LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1932, Page 130

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186 Proceedings of Thirty-Fifth Regular Convention,

The accounts of Concordia Publishing House as submitted to oy
committee were found to be correct in every particular, a proof of the
fact that the administration of the institution is thoroughly busine :
like and efficient. a

This report was adopted by Synod.

As to the revision of the Catechism mentioned in the report of th
Publishing House the committee appointed by the President to make
a thorough study of our Synodical Catechism with a view to ite
eventual revision as well as to the grading of the Catechism material
(Proceedings, 1929, p. 131) submitted the following report : —

Report on Revision of the Catechism.
(Memorial 502.)

Your Committee met at River Forest, January 6, 1939, organized,
and not only adopted principles to govern the revision of the Cate.
chism, but also assigned portions of the Catechism to the individual
members, with the direction that each study especially the portion
assigned to him and send his suggestions of changes to be made to
the chairman, who, in conjunction with Prof. Ed. Koehler, was to con-
sider carefully the suggested changes and then submit their revision
to the other members of the committee. In this manner your Com-
mittee hoped to clear away much of the necessary preliminary work
without undue loss of time to the committee as a whole and without
unwarranted expense to Synod because of numerous and lengthy
meetings. The first draft of the revision has been sent to the chair-
man, and the second draft of the First Chief Part has been submitted
to the members of the committee and returned by them to the sub-
committee.

In our synodical periodicals we asked for suggestions from pas-
tors, teachers, and others interested in the revision and were pleased
to find such a wide and sincere interest taken in this matter. All the
suggestions submitted were taken into consideration by the revisers.
However, the nature of these suggestions varied to the greatest extent
possible. While some insisted that the present text be left unchanged
in all particulars, others demanded that changes, sometimes of quite
a radical nature, be made in the presentation, arrangement of subject-
matter, etc. Opinions on this matter seem to be fairly equally divided,
at least as far as we can judge from our correspondence. Due to the
proximity of Synod and the present depression we felt that it was
neither proper nor wise to go to the expense of calling a meeting of
the entire committee, which would perhaps but result in our arriving
at the same conclusion, namely, to ask Synod for more specific in-
structions with regard to the nature of the revision.

We therefore respectfully ask Synod to determine whether the
revision should be restricted to mere changes in the present English

Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. 1932. 187

text (use of idiomatic English; occasional division of long answers
into two or three answers; occasional addition or omission of an
answer, a proof-text or a Bible-story), permitting the revised text to
be used side by side in the classroom with the present text, the revision,
in other words, being governed by the principles followed in the re-
yision of our Kirchengesangbuch, or whether the changes should be
of a more far-reaching nature, involving practically a rewriting also
of the German text and making the classroom use of the present text,
together with the revised text, practically impossible.
Awaiting further instructions, we are,
With fraternal greetings,
Tue ComMITTEE ON REVISION OF THE CATECHISM.
Turo. Lartscu, Chairman.

Concerning this matter, Commtttee 17 submitted the following
resolution and recommendations : —

Resolved, That we restrict the changes in the new English Cat-
echism to more suitable memory verses, idiomatic English, simplifica-
tion of answers, additional questions, a few additional Bible-stories, etc.

We recommend that the committee and the Publishing House in-
dicate grades of the Catechism by different forms of print.

The recommendations of the committee do not refer to the Ger-
man version, since we feel that the present German Synodical Cat-
echism will serve the needs of our work also in the future.

Synod adopted this report.

District Synodical Reports.

Committee 17 reported : —

With regard to the reference {in the report of the Publishing
House] concerning the printing of the synodical reports, your Com-
mittee recommends that this be referred to the President and the
Vice-Presidents of Synod together with the Board of Directors for ad-
justment.

Synod adopted this recommendation.

Sermon Studies.
Regarding this matter, mentioned in the report of the Publishing
House, Committee 17 submitted the following resolution: —
Resolved, That Synod go on record as welcoming the publishing of ©

» the German sermon studies prepared by Dr. Fuerbringer and en-

courage the Publishing House in its capacity as agent for this publi-
cation. The hope is expressed that similar works will appear as soon
as feasible. ;

- Synod adopted this resolution.