Download Audio Why wasn’t Wisconsin invited? Wisconsin declined the 1935 invitation to enter negotiations with the ULCA, according to Reim, because those negotiations were “based upon the premise that no real difference existed between the various Lutheran bodies of America.” At its 1935 convention, however, Wisconsin “publicly mentioned the need of taking up the abandoned […]
Download Audio Wisconsin and Lutheran Union Included among the nine resolutions adopted by Missouri’s 1938 convention was 6c: “As far as the Missouri Synod is concerned, this whole matter must be submitted for approval to the other synods constituting the Synodical Conference.” The Wisconsin Synod, however, had shown little enthusiasm for the doctrinal positions of […]
Download Audio The Brux case Friederich Bente’s 1905 essay, “Warum koennen wir keine gemeinsame Gottesdienste mit Ohioern und Iowaern veranstalten und abhalten?” (“Why Can We Not Establish and Maintain Common Prayer Services with the Ohioans and Iowans?”) offered the most comprehensive Missouri condemnation of prayer fellowship among those not united in doctrine. Bente granted that […]
Download Audio Chapter 3 Fellowship Becomes the Issue “Gentlemen,” Edmund Reim told one of his seminary classes in the early 1950s, “the Boy Scouts will never break up the Synodical Conference.” Resolutions adopted at Wisconsin’s 1953 convention “hit the nail on the head” in their recognition of unionism as “the root of all the tensions […]
Download Audio “We were shocked beyond measure” Here, however—perhaps for the first time—Missouri made a decision without regard to its sister synods of the Synodical Conference, which the Wisconsin and Norwegian synods could not readily excuse. Synodical Conference opposition to Scouting was difficult for many to understand, but Wisconsin could at least take comfort that […]
Download Audio “Our Synod will take care of the spiritual needs of all our boys” While continuing to oppose participation in the military chaplaincy program on doctrinal grounds, the Wisconsin Synod was especially eager to demonstrate that it could minister to its servicemen with its own resources and without compromising its convictions. Almost no Wisconsin […]
Download Audio A parting of the ways War’s end postponed resolution of questions regarding the chaplaincy and inter-Lutheran cooperation, but by the mid-1930s threats from overseas dictators forced the issue to resurface. Delegates to Missouri’s 1935 convention instructed newly elected president John Behnken to appoint a committee to investigate whether calling men as chaplains into […]
Download Audio The Gathering Storm The glowing report of the 1932 Synodical Conference convention offers one of many indicators of the harmonious relationship that existed between the Missouri and Wisconsin synods during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Yet Adolf Hoenecke’s remark that there was “something sectarian” about the Missouri Synod betrayed a difference […]
Download Audio “Amalgamation would mean disbanding the Wisconsin Synod” With such similarities in culture and background, and with mutual admiration for one another’s doctrinal purity, why did the two synods never become one? Had Walther had his way, they would have. Following Missouri’s recognition of Wisconsin’s orthodoxy, Walther sought to persuade congregations belonging to the […]
Download Audio When they were young On the eve of the formation of the United Lutheran Church in America in 1918, the Northwestern Lutheran boasted that “the Synodical Conference still easily holds first place” as the “biggest Lutheran body in America.” Wisconsin and Missouri comprised the largest share of Synodical Conference members until the demise […]