Official Workbook report source text
Official Workbook source-navigation report record. No analysis has been added.
- Report number/id
- R3
- Report title
- R3 Praesidium
- Workbook start page
- 43
- Workbook end page
- 44
- Source pages
- 43, 44
- Source status
- source_checked
- Committee
- Not available
R3 Praesidium The Presidium consists of the Synod President, the (full-time) First Vice-President, and five regional vice-presidents, each of whom represents the geographical region in which he lives. The five regional vice-presidents serve in a part-time capacity and, to- gether with the First Vice-President, are responsible to the Presi- dent for the performance of their duties (Bylaw 3.3.2.3). They are ranked by vote of the Synod convention to determine the order in which they would assume the presidency should that office be va- cated (Constitution Article XI C 2; Bylaw 3.3.2.1). A listing of Praesidium members, regions, and ranking can be found in the Convention Workbook’s Directory—Officers, Boards, and Commissions of the Synod. Late in the triennium, after 18 and a half years of service to the Synod as a vice-president, Rev. Dr. John C. Wohlrabe Jr. moved out of the Great Lakes region and thus, according to the Bylaws, was no longer able to serve. In his place and in accordance with Bylaw 3.3.2.4, President Harrison appoint- ed Rev. Eric Skovgaard. Two other vice-presidents, Rev. Dr. Scott Murray and Rev. Nabil Nour, retired from full-time parish ministry during the triennium but continued their duties as vice-presidents. After 16 years of service to the Synod as a vice-president, Dr. Mur- ray has announced that he will not stand again for election. Duties The vice-presidents give counsel to the President and, upon his request, represent the President and assist him in discharging his responsibilities (Const. Art. XI C 1; Bylaw 3.3.2). The Council of Presidents The Praesidium and the 35 district presidents comprise the Council of Presidents (COP), which, in recent years, has met four times per year for three and a half days each time to carry out the duties assigned in Bylaws 3.10.1.2–3.10.1.4. District Conventions In addition to serving on the COP, the vice-presidents assist the President by attending district conventions to report and advise in fulfillment of Const. Art. XI B 6 and Bylaw 3.3.1.3 (a). Generally, the regional vice-presidents attend the district conventions in their 2026 Convention Workbook 44 OFFICER, BOARD, AND COMMISSION REPORTS capable of supporting the ecclesiastical work this involves. The President is responsible for ecclesiastical supervision (Const. Art. XI B 1–3). The Board of Directors handles property, business, and legal matters (Const. Art. XI E 2) so the work of the Church can be less concerned with “civilian pursuits.” The Secretary’s work is specified but not so neatly bundled by the Constitution and Bylaws. But much of it comprises the necessary maintenance of the consti- tutional framework on which all else hangs, and in which a broad and diverse and long-running Synod of sinful people, if we are truly “joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4:16). The Secretary, with the help of his office, carries out “all the customary duties of a corporate secretary” for corporate Synod, serves on the Board of Directors of the Synod, facilitates most of the official convention nomination, election, registration, and busi- ness processes, administers dispute resolution and expulsion pro- cesses, supervises the maintenance of the Synod’s official rosters and statistical information, and retains documents on Synod’s agen- cies, while performing “such other work as pertains to his office” or “as the Synod in convention, the President, or the Board of Di- rectors may assign to him” (Bylaws 3.3.3, 3.3.3.2). It is a demand- ing office, even at the “minimum” defined in the Constitution and Bylaws of the Synod. The office proper consists of the Secretary; an assistant to the secretary, Christian Boehlke—a new addition in this triennium, which has already proven to be useful in helping the office achieve electronic form submission and support major higher education governance and corporate formation requirement proj- ects—and one office administrator, Lori Leighton, without whom I could not do. I am blessed and the Synod is blessed that the office has the support it has. There is never a slow day. We live by grace and sometimes have to ask for patience. B. Analysis and Technological Advance The Synod convention and the Synod offices, districts, en- tities, and educational institutions, if they are to make wise and forward-looking decisions, must be properly informed by facts. The Synod has from its inception provided for the gathering and publishing of information on Lutheranism in America. The office continues to encourage submission of annual parochial statistics, which continues at a steadier 70–75 percent submission rate, with statistics less than three years old available for 85 percent of con- gregations and 93 percent of confirmed membership. This remains far below the “unanimous” expectation of Bylaw 1.3.4.3, particu - larly in the Eastern, Northwest, Southern Illinois, Minnesota North, California-Nevada-Hawaii, and English Districts, in which both more than 20 percent of congregations and more than 20 percent of people have not been reported on in at least three years (South- eastern, South Dakota, Texas, and Southern Districts lack recent reports on more than 20 percent of congregations, but not more than 20 percent of their people). As we try to understand the impact of events like COVID-19—from which attendance is now finally, largely, on aggregate, recovering to trend lines—or investigate the implications of change on things like circuit health and parameters, which we did this triennium, this is a significant impediment. It is but one of many areas in which congregational disengagement threatens our ability to serve as Synod as the congregations have asked and need. As circuit parameters for this convention have been discussed extensively in white papers prepared for the 2023 Res. 9-06A Cir - cuit Alignment Task Force, I’ll not report further on that here. • attended funerals for two former Synod vice-presidents, a retired district president, a sitting district president, and a former member of the Board of Directors, among others; • attended regional meetings of district presidents; • attended the October 2024 International Church Relations Conference in Wittenberg, Germany; • participated in, and in some cases presented at, district pas- tors’ conferences; • participated in the annual conversation between leaders of the LCMS, Wisconsin Synod, and Evangelical Lutheran Synod; • participated in two mission trips to the Dominican Republic; and • attended the 2025 March for Life in Washington, D.C., along with the district presidents (or their representatives) of every district; o At least one vice-president attends the March for Life in Washington, D.C., annually, normally along with the Synod President. Lastly, in addition to frequent communication via electronic means, the Praesidium strives to meet in conjunction with each COP meeting to give opportunity for the vice-presidents’ role as advisors to the President. When there are more urgent matters, the Praesidium has also met by internet conference. In all it does to assist the President, the Praesidium strives to keep at the forefront the pure proclamation of the Gospel—that Jesus Christ was crucified to make atonement for the sins of the world and that Christ Is Risen Indeed! Peter K. Lange, First Vice-President