Catholic or Protestant

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Feb 3, 1916

Catholic or Protestant

For some time it has been recognized that a strong Romanizing influence is at work in the Protestant Episcopal Church. There are those in that church who favor a closer alliance with the Church of Rome. The proposition that this church cooperate with other Protestant churches in the Panama Missionary Conference to be held in 1916, has emphasized anew the existence of this Catholic party which strongly opposes such cooperation. Some of the Episcopal clergymen, however, have very little sympathy with this Romanizing spirit. Dr. Karl Reiland, rector of St. George’s parish in New York, declares himself, according to the Northwestern Christian Advocate of January 5, in the following plain and unequivocal manner regarding the question:—

St. George’s church has stood for a hundred years for evangelical Protestant Christianity, and it has a peculiar right to protest against this ominous and Romanizing tendency in the church. The laity should be warned that there is a Catholic party, and that it is striving to devitalize the true Protestant character of the Episcopal Church. We should use every means in our power to organize and prevent any further misrepresentation. We should insist that if our Catholic friends cannot stand our Protestant atmosphere, they should move. We should make use of every opportunity to unite with other Protestant communions in the interests of spiritual common sense, efficiency, and economy at home and in the mission fields. Our attitude toward other communions is at fault, because whenever Christian unity is discussed, advocates for the word ‘Catholic’ and all that is implied thereby, who love to assert that ‘Catholic’ is our legal title, are unfortunately permitted to represent the Protestant Episcopal Church in a way that seriously misrepresents it.