A Synod Anniversary
The constituting convention of a new confessional Lutheran church body known as the Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC) took place August 9-12, 1960 at Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church in Watertown, S.Dak.
The year 2000 will therefore find the CLC observing its 40th anniversary. A synodical committee is making plans for an anniversary observance. No doubt the next synod convention (set for June 19-23, 2000) will direct our thoughts toward appreciation of our heritage so that, in turn, we might go forward confidently under the guiding hand of Him who is Lord both of history and of His Church.
But if a synod is forty years old, so are many of its member congregations. Thus we expect that many CLC congregations will be observing their own anniversaries in the next year or two. Such churches–particularly those which were charter members of the new synod–are invited to submit a brief historical resume, with pictures, to the Lutheran Spokesman.
The congregation served by your editor, Grace of Sleepy Eye, Minn., was a CLC charter member. In fact, the record shows that the above-mentioned Watertown, S.Dak. constituting convention was recessed to Sleepy Eye, where the synod subsequently met January 24-26, 1961.
Companion articles in this issue tell a bit of the Sleepy Eye story. One capsulizes some facts of the congregation’s history as submitted to the local paper. The second addresses the basic doctrinal issue which made a new congregation–and finally a new synod–necessary for those whose consciences were bound in the Word of the Lord.