Presbyterian President

The Presbyterian Church will change its form of government and get itself a real chief executive if the denomination's last moderator has his way. Wrote Dr. William Lindsay Young last week in the Presbyterian Tribune: "The Presbyterian Church . . . feels leaderless . . . because of our organizational scheme. The moderator is not an official spokesman. His office is looked upon as purely honorary, lasting for but a brief period of time, and ... by the time he is experienced enough to be of value, his term of office is over. . . .

"I shall never forget my intense embarrassment when [as moderator] I took charge of my first meeting as chairman of the Council. ... I was in the position of a 'rookie' giving guidance to the veterans."

Dr. Young's solution: create a new office, president of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., elect an executive to it for a five-year period or more to "represent the entire interests of the Church, both material and spiritual."

For somewhat similar reasons, the Episcopal Church is gradually moving to get itself an archbishop (TIME. Oct. 28).

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