Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings: highlights and oddities

Six church bodies, lately enemies

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1872 · 1st Convention, Milwaukee, 1872, p. 4 EN

The Synodical Conference first met on 10 July 1872 in Pastor Bading's church at Milwaukee, and by its own resolution Walther's opening sermon is printed in place of an opening address. Preaching on 1 Tim. 4:16, he pointed to „eine Schaar Vertreter von ſechs kirchlichen Körperſchaften, welche noch vor wenigen Jahren ſich gegenüber ſtanden, ja, als Feinde ſich gegenſeitig bekämpften“ — representatives of six church bodies that a few years before had fought one another as enemies. He did not regret the fight: it had been, he said, the one right means to the peace now given.

1. 1872 · S. [3] · the opening minute: the Conference meets in Bading's church, and „Auf Beſchluß der Conferenz wird dieſelbe [the sermon] hier ſtatt einer Eröffnungsrede mitgetheilt.“

A constitution ratified, and a Norwegian promise

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1872 · 1st Convention, Milwaukee, 1872, p. 13 EN

Asked whether their synods had adopted the constitution, every delegation answered that the adoption had been unanimous. The Norwegian Synod had asked whether it could join though, as a synod, it confessed only the Unaltered Augsburg Confession and Luther's Small Catechism; the Conference answered that it must, as a part of the Conference, confess all the Lutheran confessional writings with it and be judged by them in doctrinal disputes — „Da dies nun von den Vertretern der ehrw. Norwegiſchen Synode zugeſagt wurde, ſo ſah die Conferenz kein Hinderniß ihrer Aufnahme.“ The same page records the first officers: Walther president, W. F. Lehmann vice-president, P. Beyer secretary, J. Schmidt of Youngstown treasurer.

1. 1876 · S. 57 · four years on, resolving how to keep the Formula of Concord's tercentenary, „die lieben Norweger, unter denen die Concordienformel kein officiell anerkanntes Bekenntniß iſt“, join the jubilee resolutions with joy.

“Only an advisory body,” 1872–1900

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1877 · 6th Convention, Fort Wayne, 1877, p. 43 EN

Looking for a way through the quarrel over state synods in 1877, a speaker put what every side granted: „Darin ſeien wir ja einig, daß wir nur ein berathender Körper ſind und daher nichts gebieten können und wollen“ — we are only an advisory body, and so can and will command nothing. The principle runs through these volumes from the founding convention on, and it marks the edge of what the Conference could do with its synods, their congregations and their pastors.

1. 1872 · S. 73 · asked by the Illinois Synod what the „entſcheidende Gewalt“ of § 4 of the constitution refers to, the Conference answers unanimously that decisive power „in Sachen der Lehre und des Gewiſſens“ is out of the question, and that in all else each synod is safe because it can withhold its consent.
2. 1872 · S. 74 · on the Minnesota Synod's inquiry, the „kirchenrechtliche Verbindung“ which the constitution disclaims is defined: where one synod has given another the right to share in deciding matters of constitution or administration.
3. 1876 · S. 52 · defending the joint seminary: „die Synodalconferenz nur ein berathender Körper iſt, der den Gemeinden keine Beſchlüſſe zur Ausführung aufzwingen“ can.
4. 1877 · S. 44 · the conciliation committee's declaration: no counsels or demands bind a synod that is not yet clearly convinced of their rightness.
5. 1890 · S. 30 · the mission commission proposes asking Missouri and Wisconsin for $4000 and $2000; Presidents Schwan and von Rohr declare „daß ſie keine Autorität für Genehmigung einer ſolchen Bitte hätten“; the Conference appeals to the congregations by circular instead.
6. 1900 · S. 61 · an appeal against a congregation's ban is turned away unanimously, „Da nun die Synodalconferenz in allen Zuchtfällen keine Competenz hat“.

A mission to the Chinese of St. Louis

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1874 · 3rd Convention, Pittsburgh, 1874, p. 47 EN

District President J. F. Bünger told the 1874 convention that some 300 heathen Chinese were living in St. Louis, and that Karl Vogel — trained at the Lutheran mission house in Dresden, three years a missionary in China, and lately living „in tiefſter Verborgenheit“ — had found he could still make himself understood in their language. Examined by colloquium and found „in der Lehre mit uns einig“, he was reading the New Testament with them in Chinese, and a committee of three was set over the work. A year later the salary had cost $550.00 against $292.28 received, and the Conference declared, „wenn auch mit ſchwerem Herzen“, that it could not promise to go on supporting the mission.

