Official Handbook Source Text
Handbook page 113
Source: LCMS Handbook 2023, page 113.
This page reproduces text from the 2023 LCMS Handbook for study and navigation. Readers should verify procedural, legal, parliamentary, or governance questions against the official LCMS Handbook and appropriate LCMS authorities.
Powers and Duties – Ecclesiastical
3.3.1.1 As the chief ecclesiastical officer of the Synod, the President shall supervise
the doctrine taught and practiced in the Synod, including all synodwide corporate entities.
3.3.1.1.1 The President of the Synod has ecclesiastical supervision of all officers of
the Synod and its agencies, the individual districts of the Synod, and all district presidents.
(a) He shall see to it that the resolutions of the Synod are carried out.
After the national convention has determined triennial emphases for the Synod, he shall, in consultation with the Council of Presidents, identify specific goals for the national office that will support and encourage ministry at the congregational level.
(b) In the districts of the Synod, he shall carry out his ecclesiastical duties through the district’s president.
(c) He shall at regular intervals officially visit or cause to be visited all the educational institutions of the Synod to exercise supervision over the doctrine taught and practiced in those institutions.
(1) With regard to Synod’s colleges and universities, regular visitation shall be conducted through the Concordia University System as described in Bylaw 3.6.6.4 and following.
(2) He may in addition and at any time specially visit or cause to be visited any educational institution of the Synod to exercise his ecclesiastical supervision.
(d) He shall meet regularly with the Council of Presidents and, as deemed necessary, with individual district presidents or small groups of district presidents to see to it that they are in accordance with Article II of the Constitution, adopted doctrinal statements of the Synod, and doctrinal resolutions of the Synod. He shall receive regular reports on this subject from the district presidents. In cases of doctrinal dissent, Bylaw section 1.8 shall be followed.
3.3.1.1.2 The President shall be the chief ecumenical officer of the Synod.
(a) He shall represent the Synod, in consultation with the appropriate board or commission, in official contacts with all partner churches by aiding, counseling, and advising them and by strengthening the relations with and among them.
(b) He shall develop protocol documents between the Synod and partner church bodies according to which the Synod and its agencies will work together with its partner churches in foreign mission fields, which documents are also to be respected by agencies, auxiliaries, and recognized service organizations.
(c) He or his representative shall represent the Synod in official contacts with other church bodies.
Powers and Duties – Administrative
3.3.1.2 The President shall oversee the activities of all officers, executives, and
agencies of the Synod to see to it that they are acting in accordance with the Constitution, Bylaws, and resolutions of the Synod.
(a) He shall at regular intervals officially visit or cause to be visited all the educational institutions of the Synod and thereby exercise
