Methodists

Having debated at length and pronounced upon their favorite theme, Prohibition (TIME, May 16), the Methodist Episcopal Church's delegates at Atlantic City last week concluded their 24-day general conference, went on record about other nonecclesiastical, social matters before adjourning:

P:"Labor is an indispensable partner in the creation of wealth, yet today we face the fact that society provides no adequate economic security for those who help produce its wealth." Recommendations: A planned industrial economy, shortened labor hours, abolition of child labor, introduction of unemployment, accident and disability insurance, the turning of public income from armament building to "productive employment enriching the com mon life." A committee of three bishops was named to urge immediate jobless relief on President Hoover. P:Condemnation of gambling "from the crap game in a slum alley to speculation on the Stock Exchange." Recommendation: more vigorous enforcement of gambling laws.

P:For revision of War debts, revision of the Versailles Treaty to remove from Germany the stigma of sole War guilt, entry into the League of Nations, admission of alien pacifists to citizenship.

Important church decisions by the Methodists last week:

P:Substitution of the word elements for the phrase bread & wine in the communion service. (Methodists use unfermented grape juice in communion.) C. Revision of the marriage service, deleting the phrase with all my worldly goods I thee endow.

P:Liberalization of the church's attitude on divorce, sanctioning as grounds for divorce not only adultery but any other "vicious conditions" of "mental or physical peril."

P:Cutting of Episcopal salaries, that of domestic bishops from $7,200 to $6,000 per year; similar reductions in expense accounts; reduction of conference delegates from 846 to 612 (see col. 2).

P:Election of Dr. Junius Ralph Magee of Seattle and Dr. Ralph Spaulding Cushman of Rochester, N. Y., as bishops.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.