the Gesammtgemeinde into three “districts.” In this arrangement, while the Gesammtgemeinde would
nominate pastors for a vacant congregation, each “district” or congregation would actually elect him, with
the result that each was served by its own pastor. Later, a fourth “district” was also added. The common
bond holding the congregations together was their affection for C.F.W. Walther and their desire to maintain
a connection with him. (About a year after Walther’s death in 1887, the congregations involved decided to
dissolve the Gesammtgemeinde.)
To deal with this unique circumstance, the Synod resolved at the 1866 convention that each congregation
with a “separate pastor” was to be recognized as a congregation entitled to be represented at conventions
by an ordained and a lay delegate:
A request of the President, as pastor of the Lutheran congregation in St. Louis, was read, wherein
the Synod was asked either:
CCM Minutes – August 17–18, 2018 – Page 126