1. 1874 · S. 48 · Vogel's training and colloquium, the New Testament read with the Chinese „in ihrer Mutterſprache“, and the committee of three: Bünger, Brauer, Umbach.
2. 1875 · S. 34 · the account and the decision: the small and changing Chinese population and „der Gebrechlichkeit und dem vorgerückten Alter des Miſſionars“ leave the Conference no confidence to continue.

A deaf boy prays before the Conference

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1874 · 3rd Convention, Pittsburgh, 1874, p. 52 EN

Pastor G. Speckhardt, teacher at the deaf-mute institution at Royal Oak near Detroit, brought three pupils to the 1874 convention to show that most of the deaf are not truly mute and can be taught to read speech from the lips and answer with their own mouths; the Conference gave the first hour of a Thursday afternoon to the examination. The boys had been in the school less than nine months. „gewiß blieb kein Auge thränenleer“, the minutes say, when a twelve-year-old began, slowly and clearly: „Lieber Gott, mach mich fromm, daß ich zu dir in Himmel komm. Amen.“

1. 1874 · S. 51 · „Taubſtummen⸗Examen“: Speckhardt and his three pupils.
2. 1904 · S. 74 · thirty years on, P. H. Speckhard reports on the deaf-mute institution at North Detroit, and the Conference commends it to the congregations.

Admitting a synod: Virginia, 1874–1876

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1876 · 5th Convention, St. Paul, 1876, p. 56 EN

The Concordia Synod of Virginia shows how a synod came in. In 1874 its delegate, Pastor H. Wetzel, laid its proceedings and theses before a committee, which pronounced it a confessionally faithful body but deferred admission, because it had not yet formally adopted the Conference's constitution and because under § 4 every member synod must vote. In 1875 five synods had consented and Ohio had not, having been unable to see the documents; in 1876, „da die ihr geſtellte Bedingung erfüllt worden iſt“, the Conference declared it a member by unanimous resolution.

1. 1874 · S. 49 · the committee's report: the documents and the delegate's explanations show a „bekenntnißtreue Körperſchaft“; admission deferred under § 4.
2. 1875 · S. 34 · Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin and the Norwegian Synod have consented; Ohio has taken no decision, not having seen the documents.
3. 1875 · S. 35 · Virginia is a member „ſobald die Ehrw. Synode von Ohio ihre Zuſtimmung … gegeben und dieſelbe in unſeren Kirchenblättern veröffentlicht haben wird“.

The lodge as a test of fellowship

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1875 · 4th Convention, Cleveland, 1875, p. 29 EN

Thesis 9 of the theses on church fellowship took up the secret societies. After a long debate whether they were religious societies, the Conference adopted a declaration that it meant all secret societies with moral aims resting on the principle of secrecy, and then stated the condition itself: „wir verlangen als Bedingung der Kirchengemeinſchaft, daß ſie öffentlich von der Kanzel aus dieſen Krebsſchaden angreifen“ — that pastors attack this cancer from the pulpit, and not rest until lodge members leave the lodge or are put out of the congregation. The General Council, the page notes, had condemned only „unchriſtlichen“ societies and been careful to name none.

1. 1875 · S. 27 · the debate: no doubt that the lodges are contrary to God's Word, but „es wurde längere Zeit darüber debattirt, ob die geheimen Geſellſchaften religiöſe ſeien oder nicht“.
2. 1896 · S. 19 · Gräbner's paper on church practice: a churchly burial confesses fellowship with the dead, so to give one to a man who did not belong is „eine ganz offenbare, große, grobe Lüge“.
3. 1904 · S. 40 · on Harders's paper, whether a Lutheran pastor may give the Sacrament to a lodge member, the Conference by resolution adopts the second thesis and the essayist's exposition.
4. 1904 · S. 43 · Harders: there may be Christians in the lodge, as in the church of Antichrist — „Ja hier und Ja dort. Aber Nein hier und Nein dort, wenn es ſich um Zulaſſung zum heiligen Abendmahl handelt.“

No doctrine decided by majority vote

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1875 · 4th Convention, Cleveland, 1875, p. 30 EN

The Conference's bylaws, adopted partly for good and partly provisionally in 1874 and as a whole, unanimously, in 1875, gave the president the usual rules of order for business. For doctrine they laid down another rule: „in den Lehrbeſprechungen aber ſoll nichts durch Stimmenmehrheit entſchieden, ſondern alles mit möglichſter Gründlichkeit beſprochen werden, bis alle erheblichen Schwierigkeiten möglichſt entfernt ſind“ — nothing decided by majority vote, everything discussed until every considerable difficulty has so far as possible been removed.

