LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1979, Page 181

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LATE REPORTS AND OVERTURES 181

our role in the church, the community, and the world.
All departments of the LWML will be involved in the
meetings.

The seminars will be held on the district level and
will be offered to all members of the league. This will be
an inspirational and learning experience for all the
participants as they once again affirm their faith in
Jesus Christ: “I can do all things through Him who
strengthens me.”

A pilot seminar will be held Sept. 24—25, 1979, at
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, with one participant
from each of the 43 districts.

Materials made available for societies during this
biennium were:

1977 convention filmstrip
Annual Bible studies—“Your Faith Is Showing”; “Jesus

Speaks to Me in Parables”

Mustard Seeds—mini Bible studies—“Lift Me Up, Lord”
Annual prayer service

Lutheran Woman’s Quarterly (300,000 copies sold each quarter)
Resource folder

Leadership training material

LWML Sunday (first Sunday in October)

Manuscripts, skits, and devotional material
Loan library—leadership and other program materials

Mission Projects for the 1977-1979 Biennium:
Lutheran Seminary, Obot Idim, Nigeria (TEE &

library) 2... cc ccc ee eee c cece e ees $75,000
Lutheran Hour, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru .......... 30,000
Lutheran Association of Missionaries & Pilots ..... 50,000
Wabag Lutheran Church, Papua New Guina

(radios) 2.6... cc cece cee ee eee eee eeee 20,000
Concordia Tract Mission .............0000000- 40,000
Lutheran Television—Family Special ........... 70,000
Community Health Program, Guatemala ......... 50,000
Alabama Lutheran College, Selma, Ala. (library) ... 40,000
Tacoma Seamen’s Center, Tacoma, Wash. ........ 35,000

The total mission goal for the international league in
1977—1979 was $560,000. (Districts retain 75% of the
mite-box offerings; 25% is designated for the inter-
national mission goal).

The contributions given for the 35th anniversary of
the LWML totaled $100,000. Lutheran Television re-
ceived $49,349.71, and the Concordia School for the
Deaf, Brazil, received $49,349.71. Printing of envelopes
and postage was deducted from the total gifts.

The $14,000 in the bequest fund was given to
Bethany Lutheran Church, Chinese Ministry, Elm-
hurst, N.Y.

The board of directors also voted to set aside $100,000
for the disaster fund of World Relief, LCMS. This will be
given in four annual payments beginning March 1,
1979.

There was official representation at the annual
meeting of the Lutheran Women’s Cooperating Comm-
ittee (LWCC). Members and staff present current mate-
rials used by their respective auxiliary (American
Lutheran Church Women and Lutheran Church
Women). Through the exchange of information we
strengthen and encourage one another.

1980—400th Anniversary of the Book of Concord—
We will celebrate our common Lutheran heritage and
develop an appreciation of our faith together. The
LWML Christian Growth Committee has participated

in the planning and preparation of special celebration
materials.

The 1979 International Lutheran Women’s Mission-
ary League convention will be held in Omaha, Nebr.,
July 16—19, under the theme “Sow the Seed.”

This report has given us the opportunity to share
with you the means by which the LWML through the
help of the Holy Spirit equips the leaguers to better serve
their Lord wherever and whenever He “hath need of
them.”

May His blessings of peace, love, and joy be with you
throughout these convention days and always.

Helen Morris, President

LX-03

Report of Lutheran Council
in the U.S.A.

A banner decorating the hall in which the 12th
annual meeting of the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A.
took place in March 1978 in St. Louis proclaimed,
“Rejoice in the Lord.” For the most part that was the
spirit of the meeting, which accepted the Association of
Evangelical Lutheran Churches as a council partner
with The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, The
American Lutheran Church, and the Lutheran Church
in America. As one of the speakers said in the debate on
the membership application, “This is a great step in
bringing us together in the fundamental tasks to which
our Lord has called us.”

The same meeting inaugurated a decisionmaking
process intended to improve the efficiency of the council
and its usefulness to the church bodies. In the new
structure the largest number of representatives to coun-
cil meetings are the church-body presidents and mem-
bers of the council’s standing committees, who in turn
represent the cognate units within the churches. There-
fore, according to LCUSA President George S. Schultz,
“You have less potential of the council saying, ‘This is
our strategy in mission work,’ only to find that it is not
the strategy within the churches.” He also comments:
“There will always be inefficiencies in a conciliar
arrangement. I go there, my counterpart from the
LCMS goes there, our counterparts from the LCA and
AELC go there, and we agree, for example, on the
budget. Then we go back home, and, by golly, we still
make independent decisions as to what we like, what we
don’t like, and how far we will go.”

A major action for the 13th annual meeting of the
council this May in Minneapolis was to be the election of
a new general secretary to replace George F. Harkins, in
office since October 1974. He plans to retire this summer.
His successor was proposed by a committee made up of
the church-body presidents and the council’s president.

Division of Theological Studies

The Division of Theological Studies provides a theo-
logical forum through which pastors, teachers, lay
persons and church officials can meet to discuss topics
of special concern within the Lutheran family, as well