# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 06 21_S150
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

150

gathered statistical reports to the Chronicler of the general Synod.

§. 7. He has to administer the District Synodical archive.

D. Of the District Treasurer.

§. 1. He has to attend to all money matters of the Synod of his District in its name and according to its direction.

§. 2. After defraying the special expenses of the Synod of his District (cost of management, traveling expenses of the District President, printing costs, any extraordinary expenses), among which the expenses for home and heathen missions are not to be reckoned, he has to deliver the surplus of the Synodical treasury moneys thereof to the Treasurer of the general Synod, with the exception of the moneys which have been handed over to the District Synod for certain special purposes of its own.

§. 3. He has to render account of receipts and expenditure at the annual assemblies of the Synod of his District, and must at all times submit to an audit ordered by the Synod of his District or its officers.

E. Of the General President.

§. 1. He has the oversight in regard to doctrine, practice and respective administration of office over all Synodical officers and all pastors and teachers within the whole Synodical district, over the individual District Synods as such, over the pastoral conferences, and over the individual congregations of the District Synods.

§. 2. He has the duty to see to it that those named in the immediately preceding §. 1. proceed in doctrine, practice and administration of office in conformity with the Constitution of the Synod; in all cases of deviation therefrom to give admonition, and, if this is not complied with, to bring the matter, in Christian order by degrees, according to the nature of the thing and person censured, either before the District President, or before the District Synod, or finally also before the assembled general Synod.

§. 3 The general President has, as Visitor, and shall always have only, the power of counsel, of admonition, of remonstrance; he has administrative power, therefore, only in those cases in which the special business of the general Synod makes the exercise of such a power on his part necessary, and for which he is expressly invested with such power; other official ordaining decisions can be given only by an assembled Synod or by other Synodical officers concerned; decisions given by the general President are therefore binding upon those concerned only in such cases when they either already in themselves, as decisions of the Word of God, have conscience-binding force, or when arbitral power has been given him, the general President, in a particular case by the parties themselves, provided that his decision is not contrary to God's Word. In every case an appeal may be made from his decision, as from any other, to that of the whole District Synod concerned, or of the general Synod.

§. 2. He has, at the assemblies of the general Synod, for the conduct of the same, the functions concerned, which are assigned to the District President for the conduct of the District Synodical assemblies.

§. 5. He has the duty to be present also at all assemblies of the District Synods and to be active in counsel, and to report thereon at the next assembly of the general Synod.

§. 6. He has the duty, during his three years' term of office, to visit every parish of all the Synodical Districts at least once, concerning which he likewise makes his report at the assembly of the general Synod. It is also incumbent upon him, on the occasion of his presence in the congregations, to deliver a sermon himself in each one of them, if possible.

§. 7. He has the duty to appear in person, as far as possible without delay, when this is desired in any congregation of the Synodical district for the removal of misunderstandings that have arisen, etc.

§. 8. He has, upon request, to give counsel and answer both to the officers and to every individual member of the Synod.

§. 9. He has the right and duty to take part in person in the pastoral conferences, as often as he can combine this with the purpose of his journeys of visitation, but in any case to inspect the minutes of all the pastoral conferences, and to confer with those concerned, during the assemblies of the District Synod, about whatever appears to him therein offensive or at least requiring further discussion.

§. 10. The general President is, in general, to use in a Christian and conscientious manner all the means at his disposal to preserve and promote the unity of all the District Synods in the truth, in doctrine and practice; to awaken and nourish in all individual members and congregations of the whole Synodical district the living consciousness of their belonging to the whole; and in general to see to it that the blessing intended by the establishment of a Synodical union for all the individual members and congregations thereof, as well as for the Church in general, may really come to the former as to the latter.

§. 11. He has the right, in urgent emergencies, to summon an extra assembly of the general Synod, provided that the majority of the District Presidents recognize this measure with him as necessary and salutary. He has, however, to make known to all members of the various District Synods the purpose of the extra assembly through the District Presidents. The assembly is then legally valid when full two thirds of those entitled to vote have presented themselves for it.

F. Of the Vice-President of the general Synod.

He stands in the same relation to the general President as the District Vice-President to the District President.

G. Of the Secretary of the general Synod.

He has in his sphere the same business which is entrusted to the District Secretary.

H. Of the Treasurer of the general Synod.

§. 1. He has to attend to all money matters of the general Synod and according to its direction.

§. 2. He has to render account at the assembly of the general Synod held every third year, and must at all times submit to an audit of the books and funds ordered by the general Synod or its officers or by all the District Presidents.

I. Of Every Individual Member of the Synod.

§. 1. Every member of the Synod has, according to his calling, strength and means, to apply all diligence and earnestness that the purpose intended by the Synodical union may be attained in the best possible manner, namely, the most necessary preservation of the purity and unity of doctrine and the maintenance and extension of the Church.

§. 2. Every resident member has to effect his entrance into the Synod by signing the Synodical Constitution.

§. 3. Only the pastors and deputies empowered by the congregations are entitled to vote; both of these are to present the written power of attorney given them by the congregation, the former upon their joining the Synod, the latter at each appearance. If a congregation sends two or more pastors, they have only One vote.

§. 4. The deputy of a congregation remains entitled to vote even when the pastor of the same is prevented from appearing in the Synodical assembly, as the same holds in the opposite case.

§. 5. Every pastor and teacher who is a member of the Synod pays at least one dollar annually into the Synodical treasury. The former also raise voluntary collections from their congregations for this treasury. This money is to be applied:

a. to defraying the general expenses of the Synod (outlays of the officers, writing materials, printing costs for the Synodal report, postage, and the like.