LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — December 14-15, 1972, Page 4

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

regarding the constitutionality of its congregation meetings and the constitutionality of District President
Riedel's procedures. The commission resolved:
1.

To send the four-page letter from the congregation and attorney Kuehn's legal opinion to
President Robert Riedel with a request for his reaction.

2.

To inform the congregation of this and to express the hope that this matter can be held in
abeyance until the next meeting.

3.

To circulate the backup documents among the members of the commission, beginning
with Sommermeyer.

223. Joint Campus Ministry (Ag. 379, 384, 384A, 387, 390); San Francisco Night Ministry (Ag. 385_,
385A and B); Selective Fellowship (Ag. 265, _290, 265B, _300, 375, 375A): These items received
considerable attention from the commission together with the question regarding the Gary parochial
school. The commission finally decided on the following courses of action:
1.

A letter to the CTCR, emphasing their dual role over against these problems. Increasingly
the CCM is receiving requests to make rulings in issues involving theology and church
relations. It has been asked for a constitutional opinion on the joint campus ministries in
the California-Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Atlantic Districts and elsewhere. An opinion has
been requested on the San Francisco night ministry in which our Synod supports the work
of a Congregational minister. The CCM has also been asked to rule on the permissibility of
LCA congregations assuming full partnership in the operation of a parochial school. And
then there is also the assignment of the convention regarding selective fellowship. The
CCM feels that the Synod has not yet adequately defined its position toward other church
bodies. Furthermore, while the questions raised seem on the surface to be constitutional in
nature, the real issues are more often than not theological and require definitions of several
concepts in the Constitution which are really theological in nature, e.g., the unity of the
true faith, schism, sectarianism (Article III, 1); unionism, syncretism, heterodox,
participating in missionary activities (Article VI, 2). Since the CTCR has the dual
responsibility of "church relations" and "theology," the CCM urgently asks it to undertake
a study of this whole area of interchurch relations, in which the initiative seems to be
shifting from the church body to the field and in this way threatening the very
cohesiveness and solidarity implied in the concept of the Synod itself. The CCM feels that
it may be necessary for the New Orleans convention to say something definitive and, if
need be, to take steps toward amending the bylaws and perhaps even the Constitution
itself. The CCM is of the opinion that until theological determinations have been made it is
almost impossible for the CCM to rule satisfactorily on the constitutional questions that
have been raised.

2. A letter to those who have asked opinions in these areas (campus,
ministries, San
Francisco night ministry, selective fellowship),
stating that the commission is requesting the
CTCR to undertake a major study and that we are therefore asking all persons involved in such
activities not to expand their involvement any further until the studies of the CTCR and of the
CCM have been completed and, depending upon what the studies may yield the convention has
perhaps taken action.
224. Convention Report: A preliminary draft of a proposed report of the commission to the convention
was prepared and distributed by the Secretary and discussed by the commission. It will be taken up again
at the next meeting.