LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — June 16, 2020, Page 1

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MINUTES
COMMISSION ON CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS
Internet Conference Meeting (Zoom.us)
June 16, 2020
26. Call to Order and Opening Prayer
Commission Chairman Dr. George Gude called the meeting to order with all members present, calling on
Pastor Bode to open with prayer.
27. District Conventions, Circuit and Advisory Meetings, and Coronavirus Contingencies (20-2938)
The Secretary of the Synod, responding to a number of inquiries from district presidents and secretaries
inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated impediments to large physical gatherings, potentially
extending to or recurring over the next months or years, requested the following guidance from the
commission:
Question 1:

In the event that circuit forums, necessary to elect circuit visitors and to select Synod
convention representation, or meetings of commissioned ministers and certain ordained
ministers to select advisory delegates cannot meet physically, how can their business be
conducted?

The Synod’s Bylaws have been specifically amended in recent years to allow the (at that time, new)
possibility of conducting these specific meetings electronically or “virtually.”
The forum of a circuit may meet electronically (Bylaws 3.1.2.1 [a] and 5.2.2 [a]) and, in the context of a
meeting, physical or virtual, vote electronically (Bylaw 3.1.2.1 [b] and 5.2.2 [c]). The holding of such a
“virtual” meeting presumes that congregations are able properly to designate representation, that someone
in the circuit has the wherewithal to facilitate a proper electronic meeting and a means of voting that satisfies
the stated requirements, and that the congregational representatives have fair and reasonable opportunity to
attend by the means utilized. Attention should be given by the circuit visitor, who is responsible to convene
the meeting, to ensure that the vote is and can be exercised only by those properly designated by their
congregations-or-parishes to represent them at the forum (Bylaws 3.1.2.1 [c]; 5.3.2), and that all eligible
participants have a reasonable and reasonably uniform opportunity for full and fair participation. Careful
attention would need to be paid to advance submission and subsequent effective dissemination of names
and biographical information on nominees (Bylaws 3.1.2.1 [e] and 5.2.2 [b, d]) to all those attending the
meeting as voting and advisory members of the forum.
In a similar case, the commissioned ministers and those ordained ministers ineligible to serve as voting
pastoral delegates may meet by electronic means, under Synod Board of Directors policies (specifically,
Policy 5.7.8 in the manual available at www.lcms.org/bod), to elect their proportional representation to the
Synod convention (Bylaws 3.1.3–3.1.3.1). Concerns similar to those expressed with regard to circuit forums
would pertain, and those responsible need to consider the full and fair participation of all eligible
participants.
Question 2:

In the event that district conventions are prevented from meeting physically by COVID-19
restrictions or similar circumstances, what options are available to the districts, under the
Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod, for proper conduct of the business ordinarily
conducted through these means?

The Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod provide specific provisions for the conduct of district
conventions (Const. Art. XII 10, 13–15; Bylaws 1.3.3, 1.4.1–2; Bylaw sections, 4.2 and 4.7; and, by
analogy, Bylaw section 3.1, insofar as it is applicable, and Bylaw section 3.12, in the sense indicated in
Bylaw 4.7.1). Like the convention of the Synod, the conventions of the districts are not simply vehicles for
accomplishing certain “essential” pieces of business, such as elections and resolutions, couched with
extensive “inessential” trappings. Rather, they “shall [emphasis added] afford opportunities for worship,
CCM Minutes – June 16, 2020 – Page 16