HOUSTON—Delegates to the 64th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod here July 16 adopted two resolutions of the Floor Committee on Seminary and University Education (Floor Committee 5) that offer bylaw changes:
- Resolution 5-11, which relates to faculty promotion, is similar to Resolution 5-10 that was adopted the day before. Resolution 5-11 deals with faculties at the two seminaries instead of universities and colleges, which the earlier resolution addressed.
- Resolution 5-12 concerns full-time faculty appointments at LCMS educational institutions. It no longer requires lay faculty members to perform their duties in harmony with “the policies of the Synod,” since, as the resolution notes, “there are no centrally defined ‘policies of the Synod’ to which anyone else is pledged.” Lay faculty members still are required, however, to perform their duties according to “the Holy Scriptures as the inspired Word of God, the Lutheran Confessions and the Synod’s doctrinal statements.”
Both resolutions change two requirements regarding advancement to “continuing status.” Names of candidates need not be published in an official periodical (because it “serves no useful role in the process” and “delays the process unnecessarily”). The boards of regents were given the responsibility for promoting the candidate, instead of “electors of the institution” (currently, boards of regents are assigned this task, since the term “electors” is “undefined and vague” and “no one knows who those electors are”).
The convention is meeting July 10-17 under the theme “ONE People—Forgiven.” Among the approximately 3,000 participants are some 1,200 clergy and lay voting delegates.
Posted July 16, 2010
