Divorces

When the Rev. Benjamin C. Dahnes of Mountain Home, Pa., married divorced 5-c--&-10-c- Tycoon Sebastian Spering Kresge to Mrs. Clara K. Swaine last December, he violated no civil law. However, in the Methodist Episcopal Church is a law which says that no minister may marry a person who has been the "guilty party'' in a divorce suit. In his last divorce suit Mr. Kresge was judged a "guilty party" and did not contest the judgment. Therefore, the Rev. Benjamin Dahnes did violate a law of his Church.

Consequently, charges were brought against him. Last week after a closed-door session, the Philadelphia Methodist Episcopal Conference exonerated him because he had "apologized'' and explained that he knew very little of the Kresge divorce story.

Last week in Manhattan, the Presbytery of New York appointed five "divorce counsellors."* One of these must be consulted by all Presbyterian ministers before they may marry divorcees. The Presbyterian Church recognizes only infidelity and desertion as divorce grounds.

*Drs. Henry Sloane Coffin (president of Union Theological Seminary). William Pierson Merrill, J. Valdemar Moldenhawer, Benjamin Franklin Farber. the Rev. Edmund B. Chaffee.