LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1929, Page 117

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Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. 1929. 117

II.

139 While your Committee is of the opinion that, self-
140 evidently, ministers notoriously lax in their practise with
141 respect to the “lodge evil” should not hold office in Synod,
142 we nevertheless cannot recommend adoption of Overture
143 408: “That Synod declare its determination to elect only
144 such members to official position as are pastors of congre-
145 gations known to be free from the ‘lodge evil’”; for it is
146 not always possible to determine which is and which is not
147 a lodge-free congregation. If all members of Synod, and
148 especially the officers, are vigilant in their duty and Synod
149 itself will expel such pastors and congregations as are noto-
150 riously lax, there will be no reason for such a resolution.

IIT.

151 Your Committee, in the fall of 1926, appointed a Lodge
152 Information Bureau, consisting of the Rev. Prof. Th.
153 Graebner, of St. Louis, and the Rev. O. F. Engelbrecht, of
154 Milwaukee; it recommends that a similar committee be
155 continued.
Memorial 408, presented to Synod by the Western District, recom-
mended the inauguration of a Synod-wide, systematic, intensive
campaign, under the direction of the Districts, in which all congre-
gations shall participate. This campaign shall lead to a definite
decision and final action on the part of such congregations as still
permit lodge-members to commune at their altars and of such indi-
viduals as still insist on being church-members and lodge-members
at the same time. ;

The Iowa District, in Memorial 409, asked Synod to proceed
against congregations which still tolerate lodge-members.

Report of Committee 15.

After careful and conscientious consideration of the “Report of
the Committee on Lodges” and the whole lodge question, your Com-
mittee herewith submits the following for adoption by Synod: —

That we reaffirm the resolutions on the lodge adopted by Synod
in 1926. (Reports and Memorials, 1929, p. 138, lines 4—32.)

These resolutions, as is evident, clearly and fully express. Synod’s
position on the lodge question and outline a policy by which prompt
and decisive action as well as the desired uniformity of practise may
be secured. As Synod’s Committee on Lodges says in its report
(Reports and Memorials, p. 189): “If all pastors, congregations,
synodical officers, District synods, and the Delegate Synod will prac-
tise according to them, the desired uniformity will have been attained.”