LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — November 4–5, 2022, Page 1

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

MINUTES
COMMISSION ON CONSTITUTIONAL MATTERS
St. Louis Airport Hilton
November 4–5, 2022
157. Call to Order and Opening Prayer
Commission Chairman Dr. George Gude called the meeting to order with all members present except for
Scott Killian, attending his daughter’s baptism, and Gerhard Bode, due to family medical needs. Dr. Gude
opened the meeting with a meditation on Romans 3:19–28 (Friday; on Saturday, on 1 John 3:1–3) and
prayer.
158. Rocky Mountain District Post-Approval Amendments (22-2979A)
The President of the Rocky Mountain (RM) District, by an email of September 29 and as clarified since,
presented the commission with the Bylaws of his district as adopted by the district’s recent convention.
Bylaws were adopted as reviewed and approved by the commission (Op. 22-2979), except with conventiontime amendments to the approved language to strike “voting” from the approved language included
(pursuant to Synod Bylaw 4.5.1) at RM Bylaw 2.01.A.1.e and to strike the approved insertion (pursuant to
Synod Bylaw 1.5.3.2) at RM Bylaw 2.01.C.1.c, as follows:
“In addition, the Executive Committee shall have authority to act in times of emergency between
plenary meetings of the Board to act on delegated assignments, and to act as specified elsewhere in
the Synod Bylaws. The Executive Committee may not perform acts specifically required by statute
or by legislation or the Constitution, Bylaws, and resolutions of the Synod to be performed by the
Board or the District in Convention, nor may they overturn actions of the Board or the District in
Convention. All Executive Committee actions shall be reported to plenary meetings of the Board.”
Striking the noted approved insertion at RM Bylaw 2.01.C.1.c would leave there only the pre-existing
sentence, “The Executive Committee shall have no authority except where empowered by the Board.”
The district convention made the above amendments to the approved language (Op. 22-2979) with the
additional statement: “Further, If the change made by this amendment is not approved by the Synod’s
Commission on Constitutional Matters, then this amendment shall have no effect and the underlying
language of the unaltered original and existing bylaws shall be restored.”
The district now requests review of these convention-time amendments to approved Bylaw language and
seeks clarification of the current state of its bylaws and/or next steps for its board of directors under Bylaw
3.9.2.2.3 (b).
Opinion:
The commission finds that all bylaw changes other than those effected by this conventiontime amendment have been adopted by the district as approved by the commission and are fully in effect
and operative from the time of their adoption.
The convention-time amendment described above has the effect of removing language from the district
bylaws as proposed and approved that would have reflected exactly the language of Synod bylaws related
to district operations (at RM Bylaw 2.01.A.1.e, of Synod Bylaw 4.5.1; at RM Bylaw 2.01.C.1.c, of Synod
Bylaw 1.5.3.2), which Synod bylaws control and supersede, as the primary bylaws of the district (Bylaw
4.1.1.2), any related “secondary” district bylaws.
The district’s removal of “voting,” therefore, from its Bylaw 2.01.A.1.e, does not remove the ability of any
such appointed board members to vote and is therefore confusing.
Likewise, the district’s removal of the language at Bylaw 2.01.C.1.c, regarding executive committees, does
not in any way impact the applicability of Synod Bylaw 1.5.3.2 to the district’s board of directors or its
CCM Minutes – November 4–5, 2022 – Page 119