# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1855 05 22_S156
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

156

from a Lutheran pastor) which Hasert has had printed in a book, in which very strong expressions against the Catholic Church occur. Whether Hasert will appeal, I do not know."

Lutheran Synod in Iowa.

From Pastor Löhe's "Kirchliche Mittheilungen aus und über Nord-Amerika" (in the next to last number of the year just past) we learn that a Lutheran synod has been formed in Iowa. The above-named writes in that paper:

"Our friends in Iowa have united into a synod. There are as yet very few pastors among them (P. Großmann and P. Fritschel at Dubuque, P. Deindörfer at St. Sebald am Quell, and missionary Schüller; recently Dörfler is said to have joined them as the fourth); the synod will be the smallest in America. They have constituted themselves on the basis of all the Lutheran Symbols, but in the propositions provisionally (!) adopted by them have also not denied their tendency (!), namely that they take the Symbols as a terminal point not in all particulars, but only in those of which they speak, but for the rest believe that on the ground and soil of the Lutheran Symbols much is still to be learned and perfected, — not however through them (so modest (!) are they that they hope nothing great of themselves!), but through whom God will, at the time and hour pleasing to Him."

Remark: It seems strange to us that it is here designated as a tendency peculiar to the Iowa brethren when they, as it is said, "take the Symbols as a terminal point only in the particulars of which they (the Symbols) speak." Either the gentlemen are thereby declaring something altogether self-evident, or the declaration has a meaning the disclosure of which seems to them "provisionally" inadvisable. If we are to say honestly what we think, it is this, that the Iowans with their clause wanted to salve their conscience and to declare that in their confession of the Lutheran Symbols they could not at the same time be bound to the doctrine of the same concerning Church and Ministry.

In Löhe's report it goes on:

"The synod stands peacefully beside Missouri and Buffalo; but it will very much be a question how its relation to both synods will shape itself. It stands to them in North America as we stood at the last conference between Missouri and Grabau: a position which in North America will be harder to maintain than here at home, because there the insight into the local circumstances and into the real faults of both parties will force itself more upon one than here, and will then also more urge one to take one side or the other. It may well come about that it will be very hard for the little flock in Iowa to maintain the middle position, peaceful toward both sides. May the LORD rule it and create blessing and peace."

Remark: This language of Pastor Löhe's looks almost like last or at least next to last wavings of the white flag. All the more so when a few lines before the following report of Mr. Dörfler of Fort Wayne is communicated: "Everything is different from Germany. Freedom expresses itself in all relations. An American divine service makes quite a different impression from a German one, even when the same liturgical pieces occur" — to which Pastor Löhe afterward adds: "We can only wish that our departing friends may see with their own eyes and learn to know men like Grabau not merely from the representation of others, but from the observation of their official and life circumstances."

Löhe continues in his report on the Iowa Synod as follows:

"But not this alone is a difficulty for the little Iowa Synod, but it has yet another difficulty to overcome, of which we wish to say a few words. That our friends would like to gather German Lutheran congregations about them is our wish and their own intention. They do not lack opportunity for this, since in Iowa masses of Germans already dwell and a strong stream of immigration goes thither. Yet with all the certainty they have that the visible church can never be anything but a mixed one, they do not wish deliberately to aim at mixed congregations, but they would like to take such measures that church discipline might not afterwards be made too hard for them by the preponderance of the wicked. What they want is not new: they want a catechumenate, which our friends of the other tendency likewise want and more or less also practice, although they do not put the name in front. But the way which the brethren in Iowa are trying to take is new. For they intend, with the means of Word and Sacrament entrusted to them by God, on the one hand to bring blessing in the widest possible circles, but on the other hand to recognize as actual members of their congregation, with seat and vote, only those whom they find proved by longer trial. They want, therefore, to preach wherever they find a call; they want to baptize, instruct children and prepare them for the Holy Supper, as other faithful teachers also do; they also want to admit to the holy Supper whomever they can accept without distress of conscience; on the other hand, however, they want from the start to say freely to everyone that in the establishment and administration of their congregational affairs they will grant seat and vote only to those who after longer acquaintance prove themselves blameless in respect of their faith and life. This is to be an attempt to overcome the evils of American free congregation-forming. Whether the attempt will succeed they do not know. They reserve the right to gain experiences and, according to them, to modify and regulate their procedure. Only one thing is fixed for them, that they wish to oppose as far as possible, even by way of church order and statute, the American mob-rule in the Church, which could regard itself as sanctified and justified under the shield of the spiritual priesthood of all believers. One may prophesy misfortune for their undertaking with turned-up nose and rise far above it; but let the faithful men only try what is possible; to turn into the accustomed way known to everyone there is always time, and who knows in the end, after all, what will happen. The greatest difficulty of the matter lies in the external existence of the preachers. The less distinction one makes in America in the admission of congregation members, the more one can get and the more easily can the preachers support themselves. If, on the other hand, one holds fast to the catechumenate, many will not stand the test, the number of congregation members and with it the salary of the preachers will be and remain small, and while other congregations become great and glorious, congregations of the sought-after kind will appear poor and small and let excellent powers languish in want and misery. As far as human eyes see, this can be avoided only through independent and well-endowed parish foundations: but who founds such? Our means are too limited, so that with our friends in America we can for the present do nothing but commend the matter to the LORD and wait for the blessing which He will perhaps speak. Unless we deceive ourselves, there is found not only among the preachers, but also among the congregation members more closely bound to them, much perseverance and capacity for sacrifice. Division 1 of the Society for Inner Mission in the Spirit of the Lutheran Church has sought to further the efforts of the dear friends by assisting them in the purchase of a house and property of their own in the city of Dubuque, placing at their disposal a borrowed capital of 3800 fl. In the newly bought house the teachers' seminary and the first beginning of a Latin school found lodging. These institutions are the center from which the activity of our friends proceeds. They cannot lift the stone which they are to lift without having a point on which they can stand. It was also necessary to take hold of them somewhat more strongly, because as newly arrived in their great poverty they would not have found the necessary confidence among many people willing to help in Dubuque and vicinity. They found this confidence, however, by its becoming evident how many a friend and how many a faithful hand they can count on in their efforts in Germany. In order to strengthen the post in Iowa, our possession in Saginaw County, for which one there would not even thank us, is also to pass from the faithful administration of Pastor Sievers into the property of the Synod of Iowa.

Remark: 1. If the Iowa gentlemen wish in the manner indicated above to prevent suspicious persons from obtaining seat and vote in the establishment and administration of congregational affairs, this is by no means, as Pastor Löhe imagines, something new, but something which by us during our whole American-