1. 1874 · S. 46 · the same § 5 in the bylaws as first proposed and provisionally adopted.
2. 1875 · S. 31 · „Diesmal wurde die ganze Vorlage in obiger Form einſtimmig angenommen.“

Sound doctrine, wrong name: turned away

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1876 · 5th Convention, St. Paul, 1876, p. 11 EN

In the debate on unionist congregations the Conference recalled congregations that stood rightly in the confession but bore a false name, and that were refused admission to a synod, though they pleaded for it, until they changed the name — better to let the church property go, it was said, than the confession. Its unanimous declaration: „Es iſt Unrecht, daß eine Gemeinde in den Verband einer Synode, welche zur Synodalconferenz gehört, aufgenommen wird, welche nicht den Namen einer evangeliſch⸗lutheriſchen Gemeinde tragen will, obſchon dieſelbe ſonſt die lutheriſche Lehre hat.“

Wyneken, “to whole regions of America their apostle”

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1876 · 5th Convention, St. Paul, 1876, p. 55 EN

A year after the Conference met in his congregation at Cleveland, F. C. D. Wyneken died on 4 May 1876, and the St. Paul convention set his memorial in its minutes in the words of Der Lutheraner: a man who had been „ganzen Gegenden Amerika's ihr Apoſtel“ — to whole regions of America their apostle — and „eine der ſchönſten Zierden und eines der gewaltigſten Rüſtzeuge unſeres amerikaniſch⸗lutheriſchen Zions“. The page is one of eleven whose top lines are wiped in the Harvard scan, so the date stands at its head with the words around it partly lost.

1. 1876 · S. 54 · „IV. Der ſelige Paſtor F. C. D. Wyneken sen.“ — the heading, and the Cleveland convention of 1875 recalled.

The Negro Mission begins, 1877

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1877 · 6th Convention, Fort Wayne, 1877, p. 44 EN

Item II of the 1877 business, „Die Wiederaufnahme der Heidenmiſſion“, opened on a proposal and inquiry from Präses H. A. Preus, brought forward in a committee's report: „Ob es nicht an der Zeit ſei, daß die Synodalconferenz ihre Aufmerkſamkeit auf die Heidenmiſſion richte und eine Miſſion etwa unter den Negern und Indianern dieſes Landes ins Leben rufe.“ It was taken up at once as in keeping with the constitution. The floor agreed to look first to „die Neger des Südens“, and the Conference set a mission board of three, seated at St. Louis, over the whole work.

1. 1877 · S. 45 · „daß die Neger des Südens wohl zunächſt in's Auge gefaßt werden ſollten“, with an English-speaking travelling preacher, a mission director and congregations staffed „mit Presbytern“.
2. 1877 · S. 47 · the commission: Pastors J. F. Bünger and C. F. W. Sapper and Mr. J. Umbach, seated at St. Louis.

The Conference asks Walther for a dogmatics

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1877 · 6th Convention, Fort Wayne, 1877, p. 49 EN

On petitions from the general pastoral conference of Minnesota and from the Illinois Synod, the Conference declared a doctrinal theology in the spirit of the old orthodox dogmaticians, with regard to the newer theology, „etwas äußerſt Wünſchenswerthes, ja hoch Nöthiges“, and named the man: „Wir erachten Herrn Profeſſor Walther ſowohl durch ſeine beſonderen Gaben als auch durch ſeine ganze Stellung vor Anderen für hiezu berufen.“ He was to begin when his other work allowed, perhaps in instalments in Lehre und Wehre, as his pastoral theology had appeared.

1. 1877 · S. 48 · the two petitions, „VI. Herausgabe einer Dogmatik“.

Declining to sign an address to the Kaiser

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1877 · 6th Convention, Fort Wayne, 1877, p. 50 EN

A pamphlet reached the Conference — „Die Culturjunker, oder die gegenwärtige Kriſis von Staat und Kirche im deutſchen Reiche“, an open letter to the German Emperor „von der lutheriſchen Kirche in Nordamerika“ — with its author's request that the Conference sign it. The committee had only to read out a few sentences. The unanimous answer gave three reasons: the Conference had no call to such a testimony; quite apart from its doctrinally wrong passages and those blaspheming the Emperor's majesty, a church-political address is no means God's Word commands, or the Church has ever used, for helping a fallen church; and the Conference is „kein Theil derjenigen ‚lutheriſchen Kirche in Nordamerika‘ …, in deren Namen die Adreſſe in Deutſchland übergeben werden ſoll“.

1. 1877 · S. 49 · „VIII. ‚Die Culturjunker‘“ — the pamphlet's full title and the request.

