LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — October 24-25, 1980, Page 2

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operative and that the District was still operating under its original very brief forms filed with the
Secretary of State. The District Committee was now proposing a new set of Articles of Incorporation in
line with the suggestion that had been offered to the District to simply follow as far as possible the
Articles of Incorporation of the Synod itself. As for the Bylaws, it was pointed out that the new Bylaws
drafted in large part by the Abdon firm had been approved by the most recent convention with the
stipulation however that they were subject to revisions after consultation with the CCM. The
representatives agreed to supply the Commission with fresh copies of the proposed Articles of
Incorporation and of the so called Abdon Bylaws which had been adopted with revisions by the most
recent convention, so that the Commission could address itself to both of these documents in their official
form. After the representatives had left, the Commission did address itself to the new proposed Articles of
Incorporation and after suggesting that the word "objects" in two places be changed to the new synodical
wording "objectives," the Commission decided to give its approval to these proposed Articles of
Incorporation and so to notify the District. (See especially Ag. 625-K., Article II and Article VII).
117. New England District Delegate Elections (Ag. 1460) : Reverend F. Richard Benken of Madison,
Conn. had raised questions regarding the legitimacy of delegate elections in his Circuit, since these had
been challenged. It so happened that the lay delegate and alternate were elected first, thereby eliminating
the pastors of those two congregations from consideration. Furthermore, in the election of the pastoral
delegate it was ruled that since one pastor had received the majority vote on the first write-in ballot (with
each voter voting for two candidates) no second ballot was necessary. The Secretary had answered that in
his personal opinion it was necessary in the election of the pastoral delegate to proceed to the second
ballot since it was entirely possible on the second ballot (when each voter would be voting for only one
person) that another candidate would receive the majority of the votes cast. Furthermore, since the order
had been revervsed, the final roster of delegates and alternates might be entirely different. He suggested,
therefore, that separate elections should be held at the fall Circuit meetings which were being called at the
urgent request of the Task Force. The Commission ratified this reply on the assumption that if no second
Circuit meeting had been held by the deadline of October 3 the four positions would need to be
considered vacant, to be filled by the District President in consultation with the District counselor.
118. Applicant Congregations Eligibility for Delegate Process (Ag. 1464): The Secretary of the South
Wisconsin District had written that in the election of a set of delegates an applicant congregation which
has applied for membership in the Synod but has not yet been accepted had participated in the election
and that the pastor of the applicant congregation had even been elected as a pastoral delegate. Was this
proper? The Commission ruled that Bylaws 1.51 and 1.53 make it very plain that only member
congregations can participate in the process of electing delegates and be eligible to supply such delegates
to a convention of the Synod.
119. Convention Representatives from Edmonton Faculty (Ag. 1467) : Concordia College of Edmonton
had asked whether it was still eligible to send representatives to the synodical convention since the last
convention had transferred ownership and governance of the college to Canadian Districts. After some
discussion the Commission concluded that it would seem on the basis of Bylaw 1.61b that the Edmonton
college is no longer a synodical school in the same sense in which other seminaries and colleges are and
that therefore, Concordia Edmonton, would not be eligible under this Bylaw to send representatives to the
synodical convention.
120. Ordination Vow (Ag.1457): Since no answer had been received from the congregation which had
originally raised this question it was decided to hold the matter on the Agenda for one more meeting in
the expectation that a response might still be forthcoming.
121. Colloquy Student Accepting a Call (Ag. 1461): The Colloquy Board for the Pastoral Office had
asked whether a colloquy student who accepted a call to a parish pastorate before completing colloquy