union of all religious
parties throughout the entire land, that the glorious prophecy might be
fulfilled: that they might all be one flock who are all under one
Shepherd." (_Tennessee Report_ 1820, 25.) The scheme also of organizing
a Lutheran General Synod (for which purpose the Pennsylvania Synod had
invited all other Lutheran bodies to attend its meetings at Baltimore
in 1819 in order to discuss plans for this projected Pan-Lutheran
union) was exultantly hailed as a step in this direction by leaders of
the North Carolina Synod, notably by Shober. Accordingly, in order to
enable the North Carolina Synod to take part in the meeting at
Baltimore, the officers of Synod autocratically convened that body five
weeks before the time fixed by the constitution. Shober was sent to
Baltimore as delegate, and took a prominent part in drawing up the
"Planentwurf," the tentative constitution for the organization of a
General Synod. This irregular meeting of the North Carolina Synod was
later on known as the "Untimely Synod." It provoked much ill feeling and
led to the organization of the Tennessee Synod in 1820. (_Tenn. Rep_.
1820, 49.) At this "Untimely Synod" David Henkel was charged with
teaching transubstantiation, because he had preached the Lutheran
doctrine of the Lord's Supper to his congregations. Synod found him
guilty, and degraded him to the rank of catechist for a period of six
months. Says the Report of the Tennessee Synod, 1820: "David Henkel was
to be entitled to his former rank in office only when, after a period of
six months, sufficient written evidence should have been submitted to
the President that peace obtained in his congregations, and that no
important accusation was lodged against him by others, especially by the
Reformed [Presbyterians], whereupon the President would be empowered to
confer on him the privileges of a candidate until the next synod." (18.)
The following statement of the same Report characterizes the doctrinal
attitude of President Stork and other leaders of Synod: "We [the
Henkels] have written evidence that, when a paper was read at said
'Untimely Synod' containing the statement that the human nature of Jesus
Christ had been received into the divine nature (dass die Menschheit
Jesu Christi in die Gottheit sei aufgenommen worden), and that therefore
He possessed all the divine attributes, the President [Stork] declared
that he could not believe this. And when it was said that such was the