1959 Report of Floor Committee No. 23 Re: A Call for Decision

Floor Committee No. 23 was set up in order to deal with the memorial called A Call for Decision. Here is their report:

Floor Committee No. 23, 1959 WELS Proceedings, p. 211-212

Quotes of note: Not really any quotes except that this committee (and the Synod) disavowed any serious charges made by the memorial A Call for Decision.

1959 "A Call for Decision" Revisited

The 1959 memorial to the WELS convention entitled "A Call for Decision" was circulated to other interested parties to see if they would like to sign it as well.

Here it is again, with all 30 signers: A Call for Decision, 1959 WELS Proceedings, p. 209-211

1959 Committee No. 2

What follows is the WELS Floor Committee No. 2 (Church Union) report to the 1959 Convention.

Report of Floor Committee No. 2 (Church Union), 1959 Proceedings, p. 194-197

Quote of Note:

"That we instruct our Church Union Committee to continue its efforts... until agreement on doctrine and practice can be reached, or until an impasses reached..."

1959 Memorial to the WELS Convention

Here is another memorial urging the WELS to sever fellowship with the LC-MS on the basis of Romans 16:17,18. The signers of this memorial also mention their agreement with a memorial called A Call for Decision.

1959, Memorial, Wisconsin Synod Proceedings, p. 181-182

Quote of note:

"Our failure to [sever fellowship with the LC-MS] has had this twofold effect: The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod has been encouraged to continue in the offenses, and we have grievous dissension in our own midst. This dissension can only become more serious unless we implicitly obey the Word of God."

1959 A Report of the Protest Committee

The WELS Protest Committee makes its report to the 1959 Convention.

1959, A Report of the Protest Committee, WELS Convention Proceedings, p. 177-179

Quote of note:

"Your committee does not find itself in a position at this time to present a solution to the problem which confronts the Synod.... That is due in part to the fact that the authors of very nearly all the protests consider only one solution to the intersynodical problem, namely a break with The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod."

1959 Rollin A. Reim response to Carl Lawrenz

Rollin A. Reim and the men who wrote A Call for Decision respond to Carl Lawrenz's personal letter to them.

April 13, 1959, Reim response to Lawrenz

Quote of note:

"It is the dark genius of unionism that it loves fraternal admonition within the framework of tolerance during continued and unabated divergence in doctrine and practice."

1959 Carl Lawrenz's letter to Rollin Reim

Here Carl Lawrenz (author of A Report To The Protest Committee) writes a personal letter to Rollin A. Reim regarding a memorial called A Call for Decision to the 1959 WELS convention.

A Call for Decision takes great issue with Lawrenz's Report. Lawrenz makes the argument that they both "seek to say identical things though we employ different terminiology."

March 17, 1959, Lawrenz's letter to Rollin A. Reim.