Religion: Episcopalians At Denver

Tact and politeness are qualities which usually distinguish the gatherings of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Its bishops are gentlemanly, impressive; its lay delegates potent in calibre. Aware of the Church’s influence and its duties. The Churchman pointed out last fortnight (quoting Banker George Foster Peabody) that its membership controls one-tenth of the wealth in the U. S. But Episcopal dignity, grounded in ease and security, can become ruffled with changing times and new problems. It was evident last week that the Episcopalians’ 50th triennial General Convention, opening in Denver, Col., was to be considerably less placid than the 49th, which President & Mrs. Calvin Coolidge opened in Washington (TIME, Oct. 29, 1928).

A proposed liberalization of divorce and marriage laws was already plaguing the Church (TIME, May 4, Sept. 14). Birth Control was once more raising its ugly head. The new “American Missal” (mass-book to be used with the prayerbook) was regarded by many as much tooHigh-Church. On these questions the Catholic and Protestant wings of the Church were lined up, more sharply demarcated than they had been in 50 years. Also, the reelection of Bishop James De Wolf Perry of Rhode Island as presiding bishop, regarded not long ago as a fait accompli, was suddenly threatened by a faction which backed Bishop Ernest Milmore Stires of Long Island. Wrote Dr. Alexander Griswold Cummins in The Chronicle (official organ of the Protestant Episcopal Church League, an evangelical organization): “He [Bishop Perry] has been the least picturesque and effective of our Presiding Bishops. . . .His cope, mitre and pastoral staff aptitudes have caused dismay to some, and led others to ridicule what should be a dignified office. He looks well in a high hat, but odd in a mitre.”

Echo from Lambeth. Before the Convention opened in Denver Auditorium, with 10,000 visitors, Bishop Perry, stanch opponent of divorce, had said in a sermon of welcome that “Christian marriage rises above the consideration of expediency and human desire. . . . The bond between husband and wife, once sealed in the name of God, is subject not to the will of man but to divine will.” To preach the Convention’s opening sermon had come Rt. Rev. Michael Bolton Furse, stocky Bishop of St. Albans. London. Significance: he was a leader of the opposition (unsuccessful) to the limited endorsement of Birth Control by the Lambeth Conference last year (TIME, Aug. 25. 1930). He is a weighty, vigorous opponent of Divorce. As was to be expected last week, he flayed both practices in the familiar language of viewers-with-alarm. He found increased divorce “sinister,” contraceptives and companionatemarriage “degrading.” He dragged in a reference to the Soviet Government, begged the Denver Convention to repudiate the pronouncement of the Lambeth Conference.

Many a leader had hoped to defer dismission until later during the two-week convention. Back in their hotels, the delegates talked excitedly. Alert newshawks heard them describe the opening sermons as “poor taste,” “party politics,” and “Jesuitical cunning.” Some felt that Bishop Furse’s reference to companionate marriage was “a discourteous slap against Judge Lindsey in his home town.”

Next day it was voted to hold a “meeting in council” of the House of Bishops to discuss “certain matters. . . .” Admitting that U. S. bishops had been “embarrassed” sometimes during the Lambeth Conference. Bishop Irving Peake Johnson of Colorado proposed a measure which excluded the Press, the secretary of the House and all other attendants from the meeting.

After the secret session. Bishop Perry firmly denied that the House of Bishops had mulled over Birth Control. An “understanding” had been reached, it was said; no formal declaration would be made regarding the pronouncement of the Lambeth Conference.

Business Done. The House of Deputies reelected Dr. Ze Barney Thome Phillips, chaplain of the U. S. Senate and rector of Washington’s Epiphany Church, to be its president; Dr. Carroll Melvin Davis of New York, domestic secretary of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, to be secretary.

The Joint Commission on Marriage and Divorce issued the third and final revised version of its report. Like the previous ones, it advocated liberalization of divorce laws and the establishment of ecclesiastical courts to permit remarriage of divorced persons. It listed nine “impediments” (causes for annulment) of marriage. It cited the need for increased sexual education, and the “crying need to break down the prevailing romantic idea of marriage—namely that marriages are made in heaven. . . .”