Five mornings on the deceased wife's sister

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1878 · 7th Convention, Fort Wayne, 1878, p. 5 EN

In 1877 a special pastoral conference complained, through a petitioner the minutes print only as „Herr Paſtor N. N.“, that a pastor of the Conference had blessed such a marriage against the practice of the place, and Walther was asked for theses. In 1878 they filled all five morning sessions: „die … von Herrn Profeſſor Dr. Walther verfaßten Theſen über die Schwager⸗Ehe“, beginning with the claim that the marriage laws of Lev. 18 and 20 are moral law binding every conscience, and citing the pointed Hebrew where the case turns on the words „Fleiſches Fleiſch“. The sixth thesis was adopted and the paper approved as a whole.

1. 1877 · S. 33 · the question first raised in the parish-boundary debate, and judged too weighty for the floor.
2. 1877 · S. 50 · „X. Schwager⸗Ehe“: the petition of „Herr Paſtor N. N.“ and the request to Walther.
3. 1878 · S. 33 · „Fleiſches Fleiſch (שְׁאֵר בְּשָׂרוֹ)“ — the Hebrew of Lev. 18:6, set with its vowel points.
4. 1878 · S. 53 · „Theſis 6. wurde hierauf angenommen und dann das Referat als Ganzes genehmigt.“
5. 1900 · S. 61 · twenty-two years on, a man charges the Conference itself with false doctrine on the Schwagerehe; the committee finds nothing in his paper to support it.

A candidate withdrawn, and a first baptism

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1878 · 7th Convention, Fort Wayne, 1878, p. 59 EN

The mission board's first report tells how it called a second missionary for Little Rock. Student Zahn of the Springfield seminary was called first, but when it emerged that he had „eine ungemein ſtarke Antipathie gegen Farbige“, so that it was „faſt unmöglich“ for him to associate with them, the board set him aside and called Student F. Berg of St. Louis at $600 a year. On 15 June Berg baptized a man half an hour before his death, at his earnest request and after instruction, and buried him the next day: „Das war alſo die erſte lutheriſche Negertaufe und Negerleiche unſerer Miſſion.“

Eighteen theses on church fellowship, 1873–1879

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1879 · 8th Convention, Columbus, 1879, p. 6 EN

The theses on church fellowship that the 1879 minutes credit to Dr. W. Sihler were the Conference's doctrinal work for most of its first decade: eighteen were set out in 1873, only the first four could be declared adopted that year, and the rest came a few at a time. In 1879, with thirteen behind it, the convention adopted three more, and of Thesis 14 — that it contradicts the confession when a body calling itself Lutheran does not exercise doctrinal discipline and pays homage to the theory of „offenen Fragen“ — the minutes record: „Dies iſt die wichtigſte Theſis in der ganzen Series“, a test to apply not only to others but to the Synodical Conference itself.

1. 1873 · S. 5 · the eighteen theses begin: „Theſis 1. Das einzige innerliche Gemeinſchaftsband …“
2. 1873 · S. 20 · „Leider konnte die Conferenz nur die vier erſten Theſen über Kirchengemeinſchaft … für einſtimmig angenommen erklärt“.
3. 1874 · S. 6 · Thesis 5: whoever denies the binding force of conclusions drawn from the Confession „iſt kein wahres Glied der lutheriſchen Kirche“.
4. 1876 · S. 24 · Thesis 10 on unionist congregations: the words „fort und fort“ struck „mit Ausnahme dieſes Einzigen“ — one member would not agree.
5. 1877 · S. 23 · „Hierauf wurde die zwölfte Theſe angenommen“ — the parish school as a mark of a confessional body.
6. 1879 · S. 5 · the doctrinal minutes open: Sihler's theses, thirteen already discussed, the next three adopted in three morning sessions; Thesis 14 printed.

The Bennett Law, answered in two languages

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1890 · 13th Convention, St. Paul, 1890, p. 36 EN

Asked by the school committee of the Wisconsin Synod and Missouri's Wisconsin District for a statement on the new school laws of Wisconsin and Illinois, the 1890 convention adopted a declaration in German and English, styling itself „der größte evangeliſch⸗lutheriſche allgemeine Kirchenkörper“ — “the largest general Evangelical Lutheran church-body.” It made Missouri's resolutions on the school question its own, endorsed Wisconsin's, and promised the brethren in Illinois and Wisconsin, „denen jetzt der Schulſtreit aufgedrungen iſt“, its support so far as it could.

1. 1890 · S. 35 · Pastor J. Herzer's request, and the reply: the Conference will declare itself, „und zwar in deutſcher und engliſcher Sprache“.
2. 1900 · S. 42 · ten years on, Schaller's paper on parish schools: „Wir laſſen uns keine Bennett⸗ und Edwards⸗Geſetze aufdrängen“.

