Lehre und Wehre St. Louis, Missouri — Mai 1858, Seite 153

German transcription AI-corrected against the scan

Cited in Eckhardt's Reallexikon (1907) under: Gemeindekonſtitution 3 · Wandel

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Form einer Constitution für eine englisch⸗lutherische Gemeinde. 153

es nicht mehr entbehren. Eine Pfarrersbibliothek ohne diese Concordanz
hat eine wesentliche Lücke. Was Dr. Heubner hinzugethan hat, ist zu
einem Theil allerdings nicht ohne Werth; leider! hat er aber nicht
unterlassen können, zu einem guten Theil neue Theologie beizumischen.
Man vergleiche nur die Artikel: Erste Auferstehung, Widerchrist,
Höllenfahrt ꝛc. Wer daher einer ältern Ausgabe, namentlich der
fünften, habhaft werden kann, ziehe diese der neuen, wenn auch äußerlich
noch so schön ausgestatteten, vor.

Form einer Constitution für eine englisch⸗lutherische Gemeinde.

Eine solche Form hat Herr Pastor H. Weßel, Mount Solon, Va., der
Tennessee⸗Synode, erhaltenem Auftrag gemäß, vorgelegt. Dieselbe ist
denn von genannter Synode bei Gelegenheit ihrer Versammlung in der
Solomon's⸗Kirche, Greene Co., Tennessee, am 26. September bis 1.
Oktober vorigen Jahres durchgesehen und als ein Appendix dem
betreffenden, im Druck erschienenen Jahresbericht beigegeben worden. In
der Voraussetzung, daß es manchem unserer geehrten Leser interessant
sein dürfte, diese vortreffliche Form zu einer wahrhaft lutherischen
Gemeindeordnung kennen zu lernen, theilen wir dieselbe hier in der
Sprache des Originals mit:

Church Regulations for the Evangelical Lutheran ——— Congregation of
the unaltered Augsburg Confession, ———, ——— Couuty, ———, 18—.

Sect. 1. Inasmuch as the word of God requires (1 Cor. 14, 40. Col. 2,
5.) that all things in all christian congregations shall be done
decently and in order; and as our fathers, in order that this might be
effected, have led the way before us by drawing up christian church
regulations: Therefore, we, a number of Lutherans resident in the said
(town and vicinity) county, have united and formed ourselves into a
congregation, and we lay down by this present document subscribed by
ourselves the order by which our congregational connection is to be
regulated, and the management of our internal and external
congregational affairs is to be determined.

Sect. 2. Our church and congregation shall bear the name ———
Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of the unaltered
Augsburg Confession, ———, ——— County, ———.

Sect. 3. Our congregation acknowledges

1st, All the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments as the
revealed Word of God.

2nd, The collective Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church as that form and rule drawn from the word of God according to
which, because it is taken from the word of God, not only doctrine is
to be held and examined in our congregation, but also all doctrinal and
religious controversies are to be decided and regulated. These are the
Three Chief Symbols, the unaltered Augsburg Confession, the Apology for
the same, the Smalkald Articles, Luther's Smaller and Larger
Catechisms, the Formula of Concord, and the Articles of Visitation.
Therefore

Sect. 4. No one can be or become a member, still less an officer in
this congregation, or participate in any of the rights of a member,
except he who

a. Is baptized;

English translation AI translation

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Form of a Constitution for an English-Lutheran Congregation. 153

can no longer do without it. A pastor's library without this
concordance has an essential gap. What Dr. Heubner has added is, to be
sure, in part not without value; unfortunately, however, he was unable
to refrain from mixing in, to a considerable extent, new theology. One
need only compare the articles: First Resurrection, Antichrist, Descent
into Hell, etc. Whoever, therefore, can get hold of an older edition,
particularly the fifth, should prefer it to the new one, however
handsomely produced the latter may outwardly be.

Form of a Constitution for an English-Lutheran Congregation.

Such a form has been submitted by the Rev. Pastor H. Weßel, of Mount
Solon, Va., in accordance with a commission received from the Tennessee
Synod. It was then reviewed by the said Synod on the occasion of its
meeting at Solomon's Church, Greene Co., Tennessee, from the 26th of
September to the 1st of October of last year, and appended, as an
Appendix, to the printed annual report in question. In the supposition
that it might interest many of our esteemed readers to become
acquainted with this excellent form for a truly Lutheran congregational
constitution, we communicate it here in the language of the original:

Church Regulations for the Evangelical Lutheran ——— Congregation of
the unaltered Augsburg Confession, ———, ——— Couuty, ———, 18—.

Sect. 1. Inasmuch as the word of God requires (1 Cor. 14, 40. Col. 2,
5.) that all things in all christian congregations shall be done
decently and in order; and as our fathers, in order that this might be
effected, have led the way before us by drawing up christian church
regulations: Therefore, we, a number of Lutherans resident in the said
(town and vicinity) county, have united and formed ourselves into a
congregation, and we lay down by this present document subscribed by
ourselves the order by which our congregational connection is to be
regulated, and the management of our internal and external
congregational affairs is to be determined.

Sect. 2. Our church and congregation shall bear the name ———
Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of the unaltered
Augsburg Confession, ———, ——— County, ———.

Sect. 3. Our congregation acknowledges

1st, All the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments as the
revealed Word of God.

2nd, The collective Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church as that form and rule drawn from the word of God according to
which, because it is taken from the word of God, not only doctrine is
to be held and examined in our congregation, but also all doctrinal and
religious controversies are to be decided and regulated. These are the
Three Chief Symbols, the unaltered Augsburg Confession, the Apology for
the same, the Smalkald Articles, Luther's Smaller and Larger
Catechisms, the Formula of Concord, and the Articles of Visitation.
Therefore

Sect. 4. No one can be or become a member, still less an officer in
this congregation, or participate in any of the rights of a member,
except he who

a. Is baptized;