Lutheran Church of
North America has ever afforded us greater joy than the withdrawal of
the Synod of Pennsylvania from the unionistic so-called General Synod.
This is a step which will undoubtedly lead to consequences of the utmost
importance and of the most salutary character. The plan to give
prominence and supremacy in this land, by means of the 'General Synod,'
to a so-called American Lutheranism which ignores the distinctive
doctrines of the Lutheran Church, and to compel the truly Lutheran
synods to occupy a separatistic, isolated, and powerless position, is
completely frustrated by this step." (Spaeth, 2, 162.) But the hopes of
Walther and his friends were doomed to disappointment, at least in part.
In spite of its irreproachable confessional basis the General Council
was imbued with a spirit of indifferentism and unionism, though of a
finer grade and quality than that prevailing in the General Synod. In
accordance with its principle that fraternal cooperation and union of
necessity presupposes unity in doctrine and practise, Missouri, instead
of participating in the hasty organization of the General Council,
insisted on Free Conferences in order first to bring about real
doctrinal agreement, the prerequisite of every God-pleasing external
union. In Reading, 1866, however, this request was disregarded, union
being the paramount, true and real unity a secondary consideration. Nor
was there a change effected in this attitude by the subsequent
correspondence between the General Council and the Missouri Synod. At
Reading the delegates passed the resolution: "That the synods
represented in this convention which prefer a Free Conference to an
immediate organization be and hereby are invited to send representatives
to the next meeting, with the understanding that they have in it all the
privileges of debate and a fraternal comparison of views." To this
Missouri responded at its convention in Chicago, in May, 1867: "In view
of the relations we sustain toward different members of the Church
Council, in reference to doctrine and churchly practise, we must be
apprehensive that the consideration and discussion of differences still
existing in the convention of the Church Council might give rise to the
reflection that we intended to interrupt the bringing about of a unity,
and are therefore fearful lest our participation, instead of leading to
an agreement, might be productive of greater alienation. Even at the
risk of appea