Churches v. Council

Last year a committee of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America issued a report guardedly approving Birth Control (TIME, March 30, 1931). Though the report was signed by John Abner Marquis, onetime (1916) Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., many Presbyterians heartily disapproved. Last week the Presbyterian General Assembly met in Denver with Philadelphia's Rev. H. McAllister Griffiths and a corps of Fundamentalists on the warpath. Declaring that full time should be taken to consider "the weighty question of whether we wish to continue participation" in the Federal Council, Fundamentalist Griffiths opened the fight by trying to prevent approval of a $14,500 appropriation for participation in Council affairs. Failing in this, he rallied his Fundamentalists to fight for withdrawal from the Council altogether. Spoke retiring Moderator Lewis Seymour Mudge for the General Council soothingly:

"It is necessary ... to remember that this report . . . was not sanctioned by the administrative committee of the Federal Council, or by the Federal Council itself. ... It is pertinent to point out that a commission of our own church made a somewhat similar pronouncement. . . ."

Soothed, the Assembly turned to simpler decisions:

P:Election of Dr. Charles W. Kerr of Tulsa, Okla., as Moderator.

P:Cutting of 10% from all salaries above $3,000 per year, 10% from $3,000 salaries after a $1,200 exemption, with a provision that present salaries be restored next year (see col. 3).

P:Admission of women to the General Council, with votes.

In Manhattan last week, the United Lutheran Synod of New York, also aroused on birth control, memorialized the national church to request the Federal Council "before making public pronouncements ... to ascertain first, when possible, the position of all churches involved and to list any such as may not be in agreement."

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