LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 64

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64 THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Refrain from Placing the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Wor-
ship under LCUSA) and Res. 2-06 (To Decline Executive Officer
for ILCW). The Board of Directors by formal action approved
these two resolutions as the position of the Synod. Develop-
ments subsequent to this action of the Board of Directors have
resolved the situation by changing the job description from an
ongoing executive officer to a project director whose term is for
3 years. The creation of this type of position has the endorse-
ment of the four U.S. church presidents and has been funded
for the first year by a grant from one of the Lutheran insurance
companies. In order that an orderly office procedure (and
responsible method of fiscal operation) might be established, the
ILCW has been accepted (with the approval of the church
presidents) as an office at LCUSA, and the project director
operates from LCUSA headquarters in New York. The worship
staff persons of the participating churches continue to be actively
involved in the work of the ILCW at the specific request of the
project director.

The 1973 convention’s Res. 2-08, dealing with the question of
gender of pronouns used in worship materials, had already been
a subject of concern to the commission and to the ILCW even
before 1973, and action has been taken to resolve the same
wherever feasible.

Res. 2-24 (To Include Both Traditional and New Forms
in New Hymnal) and Res. 2-25 (To Give Attention to Hymns
and Worship Forms) have been concerns of the commission
and of the ILCW all along, and both organizations are endeavor-
ing to meet them wherever feasible.

New Hymnal and Service Book

Various rumors have been heard about the content and
purpose of the new hymnal now in preparation. Some have
objected to its being limited in number of selections: others have
objected that some 450 hymns are altogether too many. The
primary purpose of the hymns is to enable a congregation
meaningfully to make use of the liturgies available in the book.
This means there must be an adequate number of sacramental
hymns, hymns of praise, hymns to support worship during the
various parts of the church year, etc. To make it possible to
carry out the various overtures on the hymnal during the
past few conventions of the Synod, it is inevitable that some
numbers will have to be deleted in order to make room for new
materials. This has been true for every hymnal project that has
been undertaken. The Evangelical Lutheran Hymn Book, the
Synod’s former hymnal (1889 — 1940) contained 567 hymns, 110
of which disappeared when the present hymnal appeared in
1941. Among The Lutheran Hymnal’s 660 hymns are 203 not
found in the former book. Although the final collection has at
this writing not been closed, it appears that some 200 hymns in
the new book are to be found in the present hymnal, and some
will be reclaimed from the former hymnal.

Because of the insistence of some parts of the participating
churches, the hymnal’s original limit of 400 hymns has been
expanded to afford a more representative Christmas section
together with more Gospel song and spiritual folksong hymnody.
Not everyone has the same definition of what is meant by
“Gospel song,” and thus the hymn committees found themselves
somewhat bewildered by this demand. It is the sincere hope of
the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship that the need has
been met through the additions to the hymnic corpus.

An earlier report on format has been modified. The hymn
section will now appear in the standard American four-part
format with the text between the staves—except in those few
instances where the number of stanzas makes this style prohibi-
tive. Exceptions will be made in some cases, such as hymns
written originally for unison singing and hymns originally pro-
vided only with guitar tablatures. Layout of the hymnal—apart
from seasonal and liturgical times and functions ~— will be deter-
mined by dynamic thrust rather than by subject or topic. A
topical index will afford ready reference to these hymns, as will
an index of hymns recommended as suitable for the Gospel of
the day in the 3-year lectionary.

The liturgical part of the new book will contain:

The Calendar of the Church

The Holy Communion (substantially revised from the rite
given in CW-2)

The Proper of the Service

Holy Baptism

The Affirmation of Baptism

Confession and Absolution

(A) Service(s) of the Word (noneucharistic)
Martins, Vespers, and Compline

The Litany

Psalter

The Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship has authorized
the publication of an altar book — with appropriate-size type —
as part of this project. The ILCW has heard how difficult it is
to get appropriate music for the liturgical corpus. At this writing
no final decisions have been made in this regard.

In keeping with the Synod’s Handbook. the materials for the
new hymnal and service book are being submitted to the doc-
trinal review process. Since each of the participating churches
has a different polity regarding the “approval” of such materials,
the four presidents have agreed that each would appoint an
official evaluating committee to make recommendations to the
approving body. Thus, for the Synod, the President has ap-
pointed a committee of 10 persons who will submit recommenda-
tions to the Commission on Worship (which, according to Hand-
book 11.113, is charged with responsibility for authorizing mate-
rials for use by the Synod’s member churches),

Institutes

As an outgrowth of the international worship conference
conducted jointly by LCMS, ALC, and LCA in Minneapolis
in the summer of 1973, 19 regional institutes on church music
were conducted during the summer of 1974. Thanks to a grant
from one of the Lutheran insurance companies, a scholarship
Program was made available to musicians who qualified. The
entire program was self-supporting. A similar series of institutes
is being planned for this summer — in fact will be under way by
the time the convention assembles. A change in emphasis is
noted between the two series of institutes. The '75 institutes
are intended for both parts of the worship team in the parish —
pastor and musician— with two courses being directed toward
pastors only, two specifically music-oriented courses for organ-
ists and choir leaders, and three courses for plenary sessions.
Twenty-one institutes are scheduled for 1975, two of them in
Canada.

Communion Practices Statement

It had been hoped that the “Statement on Communion
Practices” might have been ready for submission to the 1975
convention. Various drafts have been prepared but have as yet
not been adopted by the joint committee for submission to their
parent agencies. Hence neither the CTCR nor the Commission
on Worship has had opportunity to act, but the joint committee
is still working.

Paul K. Peterson, Chairman
E. Theo. DeLaney, Executive Secretary

3-03
Report of Commission on Organizations

Increasing requests for the services of the Commission on
Organizations during the past biennium have made necessary
some rearranging of priorities and restructuring of the activities
of the commission. Eight areas of activity constitute the current
program: (1) preparation of literature, reports, and evaluations
from the Christian perspective regarding contemporary organi-
zations and movements; (2) maintenance of a counseling service
for pastors and congregations who request assistance: (3) estab-
lishment and maintenance of contact with organizations and
movements of religious significance for purposes of keeping
informed and apprising them of Christian concerns: (4) main-
tenance of a research center and advisory service to the users
of the center; (5) coordination and equipping of volunteer as-
sistants in scattered geographic areas in order to multiply and
extend the commission's services; (6) cooperation with individ-
uals and groups making independent studies in order to avoid
duplication of efforts: (7) provision of a lecture service for con-
ferences, seminars, classrooms, and the like: and (8) mainte-
nance of liaison with officials, boards, and commissions of the
Synod whose areas of responsibility are related to those of the
commission.