The first statistics, and the statistician's complaint

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1890 · 13th Convention, St. Paul, 1890, p. 64 EN

In 1890 the Conference resolved that every report should carry a statistical appendix and named Pastor C. F. W. Maaß its statistician; the first appendix appeared in the same volume. Maaß closed it with a warning: most pastors had sent nothing, „und gerade diejenigen Paſtoren, welche die größten, volkreichſten Gemeinden bedienen, haben keinerlei Angaben gemacht“, so that almost every figure would have been more than twice as large had all reported.

1. 1890 · S. 34 · the resolution: „daß fortan einem jeden officiellen Bericht … ein ſtatiſtiſcher Anhang … beigegeben werde“, and Maaß named statistician.

Joining or leaving a synod: an inalienable right

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1892 · 14th Convention, New York, 1892, p. 51 EN

Two pastors and their congregations asked about changing their synodical connection, and the Conference answered with a general rule: „Das Recht und die Freiheit, ſich einer Synode anzuſchließen, oder von einer ſolchen auszutreten, iſt ein unveräußerliches Gemeinderecht.“ It then bound the use of that right by love: a congregation moving among orthodox synods stays tied to the one it is leaving by a special bond, and should act only for the weightiest reasons and in Christian order.

1. 1892 · S. 52 · points 3–5: the congregation decides, but must not sin against love; it is bound to its former synod „durch ein beſonderes Band“.

Michigan: admitted 1892, divided 1896, a district 1898

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1896 · 16th Convention, Evansville, 1896, p. 65 EN

The Michigan Synod was received in 1892, on the strength of a doctrinal conversation already held with its representatives at the Wisconsin president's request, subject to ratification by the member synods. By 1896 it had split, only its minority sent delegates, and a complaint against its president, Böhner, came before the Conference; since the accused had not come, it sent a commission of five to hear them, admonish, and report „ſo die übrigen Synoden und ihre Glieder in den Stand zu ſetzen, zu wiſſen, welche Stellung ſie zur Michigan⸗Synode einzunehmen haben“. In 1898 the congregations and pastors that had taken no part in „dem Austritt der alten Michigan⸗Synode“ were recognised, as the District Synod of Michigan, as members.

1. 1892 · S. 49 · the committee: the „geordnete Weg“ would be a doctrinal conversation before witnesses, but Wisconsin and Minnesota have already held one.
2. 1892 · S. 50 · the Michigan Synod received, „mit dem Vermerk, daß … dieſer Beſchluß den einzelnen … Synoden behufs Ratificirung vorgelegt werde“.
3. 1896 · S. 4 · the roll: „Michigan⸗Synode: Nicht vertreten, da in derſelben eine Spaltung ſtattgefunden hatte“.
4. 1896 · S. 64 · neither President Böhner nor anyone for his party appears; the complaint goes to a committee, which sits three evenings over the documents.
5. 1898 · S. [3] · the roll: „Michigan⸗Synode: P. F. Soll.“
6. 1898 · S. 51 · the District Synod of Michigan recognised „als in gliedlicher Verbindung mit der Synodalconferenz ſtehend“.

Meherrin, held together by reading services

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1898 · 17th Convention, Cincinnati, 1898, p. 45 EN

In 1886 the Conference resolved to give up its small station at Meherrin, Virginia, and to move its people to Little Rock at its own cost. That hope came to nothing; instead, for two years and without a missionary, they held together „durch regelmäßige Leſegottesdienſte und Sonntagsſchule als ein lutheriſches Gemeindlein“, and kept asking until one was sent again. By 1898 the congregation counted 133 souls and a weekday school of 45. The 1892 report counts the remnant as seven souls, the 1898 report as seven families.

1. 1892 · S. 42 · „Zwei Jahre lang hielt ſich das kleine Häuflein von nur ſieben Seelen durch Leſegottesdienſte und Sonntagsſchule zuſammen“.

An essayist on lynching, 1902

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1902 · 19th Convention, Milwaukee, 1902, p. 8 EN

Director E. A. W. Krauß's paper „Sind in der Bibel Widerſprüche vorhanden?“ answered the charge that Scripture falls short of a refined modern ethics with a list of what that ethics tolerated: cashiers vanishing to Canada, widows and orphans left unpaid by the lodges, thousands of workers at the whim of a few, and — „ſolange es nicht für etwas Sträfliches gilt, der Obrigkeit das Schwert aus der Hand zu reißen und den ihr entriſſenen Neger, ſchuldig oder nicht, geſtändig oder nicht, am Pfahl oder auf dem Scheiterhaufen langſam zu braten — ſo lange bleibe ich lieber bei der minder geläuterten Ethik der Bibel.“

1. 1902 · S. 5 · „(Referent: Dir. E. A. W. Krauß.)“ — the paper's title and opening.

