Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1958, Page 34

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34 Proceedings of the Forty-fifth Convention

‘I think we are all pretty well agreed on Lutheran practice
concerning the burial of those who were not church members or
those who were deliberate suicides. Yet there are heartbreaking
cases dreadfully difficult to judge, and the same goes for remarry-
ing divorced persons. Tensions, sometimes severe ones, arise over
the use — even the occasional use — of the Revised Standard Ver-
sion of the Bible in the church, over the wearing of clerical vest-
ments, over musical or liturgical innovations, even though they
are introduced by those who know what good music and good
liturgical practice should be. A minor tension arose in a church in
which I recently was vacancy preacher when a retired pastor, called
in to officiate at a wedding, asked the congregation to decide
whether he was right in refusing the couple’s request to have pic-
tures taken in the church during the ceremony.

Questions like the following have received different answers
in our church; Ought a Lutheran pastor preach a baccalaureate
sermon, even if he has charge of the whole service, knowing that
the next year it will be another minister’s turn? Ought he then
to counsel his young graduates not to take part in the service?
What about speaking at a patriotic celebration or becoming a mem-
ber of a service club? Should a pastor take part in local govern-
ment, by becoming councilman or mayor, for instance, or offer his
services as mediator in a strike? Should a pastor coach a local
football or basketball team if he is qualified? Should he ever
work to eke out his salary? Should he solicit ads for his paper
or approach non-Lutheran secular organizations for contributions
to. his church?

Perhaps we think that we are all in agreement on the position
of women in the church. Has not Paul spoken plainly on that
subject? Yet there have been subtle changes in attitude and
practice in our churches. Thirty-five years ago a woman who
would have gone to Communion with her hair bobbed and without
a hat might have been turned away from the Communion rail —
or should one say altar, since communion rails were unusual at
that time. Today she would hardly be noticed. How much of the
pastoral work of a congregation could be taken over by an efficient
deaconess or pastor’s secretary during the absence or illness of the
pastor? After writing these sentences I received the announcement
of a new book entitled Woman in the Church by a pastor of the
Synodical Conference. According to the flier, a “veteran of the
Cross,” presumably a pastor, wrote the author: “I agree fully with
your conclusion that there is nothing in the Scripture forbidding
a woman to ‘desire the office of a bishop.’” Even more contro-
versial is the question of desegregation in the churches, at least in
certain areas of the country.

There are even differences of opinion about parochial schools,
to say nothing of such lesser congregational items as bazaars and
bake sales, social, athletic, or cultural programs, and organizations
or clubs for every age group.

Any one of you, I am sure, could add more tension items to
the list. I have purposely refrained from mentioning those that
have threatened to smash the tie that still binds our synods in
the Synodical Conference. Serious, able, and consecrated men on
both sides have been and still are working hard to reconcile the