Chapter III: Of the Members of the Congregation

1. Whoever would be a regular member of our Evangelical Lutheran congregation of St. Michael's Church, have a vote at elections, have part in the rights of membership and hold office therein; must, in accordance with Christ's command, so far as external evidence shows: 1.) Be baptized; 2.) Receive the Lord's Supper; 3.) Not live in open works of the flesh, Gal. 5:19; but, 4.) lead a Christian life, and not be engaged in any disreputable occupation; 5.) Contribute, according to ability, to the support of church and school and of the laborers in the same, so long as there is need, be it little or much, though it were only a cold water; 6.) Be subject to Christian order and discipline, and allow himself to be corrected in brotherly love, when he does wrong; 7.) and, next to God and the government, so conduct himself toward the faithful Pastors and elected officers of the congregation, that they may administer their office with joy and not with grief.

2. Whosoever fails in the aforementioned points, or in any of them, wilfully and of purpose, and will not by the grace and mercy of God correct his fault after the degrees of admonition have been observed, nor will be subject to Christian order, he cannot and shall not be a member of our Evangelical Lutheran congregation, and he shall have no right or share in its privileges, still less have right to vote or to hold office.

3. In case anyone of the communicant members of the congregation, should, through the deceitfulness of sin and of Satan, fall into gross sin, or open works of the flesh, which may God avert, and should such offense be established by credible and incontestible evidence, then shall he: 1.) Be privately admonished by the Pastor and be counselled to true repentance and reconciliation through faith. 2.) Should this not avail, he shall again be admonished by the Pastor, in the presence of the Elders and Vorsteher. 3.) Should this fail, he shall be excluded from the congregation, in the presence of the Church Council or by its action, and he shall have neither part nor will, until by the goodness or the severity of God, he has been led to repentance and ask forgiveness of the congregation for the offenses committed, which shall be done through the Pastor, without mention of the name. In such case he shall be received again and acknowledged as a member, if his life and conversation prove the repentance and amendment to be sincere.

This constitution as a whole and in all its parts, shall be held inviolate in our Evangelical Lutheran congregation of St. Michael's Church and dependencies, and shall hold good and continue in force, until the whole Church Council and congregation, or at least two-thirds of both, to wit, of the Council and of the communing members, shall deem it necessary and useful to amend, or to add, or to exclude anything in the same; all of which is certified by our signatures; done at Philadelphia, Oct. 18, 1762.

This constitution was with few modifications accepted by the united congregations, one after another. It was the basis of the new congregations formed. It was carried by the minister's throughout the wide limits of Pennsylvania and adjacent States. It was inherited by new Synods formed out of the Penna. Ministerium. It was carefully studied and its main features adopted by the preparer of the Formula of Government and Discipline of the Synods of West Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, and then became that of the General Synod. The great body of the congregations in this country, outside the bounds of recent German Synods in the West, are organized on its plan.

As to its character, it bears marks on its surface of Reformed influence. It contains the Reformed provision of elders and even the characteristic Calvinistic designation, Ruling Elders. The determination of its character was undoubtedly influenced by Reformed forces. The Swedish Constitution in this country in Wrangel's time, and before, was probably brought from the Dutch Church at New York, and may even have already felt the power of the Reformed Church of England. The Church of Amsterdam undoubtedly was greatly influenced by the organization of the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands. The Lutheran Churches in New York and New Jersey were certainly moulded by that of Amsterdam and London, as well as by the surrounding Dutch Reformed Churches. And these all had some influence in shaping the form of the Philadelphia Constitution. And then, too, our Churches here were in close relation to the German Reformed Churches in the same section, and they greatly influenced, not so much the ministers as the people, to whose demands the constitution was in part a concession. But, nevertheless, the resemblance is more in outward form than inner spirit. There are elders, but the whole spirit which creates and pervades the office of Ruling Elder in the Ordonnances Ecclesiastiques de l'Eglise de Geneve, the KOO. of the Netherlands, even of the Lutheran Churches in Mark Brandenberg, is entirely wanting. The elders and Vorsteher are so much alike that the care of the purity of the church is attributed more to the one, and that of the poor more to the other, but it is a distinction with little difference. The trustees were required by the law of that time and are no integral part of the plan. The elders and deacons are the representatives and agents of the congregation and their office rests only on the right of the congregation to act, and its ability to deputize some to act for all. The needs of the church's affairs call for some such deputies and they are provided. The American representative and elective mode of government had perhaps as much influence as anything else in forming the views of the people; and the adaptation of this constitution to these sentiments and wants and modes of thought and action has been the chief reason for its general acceptance and permanent endurance.

Beale M. Schmucker