Walther on Ranke's History of the Popes

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1902 · 19th Convention, Milwaukee, 1902, p. 49 EN

In the same paper Krauß set down a saying of Walther's, made to him in conversation about Ranke's much-praised History of the Popes, „von dem ich will, daß er nicht unbekannt bleibe“: „Wer den Pabſt nicht für den Antichriſt hält, kann keine Geſchichte der Päbſte ſchreiben, und wenn er ein Ranke iſt.“ On the next page he makes his own version of it, „obgleich ich kein Walther bin“, about a historian who will not say plainly that Jesus rose from the dead.

1. 1902 · S. 50 · „Und ich möchte ſagen, obgleich ich kein Walther bin: Wer in einer Weltgeſchichte nicht wagt, geradeaus das Factum zu bekennen: JEſus iſt von den Todten auferſtanden …“

The Negro Mission, 1877–1904

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1902 · 19th Convention, Milwaukee, 1902, p. 74 EN

Twenty-five years after the question that began it, the mission commission read the 1877 minutes back to the Conference, and after two sessions on whether to found a school for Black preachers and teachers the 1902 convention stopped short of a seminary but resolved: „Es ſoll eine Präparandenanſtalt für Negerzöglinge errichtet werden.“ The reports between run from the first missionary's call and release, through stations from Little Rock and New Orleans to Virginia and North Carolina, and they record plainly what the work met, in the South and in the Conference's own congregations.

1. 1878 · S. 58 · J. F. Döscher called as „erſten Miſſionar unter den Negern dieſes Landes“, at $300 and free housing or $1000 without, and sent first on a tour of the South.
2. 1878 · S. 64 · on the floor: „Sei doch die Seele eines Negers von ebenſo unendlichem Werthe als die eines Weißen“ — and in the same remarks, that Black men who set up as preachers „ſind meiſtens elende Wäſcher“.
3. 1879 · S. 39 · Döscher, having accepted a call to a German congregation, is released; and no orthodox person from outside the Conference may serve the mission, though such a one may be admitted „zu einem Colloquium“ and enter the Conference's fellowship.
4. 1890 · S. 28 · in New Orleans one station has a school building, „ein dem Verfall nahes Bretterhäuschen, in welchem 100 Kinder zuſammengepfercht ſind“.
5. 1892 · S. 43 · North Carolina opens when Phifer, of a small „Alphaſynode“ formed by four Black pastors, writes to President Schwan.
6. 1894 · S. 61 · the commission's reason: „unſere Weißen, ſogenannte Chriſten, waren es ja, deren Habſucht dies Negervolk hierher in dies Land gebracht hat“, laid at the door „wie einen armen Lazarus“.
7. 1896 · S. 48 · Atlanta: every room is withdrawn „ſobald es bekannt wurde, daß hier ein weißer Mann den Negern predigen wollte“; the first service, in an old store at $12.50 a month, draws seven.
8. 1898 · S. 41 · „Ich kann mich für die Negermiſſion nicht begeiſtern. Sie iſt ein überflüſſig gut Werk!“ — heard „aus Chriſtenmund“; Southern hotels refuse the missionaries a table and a bed.
9. 1900 · S. 48 · Phifer leaves and founds an opposition congregation against Missionary Bakke at Charlotte.
10. 1900 · S. 53 · a seminary for Black pastors, urged by Bakke and opposed by the Louisiana missionaries, is put off to 1902.
11. 1902 · S. 59 · the commission quotes from the 1877 minutes: „Es ſind nun 25 Jahre her …“
12. 1904 · S. 68 · two preparatory schools, in North Carolina and Louisiana, to train mission teachers fully; „auch Negermädchen“ to be admitted and trained as teachers; $10,000 to $15,000 for grounds and buildings in North Carolina.

State synods and a joint seminary, 1872–1879

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1876 · 5th Convention, St. Paul, 1876, p. 47 EN

The constitution set the Conference the goal of synods bounded by state lines, „vorausgeſetzt, daß die Sprache nicht ſcheidet“, and in 1876 it resolved unanimously to advise all its synods „ohne Verzug Schritte zu thun, daß Staatenſynoden in's Leben treten“, with one joint seminary under its control. Wisconsin declined the seminary in 1877 and by 1878 stood on its resolution to open a seminary of its own that autumn; the plan was recast in 1879 as two or three general synods and a seminary in three departments, German, English and Norwegian. In the corrected volumes for 1890–1904 the words do not occur again.

