Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1975 · 51st Convention › Page 128
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 128

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

128 THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

couraged to seek ways of implementing Lutheran fellowship;
and be it further

Resolved. That all actions which hinder the expression of our
Lutheran fellowship with the ALC and our desire for closer
fellowship with the LCA be avoided.

Trinity Lutheran Church
Carney’s Point, N. J.

Paul Zeidler, President
Charlotte Zeidler, Secretary
Gerald E. Grimm, Pastor

Identical or similar:

3-221B and 3-221C

Trinity, Long Island City, N. Y.
Eastern Past. Couf., English Dist.

G. Sommermeyer
Amandus Derr

3-222

To Implement More Fully Fellowship
with ALC

WHEREAS, Fellowship between The American Lutheran
Church and The Lutheran Church~— Missouri Synod has been
mutually beneficial and strengthening to our people; and

WHEREAS, We believe such fellowship to be God-pleasing
and of much benefit to the church as a whole; therefore be it

Resolved. That our Synod give thanks to God for the joys and
sorrows we share with The American Lutheran Church in pulpit
and altar fellowship; and be it further

Resolved. That we move quickly to implement more full the
fellowship which was curtailed at the Milwaukee convention.

Faith Lutheran Church
Kirksville, Mo.

Wade Coorts, President
Eileen Coleman, Secretary

LCA
3-225

To Declare Altar Fellowship
with Lutheran Church in America

WHEREAS, God wills and God creates fellowship between
Christians; and

WHEREAS, God has instituted the Lord's Supper as an in-
strument to effect and to express fellowship, and the means for
overcoming the forces that separate Christians from one an-
other and the forces that separate them from God: and

WHEREAS, Christians belonging to the Lutheran Church in
America regularly visit with Christians of The Lutheran Church
— Missouri Synod and desire to express their fellowship at the
Lord’s Table; and

WHEREAS, The basis for altar fellowship has been recognized
in individual instances as we have recommended communicant
members of the Lutheran Church in America to our altars, and
some of our pastors have by transfer of membership placed
members in the pastoral care of a congregation and pastors of
the Lutheran Church in America: and

WHEREAS, Pastors of both Synods regularly meet for wor-
ship, study, and action and often desire to celebrate the Lord's
Supper together; and

WHEREAS, Members of The Lutheran Church— Missouri
Synod desire the approval of their Synod with respect to
congregational practice; and

WHEREAS, The Scriptural understanding of the Lutheran
Church in America is set forth in its Order of Holy Communion
in the Service Book and Hymnal, whose antecedents in the

hymnbooks of the General Synod (1820) and the General
Council (1867) provided The Lutheran Church— Missouri
Synod the exact text for the Order of Holy Communion in our
hymnals of 1917 and of 1941; and

WHEREAS, Holy Scripture presents as requisites for Com-
munion attendance faith in the Triune God and in the lordship
of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:41-42): ability to examine oneself (1 Cor.
11:28); belief in what the words of institution of the Lord’s
Supper say about the real presence of the Lord Jesus in the Holy
Communion (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20:
1 Cor. 11:23-25); and a life free from irreconciliation or offense
that has not been removed (Matt. 5:23-24; 18:35: 1 Cor. 5:11;
11:17-34; ef. Formula of Concord VII, Triglotta. p. 997, based on
Matt. 11:28; Matt. 9:12; 2 Cor. 12:9: Rom. 14:1; John 3:15 f.): and

WHEREAS, In holding congregations and pastors responsible
as stewards of God’s mysteries (1 Cor. 4:1-7), Christian congre-
gations are not lords of the Sacrament but stewards of their
Lord and should welcome those to the Lord’s Supper whom the
Lord welcomes, exercising great care and being alert that the
Lord’s Supper should not be withheld from anyone for whom
Christ intended it (cf. Franz Pieper, Christliche Dogmatik.
Vol. III, pp. 443 ff.); and

WHEREAS, The Lutheran Church in America, through its
president, Dr. Robert Marshall, has openly asked that The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod express itself further in
fellowship, having a firm joy over our oneness in Christ, our
fellowship in prayer, and our unity in Holy Baptism (cf. Denver
convention Proceedings. pp. 75 f.); therefore be it

Resolved. That the basis for altar fellowship exists between
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, and the Lutheran
Church in America, and that The Lutheran Church-— Missouri
Synod, assembled in convention at Anaheim, declare that it is
in altar fellowship with the Lutheran Church in America and
that we are ready at once to assume the responsibilities and
embrace the opportunities that this declaration entails, pledging
ourselves to have a tender regard for one another’s consciences
and to stand by one another in mutual understanding and love
as we exercise the privilege of altar fellowship.

Christ Lutheran Church
Washington, D.C.
Edgar Mundinger, Pastor

3-226A

To Establish Pulpit and Altar
Fellowship with Lutheran Church
in America

WHEREAS, The Lord of the church exhorts us as Christians
to live in unity with one another (John 17); and

WHEREAS, Every Christian by virtue of the saving faith which
the Holy Spirit creates in his heart is bound to his Lord and
enters into a real and living unity with every other member of
Christ’s holy body, the church; and

WHEREAS, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has
declared pulpit and altar fellowship with The American Lu-
theran Church, recognizing that sufficient doctrinal agreement
exists; and

WHEREAS, Such agreement also exists between The Lu-
theran Church— Missouri Synod and the Lutheran Church in
America on the basis of mutual acceptance of Scripture and the
Lutheran Confessions; and

WHEREAS, The Lutheran Church in America has made it
clear that it would be willing to join in pulpit and altar fellowship
on the basis of Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions; and

WHEREAS, Agreement on the basis of Scripture and the
Lutheran Confessions is sufficient according to Article II of the
synodical Constitution; therefore we the Eastern District request
the 1975 Synod convention to declare pulpit and altar fellowship
with the Lutheran Church in America.

Eastern District,
Richard L. J. Hoemann, Secretary