LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — April 1-2, 1971, Page 2

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344. Seconding (Ag. 108): Luessenhop hopes to have a report ready for the next meeting.
345. San Francisco Night Ministry (Ag. 109): He expressed the same hope with respect to this subject.
346. Terms of Office (Ag. 148): Mueller called attention to the fact that in line with a Board of Directors
resolution several years ago an effort is being made to have all appointive terms begin on January 1 of a
calendar year.
347. Koehneke Appeal (Ag. 191): An official appeal to the convention to reverse the commission's
opinion has not yet been received. The members expressed the hope that since the new "due process"
bylaws have been drafted for submission to the convention Dr. Koehneke might change his intention.
348. Election of Delegates (Ag. 208): This will be taken up at a later date.
349. Herman Harms Essay(Ag. 209): After attention had been called to this essay it was agreed by
common consent to remove the item from the agenda.
350.
Constitutional Amendments, CMMC (Ag. 246 and 246b): The Commission on Mission and
Ministry in the church had submitted its proposed constitutional amendments for the Preamble and
Article III of the Synod's Constitution. These were discussed at length at two different times. It was
resolved to inform the CMMC that in the commission's opinion an effort should be made to improve the
wording in the direction of greater brevity, to eliminate qualifying and embellishing clauses, to strive for
more constitutional language, and to incorporate the "will of the Lord" and "example of the early church"
concepts of the present Preamble. It was also resolved in a second motion to inform the CMMC of our
conviction that there is not sufficient time prior to the convention to accomplish the work that needs to be
done and that if the commission wishes to have participation in the further re-writing of these sections the
CCM will be willing to have representatives meet on a regular basis with representatives of the CMMC
and the CTCR.
351. Armed Forces Commission: The Board of Directors had decided to shift most of the responsibilities
of the Armed Forces Commission to LCUSA and inquired whether this would require convention action.
The commission decided to inform the Board of Directors on the basis of its study of Exhibit M, supplied
by the Board, that this proposition would indeed need to go to the convention since extensive changes are
needed in the bylaws if such a major step would be taken (Ag. 251)
352. Women Serving as Chairmen of Congregations: Reverend Lothar Kleinhans of the Constitution
Committee of the Southern District had relayed to Kuenne a letter from a Pastor Roger Grummer asking
by what rationale women could be excluded from the chairmanship of a congregation. Mrs. Kuenne had
forwarded this letter to Mueller who replied to Kleinhans. The commission decided to endorse in
principle this reply and to await any further response before taking any further action (Ag. 248).
353. Communicant Membership in Two Congregations (A 250): Secretary Robert Schmidt of the South
Wisconsin District had relayed the request for a ruling on whether an individual could hold communicant
membership in two congregations at the same time. It was decided to inform him that it was both the usus
of the Lutheran Church and the implication of Section G, Chapter III of the Handbook that communicant
membership could be held in only one congregation at a time and to encourage him to advise the
constitution committee of the District not to approve constitutions of such congregations but rather to
recommend the creation of auxiliary societies to aid exceptional congregations. The Secretary was also
authorized to include any other factors which might have been mentioned in a similar ruling made by the
commission several years previously and available in the files.