1. 1872 · S. 72 · in the home-mission debate it is urged that the synods carry on alone „bis … jeder Staat ſeine eigene durch ihn begrenzte Synode habe“.
2. 1875 · S. 35 · a committee (R. Lange, H. Wunder, A. Mikkelsen) is to bring proposals toward the constitution's „Anſtrebung einer Abgrenzung der Synoden nach territorialer Grenze“.
3. 1876 · S. 46 · asked whether its goal is one general synod for North America, the Conference answers „einſtimmig mit Nein“.
4. 1876 · S. 48 · six points on the teaching institutions, the first: dissolve the synods' seminaries and found one under the Conference's control.
5. 1877 · S. 42 · Wisconsin will join a Wisconsin state synod but no general synod, and finds a great joint seminary „nicht für gut und erſprießlich“.
6. 1878 · S. 56 · Wisconsin cannot take up Walther's letter on the joint seminary while its resolution to open its own seminary that autumn stands.
7. 1878 · S. 57 · one synod ready, one refusing, the rest approving but not ready: the joint seminary is left lying.
8. 1879 · S. 28 · the Capital University plan: two or three general synods, a seminary „in oder bei Milwaukee“ in German, English and Norwegian departments, and point 8 making each piece conditional on all the others.

The Lehrwache: synods reading one another, 1876–1902

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1876 · 5th Convention, St. Paul, 1876, p. 54 EN

Because „was in einer Synode veröffentlicht wird, iſt gewiſſermaßen von allen anderen Synoden der Conferenz anerkannt, falls Niemand Proteſt erhebt“, the 1876 convention resolved that every member synod send its proceedings to the Conference's president, who was to lay a written report on them, with anything doubtful, before the next convention. The debate had put it so: „Eine gewiſſe Lehrwache von Seiten der Synodalconferenz über die einzelnen Synoden iſt gewiß wünſchenswerth, nöthig und heilſam.“ Most of the reports that follow are a line or two; now and then a committee objects, or is itself overruled, and the minutes keep it.

1. 1877 · S. 49 · the first review: „Nur in einem derſelben fand man in den Lehrverhandlungen etwas Anſtößiges“; the synod, unnamed, has already resolved to reconsider.
2. 1878 · S. 67 · reviewing three Missouri district reports, C. A. Frank commends their doctrinal discussions, „den herrlichen Lehrverhandlungen über die Gnadenwahl“ among them, as reading for everyone's blessing, asks the Conference to join two districts' stand on the Hermannsburg mission, and finds nothing else needing attention.
3. 1879 · S. 45 · committees henceforth to be named a convention ahead, so that they have time to read; F. A. Schmidt's committee finds no doctrinal discussions in Missouri's 17th general report and nothing in it needing remark.
4. 1879 · S. 50 · the next assignments run mostly across synod lines: Missouri's districts largely to Wisconsin, Norwegian and Ohio men, the Minnesota report to the Chicago ministerium.
5. 1900 · S. 58 · three committee reports refused because each bore one signature: „Alle Sache beſtehe auf zweier oder dreier Zeugen Mund.“
6. 1900 · S. 59 · the Kansas District told that extending „Lehrverhandlungen“ to the souls of the fathers in the church triumphant „des zureichenden Schriftgrundes ermangelt“.
7. 1902 · S. 84 · a committee's report on the Michigan District's 1901 proceedings is itself rejected unanimously, and the volume handed to a new committee to report in 1904.

The English question, 1872–1904

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1890 · 13th Convention, St. Paul, 1890, p. 34 EN

In its second and third sessions in 1872 the Conference discussed Prof. Loy's theses on its task toward „der engliſchen Bevölkerung unſeres Landes“; in 1879 it advised a small English conference in Missouri to join Missouri's Western District, since the Conference „ja keine Viſitatoren anſtellen könne“; and in 1890, after articles of its constitution on Scripture, the confessions and the lodge had been read into the minutes, it received the General English Lutheran Conference of Missouri and Other States, „ſoweit dies durch den hier verſammelten Körper geſchehen konnte“. The links follow the English school books, the English Book of Concord and catechism, and the first English congregations.

