Sameiningin - 01.08.1950, Blaðsíða 8

86
Sameiningin
Skýrsla forseta Kirkjufélagsins 1950
To the Icelandic Evangelical Lutheran Synod of America in
Session at Arborg, Manitoba, Canada, June 23, 1950:
“Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father,
and the Lord Jesus Christ”. Amen.
Christians, Beloved!
Assembled for this Sixty-sixth convention of our Synod,
we are deeply grateful to our Heavenly Father, and to our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for the many blessings we
have been permitted to enjoy this year, and through the
sixty-five years of continual opportunity to serve our Lord
and Master as Christian men and women under the banner
of the Synod. Our thankfulness shall be echoed again and
again in the words of our chaplain, Rev. V. J. Eylands, as
we gather for our daily tasks each morning during the
sessions of the Synod.
Courage is instilled in human hearts not only by great
hopes and determination, but also by sober reflection con-
cerning the past, in which we see the guiding hand of God
our Father leading us from the battlefields of pioneer hard-
ship, suffering and privations, into the promised lands of
present independence and well-being of our people and
congregations. From the humble shelters of the immigrant
family, we have come to dwell in modern, convenient and
happy homes.
Through the years the Church has been our constant
guide. We have endeavored to advance no less on the
Christian road of living than on the world highway of
material advancement. We have tried to have the spiritual
life mould the material existence. We have tried to have
soul rule the body. We have tried to become spiritually
great, no less than mentally and physically large. We have
tried to keep ever before us the words of the Master: “For
what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world,
and lose his own soul.” That vision and wisdom was the
supreme principle of the humble pioneer family; and it
must be the same impelling motive in all our actions today.