# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 07 05_S157
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

157

resistance to the truth, that he accepts the place of the former.

Resolved: That if a preacher should be at strife with his congregation on account of doctrine, both parties shall abide by the decision of the President of the Synod, until the matter can be investigated and settled by the Synod.

7. Concerning immoral life or false doctrine of preachers it was resolved:

That every Conference of this body shall have the right, by itself, or through a Committee, to impose suspension until the next session of the Synod upon a preacher of its district.

8. The Missionary Society of this Synod was dissolved, and the Synod will henceforth direct the mission work through a Committee.

9. Concerning the "Lutheraner" it was resolved:

That we recommend the "Lutheraner" to our congregations, but expect of the same that it admit into its columns articles pertaining to our Synod.

10. The Lutheran orphanage and the hospital at Pittsburg were urgently commended to the Christian public.

The whole activity of the Ministerium was confined to the following 4 points, which, however, because of their importance occupied the same through five long sessions:

1. The admission of Pastor Schwankovsky of Zelienopol.

2. The exclusion of J. G. Hahn:

"Since, alas, only too clear proofs lie before us that Hahn's moral conduct has been most unchristian and unworthy, therefore Resolved, that his name be struck from our list."

3. The exclusion of C. G. Stübchen:

"Since C. G. Stübchen, because of his very immoral life, has made himself unworthy to hold the holy preaching office and to be a member of our Ministerium, be it hereby

"Resolved: That his name be struck from our list and that we warn all congregations and synods against him."

4. Concerning G. Schweizerbarth it was

"Resolved: That Schweizerbarth's name be struck from the list until he has given the Ministerium honest proofs of sincere repentance and amendment."

Resolved: That the Secretary be instructed to publish the above 3 resolutions in all Lutheran periodicals of the U. States.

Dedication of a Church.

On the 4th Sunday after Easter of this year our Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church in the Indian Reservation near Buffalo was dedicated. With commendable zeal the building of this church was resolved upon by my congregation last Christmas, and with tireless activity, out of our own means, without outside support, it was so advanced that we were able to dedicate it for divine service already after four months. The members of the congregation showed themselves so zealous with gifts of money and with labor and help in the building that our congregational debt amounts to only a few dollars, which are to be paid shortly as well. In particular the Building Committee chosen by the congregation has made great sacrifices. The young men, young women and children also vied with one another in their activity. The cost of building a gallery in the church was borne half by the Young Men's Society, who likewise provided a handsome altar cloth and window curtains, and by the young women and children together a baptismal set and a baptismal table were procured. The congregation is indeed not so very small, yet also not a large congregation, and numbers only twenty and some families, so that the sacrifices which it has made here are considerable; a proof that a congregation can accomplish much, if it will.

The fourth Sunday after Easter was now, as the day of our church dedication, a true festival day for us. I will not describe all the particulars of the celebration, and will report only the following: At 9 o'clock in the morning the congregation had assembled in the English schoolhouse, where we had hitherto held our divine service. After a short prayer of thanksgiving, offered by me, for all the spiritual blessing which we have hitherto enjoyed here, the congregation moved in an orderly procession, singing "Ich will mit Danken kommen," to the church, a quarter of a mile distant. Having arrived there, the church, adorned with wreaths, was opened after a short address on the words of Psalm 24, 9. 10.: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates," etc. The Reverend Pastors Ernst from Eden and Diehlmann from Buffalo, as well as the choir of the congregation in Buffalo, helped us make our festival truly glorious, the former, the pastors, by their edifying sermons (Pastor Ernst preached the morning sermon and Pastor Diehlmann the afternoon sermon); the latter, the choir, by its beautiful singing. The confirmation of eight catechumens was performed by me after the dedication sermon. It was especially gratifying that the congregation had resolved to use the old Lutheran order of service for the first time at the dedication, and, if it should be found edifying, to retain it; and it indeed, since we were so powerfully supported by the choir from Buffalo, appeared most glorious and lovely, as did also the rhythmic chorale singing used in some hymns. My mind, weighed down by a domestic cross, was mightily comforted by all this. My sixteen-year-old son Martin lay mortally sick with nervous fever, and still the consolations resound which I received into my soul on this day, after he, only a few days later, fell blessedly asleep in the LORD.

The Unionists and Reformed are very hostile to us and cannot endure our adherence to the Lutheran Confession. They do all they can to frighten the people away from us, for example by the lies that in our church the people would be made Catholic, that the church property has been put in my name by Jesuitical tricks, that I am a runaway Catholic priest, and the like. This enmity, however, contributes to this, that my congregation is more strengthened in the Lutheran truth it has come to know, and the sleeping Lutherans are shaken up and made aware that pure, unadulterated Lutheranism is after all an important matter, and that between Lutheran and unionist-reformed doctrine there must be a great difference. Little as the Unionists and Reformed here like to do anything for churchly purposes, and gladly as they would content themselves with visiting a unionist or reformed church now and then in Buffalo, seven miles away, yet our church building has so far set them in motion that they too now want to build a church and have already bought a site for it. The chief leaders in it are people who believe nothing at all, indeed blasphemers and open enemies of the Word of God.

So may the Lord abide with us with His Word and Sacrament; may He preserve and further us in right knowledge and in true faith, so that rich fruit may follow also; may He let many souls here also be won for heaven, the kingdom of Satan ever more destroyed, and the kingdom of God ever more built up. Amen.

E. M. Bürger.

Church News.

On Sunday Rogate, the 1st of May of this year, the Candidate of Theology, Mr. Martin Günther, called by the Lutheran congregations at Cedarburg and Grafton, Wash. Co., Wisc., was ordained to his holy office in the midst of the same, before a numerous churchly assembly at Cedarburg after the forenoon service, by the Lutheran pastors of Milwaukee, Lochner and Dulitz, and in the afternoon was installed in the same at Grafton. Likewise, on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, the 22nd of May, the Candidate of Theology, Mr. Otto Eißfeldt, who like the aforementioned came from Concordia College at St. Louis, where they completed their studies and after the examination held were found qualified for the conduct of the preaching office, after previous call,