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LCMS 2026 Convention Workbook: Reports and Overtures, PDF page 492

registration of the voting delegates of each congregation or 
parish to vote for the president of the Synod so long as it involves 
the collection by some means of the required “signatures” (i.e., 
verifiable attestations, by some commonly understood means of 
physical or electronic signature) of two congregational officers.  
This same logic would seem to apply to Bylaw 4.2.2 (except, 
perhaps, for its use of the term mailing). A change should be made 
to Bylaw 4.2.2 to allow clearly for a secure and verifiable electronic 
registration method  to be implemented by district secretaries . As 
with similar processes on the district level, the existing, paper-based 
approach remains an acceptable “secure and verifiable method.” 
Therefore be it 
Resolved, That Bylaw 4.2.2 (a) be amended as follows: 
PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING 
4.2.2 The delegates of a voting congregation or multi -
congregation parish to a district convention shall be accredited. 
(a) To be entitled to vote, delegates shall return the proper 
credentials provided by the district secretary and signed by two 
of the congregation’s officers, either by mailing them to the 
district office at a date determined by the district or by presenting 
them to the district secretary at the opening of the convention.The 
congregation or parish shall present to the district secretary, via a 
secure and verifiable method provided by him, the names of the 
pastor and elected lay delegate to represent it at the district 
convention, as well as an attestation by two of its officers that 
these delegates are properly authorized by it to do so. Only those 
delegates named in such credentials, having been submitted to the 
district secretary by a date set by the district or presented to him 
at the convention, shall be entitled to vote. 
(b) All duly elected voting delegates shall attend all sessions of 
the convention regularly until the close of the convention. 
(c) Should a multi -congregation parish involve congregations 
having membership in different districts, the pastoral delegate 
shall be accredited in the convention of the district in which he 
holds membership and lay delegates, voting and advisory, shall 
be accredited in the convention of the district in which each 
delegate’s respective congregation holds membership. No multi-
congregation parish is entitled to more than one pastoral and one 
lay voting delegate because of its inclusion of congregations from 
different districts. 
D. TO AMEND BYLAW 3.1.3.2 TO CLARIFY 
CERTIFICATION OF VOTING AND ADVISORY 
DELEGATES AND ADVISORY REPRESENTATIVES 
Rationale 
The LCMS Office of the Secretary has implemented a new system 
for the collection of information in the processes that gather 
information on officially elected, appointed, or designated Synod 
convention voting and advisory delegates and advisory 
representatives. As part of that work, the office reflected on, and 
brought to the COH, the following issues of wording in Bylaw 
3.1.3.2. The COH now recommends the proposed amendment 
below for the following reasons: 
1. Bylaw 3.1.3.2 uses language of certification, which is 
helpful and should be used for all official convention 
attendees or potential attendees, such as delegates, 
representatives, and their alternates. This may be 
distinguished from the later registration, which could then 
apply exclusively to the later process of arranging for actual 
attendance, hotel accommodations, etc. There has been 
confusion in the minds of many over whether registration 
has been completed when the individual is simply named to 
participate; accommodations remain, importantly, to be 
worked out. Using the term certification exclusively to 
refer to the official process of determining and recording 
who is to attend and the term registration exclusively to 
refer to the process of arranging for the actual attendance of 
such individuals will improve clarity of communication. 
2. With regard to the word forwarded, there is an implication 
that there is movement of a document, either hard copy or 
digital, from one person to another. With the 
implementation of an electronic forms system, this 
information is submitted to the Office of the Secretary 
rather than forwarded. Bylaw 3.12.3.4, which deals with the 
work related to the Committee for Convention 
Nominations, uses submitted to refer to the information 
pertaining to nominees, all of which is being collected 
using an online form system. The same term could be used 
here. 
3. Bylaw 3.1.3.2 appears to be located in the section 
pertaining to Nonvoting Advisory Delegates and yet refers 
to all district representation, including voting and 
nonvoting advisory delegates and representatives and their 
alternates. The commission recommends introduction of a 
subsubsection header to clarify the scope of this bylaw 
without adjusting the section outline.  
Therefore be it 
Resolved
, That Bylaw 3.1.3.2 be amended and a header be 
inserted as follows: 
PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING 
Certification of Voting and Advisory Delegates and District 
Advisory Representatives 
3.1.3.2 All district voting and nonvoting advisory delegates and 
representatives and their alternates shall be certified before attending 
a convention of the Synod. 
(a) The names and addresses of all voting and nonvoting 
advisory delegates and representatives and their alternates shall 
be forwarded submitted by the district secretary before the 
announced registration deadline to the Secretary of the Synod on 
registrationthe forms provided by the latter. 
(b) This procedure shall constitute certification. 
E. TO AMEND BYLAW 3.10.6.9 TO CLARIFY HOW 
UNIVERSITY FACULTIES MAY VOTE TO SUBMIT 
OVERTURES 
WHEREAS, Questions have arisen as to how university faculties 
may vote to submit overtures to a convention, as allowed in Bylaw 
3.1.6.2; and 
WHEREAS, Bylaws provide in other instances for how faculties 
elect advisory representatives (Bylaw 3.10.6.9 [c]), certify church 
work students (Bylaw 2.8.2), and deal with their voting in general 
(Bylaw 3.1.6.2), but do not deal with this specific issue; and 
WHEREAS, The submission of an overture to a convention of the 
Synod is a right afforded only, otherwise, to bodies composed 
entirely of members of the Synod or of members of Synod member 
congregations (Bylaw 3.1.6.2); and 
W
HEREAS, The voting model used for certification of church 
work students (Bylaw 2.8.2) therefore seems appropriate to this 
faculty function, as well; therefore be it 
Resolved, That Bylaw 3.10.6.9 be amended as follows: 
2026 Convention Workbook
457STRUCTURE AND ADMINISTRATION