Bishops Chided

The most & right reverend bishops of the Lambeth Conference of the Church of England and its affiliates were last week chided, as they have been before, for their pronouncement in 1930 that birth control may in some cases be effected by other methods than complete abstinence (TIME, Aug. 25, 1930). Last year the Lower House of the Convocation of Canterbury appointed a committee to consider the Lambeth resolution. Kept secret until last week, this committee's report deplores progressive weakening since 1908, when the bishops called birth control "demoralizing . . . hostile," and 1914, when it was "dangerous . . . sinful." Courteously the report notes that the bishops were careful to affirm the indissolubility of marriage, "but less careful to maintain the consequences of the principle." Accordingly the Lower House committee tightens up. Not only should divorced persons be denied remarriage in the church, says the report, but also they should be denied Holy Communion--even the innocent person in a divorce for adultery.

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