LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1975, Page 132

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132 THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Resolved. That fellowship be declared publicly with all those
Christian church bodies who join us in confessing the Christian
faith as based on the Scriptures and expressed in the Lutheran
Confessions; and be it further

Resolved. That in the case of those outside our Synod whose
orthodoxy has not yet been declared we foster serious discus-
sions with a view toward maintaining fraternal discussions and
possible future church fellowship but meanwhile refrain from
joint use of the means of grace (“pulpit and altar fellowship”’):
and be it finally

Resolved. That we bear with the weak. receiving them not
for disputations which minister to doubt but rather for the godly
edifying which is in faith (Rom. 14), mindful of our own weak-
nesses and fallibility.

Faculty

Concordia Teachers College
River Forest, Ill.

Merle L. Radke, Secretary

3-244

To Encourage Regional Lutheran
Associations

WHEREAS. An object of the Synod is “the conservation and
promotion of the unity of the true faith” and “the joint extension
of the Kingdom of God" (Handbook. p. 15); and

WHEREAS, Congregations are finding “the true faith” and
growing possibilities for ‘the joint extension of the Kingdom of
God” among other Lutherans too: and

WHEREAS, Administrative overlaps and duplication of ser-
vices can be eliminated and cooperative and joint planning en-
hanced by coordinated activity with other Lutherans: therefore
be it

Resolved. That congregations and Districts of the Synod be
encouraged to explore regional associations and federations
with fellow Christians of The American Lutheran Church and
the Lutheran Church in America where this is feasible and
practicable: and be it further

Resolved. That any regional associations or federations be
evaluated as possible predecessors to the establishment of
regional Lutheran churches.

Grace Lutheran Church
Boulder, Colo.

James Kittelberger, President
Cynthia DeGreve, Secretary
Norbert E. Hattendorf, Pastor

3-245A

To Not Join LWF

WHEREAS, The official position of the Lutheran Church is
stated in Article VII, par. 33, of the Formula of Concord (Solid
Declaration) and makes its own the confession of Martin Luther:

I reckon them all as belonging together (that is. as Sacramentarians

and enthusiasts), for that is what they are who will not believe that

the Lord’s bread in the Supper is his true, natural body, which the
godless or Judas receive orally as well as St. Peter and all the saints.

Whoever, I say, will not believe this, will please let me alone and

expect no fellowship from me. This is final: and

WHEREAS, In the homeland of the Reformation all the
formerly Lutheran territorial churches joined, in 1948, with the
Reformed (Calvinist-Zwinglian) and the United churches (those
giving equal rights to the Real Presence and its denial) into one
single administrative unit, the Evangelical Church in Germany,
and this joint body officially practices indiscriminate altar and
pulpit fellowship; Dr. H. Sassee wrote:

In Eisenach, at the foot of the Wartburg, the Lutheran Church of

Germany was buried in 1948. Loehe's dream-vision of the burial of

the Lutheran Church by its own pastors had become a reality (In

Statu Confessionis. p. 63): and

WHEREAS, The late Dr. Hans Asmussen, President of the
Chancery of the Evangelical Church in Germany between
1946 and 1948, wrote the following sobering words from deep
personal knowledge:

But this is in fact the picture of wide sectors of our Lutheran Church
today: Clergymen read aloud the Christmas story, which they con-
sider a fairytale. They read aloud the Easter story, to which they find
access only after several reinterpretations. At the grave, they witness
to the resurrection of the dead, which they consider a myth. (Lutheran
World. Vol. XIII. No. 2, p. 186): therefore be it

Resolved. That we at St. John’s request that the LCMS should
not join the Lutheran World Federation.

St. John’s Ev. Lutheran Church
Clinton, Iowa
Clifford Lahann, Secretary

Identical or similar:

3-245B

Mount Hope, Casper, Wyo. J.B. Brown

3-246A

To Resubmit 2-158A (Lutheran World
Federation and Sister Churches)

WHEREAS. Good Shepherd Congregation in good faith
submitted 2-158A to the 1973 convention (p. 93 of the 1973 Con-
vention Workbook), ‘“‘To Ask Sister Churches Overseas to
Withdraw from Lutheran World Federation’; and

WHEREAS, As far as we can determine, no action was taken
by the convention on this memorial: and

WHEREAS, Since the 1973 convention the doctrinal contro-
versy within the Synod has surfaced to a serious extent within
the synodical Mission Board and staff at least in part because of
the matter considered in Good Shepherd’s memorial: therefore
be it

Resolved. That Good Shepherd Lutheran Church of Rock
Falls, Ill., again submit this memorial to the Synod and respect-
fully ask the Synod to act on it:

2-158A To Ask Sister Churches Overseas
To Withdraw from Lutheran World Federation

WHEREAS, Certain of our sister churches overseas (India Evan-
gelical Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in the Philippines)
have joined the Lutheran World Federation: and

WHEREAS. The LWF includes among its members churches that
are only nominally Lutheran, and others that are in full church fellow-
ship with non-Lutheran church bodies: and

WHEREAS, It is commonly held among member churches that they
are in church fellowship with all other member bodies, and that this
impression is deliberately and publicly ziven in the literature of the
LWF and in the writings of theologians in member churches: and

WHEREAS, One of the functions of the LWF is to “foster interest
in, concern for, and participation in ecumenical movements": and

WHEREAS. The LWF, although claiming a Lutheran confession,
in fact permits conflicting views regarding the doctrine of the Word,
the Lord’s Supper, the ordination of women, lodge practice, and even
on justification by faith, the central doctrine of the Bible: and

WHEREAS. The mission theology often taught in LWF literature
undermines the very purpose for which our mission churches and
sister churches have been established: and

WHEREAS. The Lutheran Church ~ Missouri Synod has repeatedly
for confessional reasons refused to join the LWF: and

WHEREAS, Such membership by our sister churches with whom
we have fellowship and whom we support financially and with man-
power involves us as a Synod in unionism; and

WHEREAS, Although we certainly do not have the right to demand
that sovereign, sister churches follow us in every matter, we do have
the right to expect doctrinal agreement and confessional practice
from churches with whom we have fellowship and especially those
whom we support with our mission funds: and

WHEREAS, Christian love and concern ought to compel our church
to speak to our brothers in the faith when they fall into error or
weaken their own confessional position; and

WHEREAS, Membership in the LWF does weaken their confes-
sional position by their fellowship with errorists and false teachers,
whom our Lord commands us to ‘beware of”: therefore be it

Resolved. That the Synod respectfully, as concerned brothers in
Christ, remind these sister churches that membership in the Lutheran
World Federation seriously weakens and endangers their position as
confessional Lutheran church bodies; and be it further