Seek Bishops' Veto in Panama Dispute

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 9, 1915

Seek Bishops' Veto in Panama Dispute

It seems that more trouble is to arise from the opposition of some members of the Protestant Episcopal Board of Missions to the vote which that board took to send delegates to the Protestant Congress to be held at Panama. As pointed out in these columns of our issue of November 11, five bishops of the High Church party who were members of the Board of Missions resigned in order to emphasize their opposition. We quote from the New York Times of November 27:—

Determined to prevent the sending of delegates to the Panama Congress, notwithstanding the decision of the Board of Missions to do so, ritualists of the Protestant Episcopal Church now demand that a special meeting of the house of bishops be called to hear an appeal.

Their action has been so quietly carried on that comparatively few of the high officials of the church knew what was going on. Surprise was manifested in this city yesterday when the news reached a few of the Low Church clergymen. The proposal of a special session of the bishops will be bitterly opposed.

The High Church party regards the proposed special meeting as a last resort, as the much-discussed Panama Congress is to be held in March. The ritualists object to the Episcopal Church's being represented at the congress, because it is to be a conference of Protestant bodies whose aims, they think, tend to prevent a drawing together of Catholic and Protestant Episcopal Churches.