Presbyterians in St. Paul

"Mighty kingdoms will emerge from the wilderness and stately palaces and solemn temples with gilded spires. . . ." Thus, in the traditional periods of explorers, prophesied one Jonathan Carver in 1796, when he beheld the Mississippi from a place which is now St. Paul. It was not till many years later, however, that St. Paul's first settler Pierre ("Pig's Eye") Parrant built his log cabin there. During that time Major Gustavus A. Loomis and the Rev. Thomas S. Williamson were bringing Presbyterianism from the East to Minnesota which was then the West. Since then the faith and credos of Presbyterians have flourished well in Twin Cities, Minneapolis & St. Paul.

Last week St. Paul became the very centre of Presbyterianism, as commissioners and delegates convened there for their Church's 141st General Assembly, guests of the House of Hope Church. Nervous guests and excited, prepared to do and witness mighty things.

Princeton. Majority and minority committees propose, the General Assembly disposes. Last week the Assembly had to consider a question which had wearied and vexed Presbyterians for three years. In Baltimore, San Francisco, Tulsa, General Assemblies had tabled it, referred it to committees, reported upon it. Wondered commissioners: would this year's Assembly decide? The question was: should the government of Princeton Theological Seminary be changed? Upon the answer, even if it remained implicit, largely depended the Assembly's choice for Moderator (to succeed Dr. Hugo Kelso Walker of Los Angeles) and the policy and perhaps the doctrine of the greatest, wealthiest, oldest Presbyterian seminary in the U. S.

For several months, ultra-Fundamental and orthodox Dr. Samuel L. Craig had stormed, often discourteously, in the pages of his weekly, The Presbyterian. He fulminated against the President of Union Theological Seminary, Dr. Henry Sloane Coffin, because he seemed liberal. He lashed the President of the Princeton Seminary, Dr. J. Ross Stevenson, because he wanted the change. With holy passion he appealed to his readers to realize the gravity of the question. There were other appeals for prayers, for votes.

The impending change meant vesting the control of the Seminary in one board consisting of the present board of directors and the board of trustees. These now form two individual groups, between whom there has been much friction. Slight though this change might seem to laity, Dr. Craig perceived therein the horrid possibility that President Stevenson might thus gain great individual power, that the dour orthodoxy of Princeton might become liberalized. Dr. Stevenson once said that he wanted Princeton to represent the whole Presbyterian church, instead of only the right wing of Presbyterianism. Dr. Craig, mouthpiece of the Right Wing, was assisted by Drs. John Gresham Machen and Robert Dick Wilson of the Princeton Seminary.

The first skirmish at St. Paul came with choosing a Moderator. The Craig factions supported Dr. Robert Dick Wilson. But Chicago's Dr. Cleland Boyd McAfee was elected. He, last year, had withdrawn his nomination in favor of Dr. Hugo Kelso Walker. That helped his election this year. But Dr. McAfee, though only slightly liberal, is more so than Dr. Wilson. The first and important victory, therefore, definitely went to the liberals.

Women. Unanimously and with no debate the Presbyterians voted to submit to each of the Church's 214 Presbyteries the question of whether women should be allowed to become ministers, elders, lay evangelists. A majority Presbytery vote is needed to carry the measure. The rights-for-Presbyterian-women movement started many years ago, seems ready now to succeed. Its leaders are Mrs. Fred Smith Bennett, Miss Margaret E. Hodge (TIME, March 18).

Divorce. Proposal to eliminate "wilful desertion" as Presbyterian grounds for divorce was defeated. Infidelity is the only other divorce-cause recognized by the Church.

Debt. Philadelphia's Banker James Willison Smith, Chairman of the Finance Committee, announced that for the first time in its history the church is free of debt.

Merger. Lately no cry has sounded more often in the religious world than the cry of "unity." And no place in the U. S. has it rung more loudly than it did last week in St. Paul. By an emphatic rising vote the Presbyterians authorized immediate consideration of a merger with the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Presbyterian Church of the United States (Presbyterian Church South). Commissions were to be elected to confer with similar commissions from the other churches. Manhattan's Dr. Robert Elliott Speer was elected a delegate to confer on union with the Reformed Church Synod (Dutch Reformed Church) which convenes this month in Holland, Mich. It seemed indeed last week that mighty churchly kingdoms might emerge from the St. Paul convention.

In Scotland, Presbyterians did unite last week. After 93 years of schism, the assemblies of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church voted last week for a reunion which will become effective in October. Only a few members of the United Free Church, led by Member of Parliament James Barr, a Socialist, said they would not join, threatened "to go out into the wilderness and carry on their church."