1. 1872 · S. 14 · Loy's first thesis: the church must proclaim God's great deeds „in engliſcher Sprache hier zu Lande“.
2. 1874 · S. 32 · an English congregation inside a German parish: „Die deutſche Gemeinde begeht eine ſchwere Sünde, die dies hindern will“.
3. 1874 · S. 33 · „Man baue Denen, die in eine ſolche engliſch⸗lutheriſche Gemeinde übergehen wollen, dazu eine goldene Brücke.“
4. 1875 · S. 32 · Missouri will publish English readers itself if the Conference does not, the usual American readers being intolerable in parish schools; an English primer approved.
5. 1877 · S. 47 · a new English Book of Concord resolved, the Tennessee Synod's having „manche nicht unweſentliche Fehler“.
6. 1878 · S. 66 · F. A. Schmidt, translator and chief editor, has resigned; the work is laid aside.
7. 1878 · S. 67 · the English Conference of Missouri, meeting at Hindsville, Arkansas, in October 1877, has resolved to apply for admission to the Synodical Conference.
8. 1879 · S. 41 · the English Conference of Missouri — „6 Paſtoren mit 8 Gemeinden und 640 Seelen“ — asks to be taken under the Conference's care as its mission body.
9. 1879 · S. 42 · it is advised instead to join Missouri's Western District as an English district, „indem die Synodalconferenz ja keine Viſitatoren anſtellen könne“.
10. 1890 · S. 33 · the committee recommends admission of the new English body, quoting the rule that admission needs „zuſtimmenden Beſchluß aller verbundenen Synoden“.
11. 1892 · S. 53 · the English Book of Concord assigned to the English Synod.
12. 1900 · S. 32 · the parish school is to serve „Nicht der Sprache, die unſer Luther geredet hat, ſondern dem Worte Gottes, das er verkündigte“.
13. 1902 · S. 75 · Loy's English Small Catechism, revised by a committee and adopted in 1878, has served since as „Standard⸗Text, textus receptus“; the revisers cannot agree on the first three commandments.
14. 1902 · S. 86 · a commission to find out whether uniformity can be had in liturgy and hymnals among English congregations and German ones beginning English services; the Norwegian sister synod invited.
15. 1904 · S. 70 · at the New Orleans pastors' request the catechism revision is dropped and its papers sent to the archive.

The election controversy, seen from its edges

Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings, 1878 · 7th Convention, Fort Wayne, 1878, p. 67 EN

The years in which the controversy over election divided the Conference fall between the corrected volumes of 1879 and 1890; the Norwegians' own account, given in 1894, says only that they left „zur Zeit des Gnadenwahllehrſtreites“. So the controversy has to be read at its edges. In 1878 Prof. C. A. Frank of Capital University, Columbus, reviewing three Missouri district reports for the Conference, commended their doctrinal discussions — „den herrlichen Lehrverhandlungen über die Gnadenwahl“ among them — as reading for everyone's blessing; in 1879, with F. A. Schmidt on its committees, the word Gnadenwahl does not occur in the volume at all; and from 1890 the Norwegians return as guests while the papers speak of „unſere Widerſacher“.

1. 1872 · S. 66 · the founding convention's paper on justification charges Iowa with teaching that „die letzte Entſcheidung beim Seligwerden ſtehe ſchließlich beim Menſchen“.
2. 1878 · S. 66 · F. A. Schmidt resigns as translator of the English Book of Concord.
3. 1879 · S. 45 · Schmidt's committee reads Missouri's 17th general report, which has „keine Lehrverhandlungen“, and finds „nichts, das beſonderer Erwähnung oder Erinnerung bedürfte“.
4. 1890 · S. 5 · the president hopes the Norwegian brethren „möchten nicht mehr lange als Gäſte, ſondern bald als vollberechtigte Glieder“ appear.
5. 1892 · S. 20 · Hoyer's paper: the Calvinist decree rejected, as „in den letzten Jahren … denen gegenüber bezeugt worden, die uns des Calvinismus beſchuldigen“.
6. 1892 · S. 36 · „Eine ſynergiſtiſche Löſung iſt ferner die heutzutage bei vielen Lutheranern beliebte.“
7. 1894 · S. 5 · Prof. L. Larsen: the Norwegian Synod left „zur Zeit des Gnadenwahllehrſtreites“ not for want of doctrinal agreement but because the controversy shook it more than any other synod; weak members and the German language still keep it from rejoining.
8. 1894 · S. 15 · Hönecke: „Man ſoll alſo nicht thun, wie jetzt unſere Widerſacher gethan haben …“
9. 1894 · S. 80 · a delegation, President von Rohr and P. C. A. Frank of Evansville, sent to the Norwegian Synod's next convention.
10. 1898 · S. 9 · Gräbner: „Wenn ein Ohioer heutzutage in Ohioſchem Sinne die erſte Bitte betet, ſo betet er damit gegen uns“.
11. 1902 · S. 73 · the Norwegian Synod, „Die mit uns in Glaubensgemeinſchaft ſtehende“, asked to name representatives for the Negro Mission.
12. 1904 · S. 4 · President Sagen and Prof. Hove bring the Norwegians' greeting; a fraternal greeting is wired to their pastoral conference at Red Wing.