Methodist Hope

Meeting in Omaha last week for the first of two 1953 executive sessions, the Methodist Council of Bishops lost no time in speaking their denominational mind about the current congressional vogue for investigation. Springboard for the council's resolution on the subject was the attack of Republican Congressman Donald L. Jackson of California against Methodist Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam as a Red-fronter (TIME, March 30).

"This incident," proclaimed the bishops of the biggest U.S. Protestant body, "is indicative of a trend in our American life that threatens the security of our institutions and causes us to fear for the future of our long-established liberties . . . We heartily commend efforts being made by legally constituted authority to apprehend the disloyal and bring them to account, but we express our fervent hope that the agencies thus employed will so revise their procedures that no person will be condemned by hearsay, and that every person will have full opportunity to refute all accusations in the face of his accusers . . ."

Then they settled down to elect new officers. President: Tennessee-born Bish op William Clyde Martin of Dallas, current president of the National Council of Churches (TIME, Dec. 22). Secretary (for the 14th consecutive term): embattled Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam.

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