Methodists Meet

Two-thirds of the world's 12,000,000 Methodists live in the U. S. Last year their three main U. S. branches--Methodist Episcopal Church; Methodist Episcopal Church, South; Methodist Protestant Church--merged to form the nation's biggest Protestant church. Fortnight ago united Methodism met at Atlantic City for its first general conference. The 776 delegates and their thousands of camp followers met morning, noon & night, spent small time even on mild amusements, though godly Governor Luren D. Dickinson of Michigan, a delegate for the last 32 years, roller-chaired down the boardwalk with delegates from India and China (see cut).

The uniting conference at Kansas City (TIME, May 8, 1939, et seq.) slapped things together with a minimum of debate. Looking on their handiwork after a year's lapse, Methodists made minor adjustments, no major changes. By the time the conference adjourned this week it had:

>Voted compulsory retirement at 72 for bishops and ministers. Bishops formerly retired at 70, ministers had no age limit.

>Condemned as pampering papacy President Roosevelt's appointment of Steelman Myron C. Taylor as his personal peace envoy to the Vatican, urged Episcopalian Taylor's immediate recall, even at this time when the President was pulling all the strings he could to keep Italy out of the war.

>Clipped the power of bishops slightly by requiring them to consult with pastors before shifting them from one congregation to another.

>Rejected decisively a motion to admit women ministers to the annual district conferences -- which would compel the Church to find churches for them. Said a spokesman: "Should a woman pastor marry, her husband would be forced to move from one place to another with his wife, possibly putting him in a humorous light." But women may be ordained.

>Heard Bishop Ralph Spaulding Cushman of St. Paul, Minn., president of the Anti-Saloon League, announce that a war chest of $1,500,000 would be raised to "attack the liquor interests with renewed energy." The Board of Temperance noted with alarm the increasing consumption of wine: "Wherever wine has gotten a stranglehold, there is little hope for early release. ... It will surely destroy the French people."

>Urged passage of laws to require premarital medical tests, recommended that Methodist parents instruct their children before adolescence "on the origin of life and the nature of their personalities as it relates to sex."

>Tabled a motion to put the Nazi swastika on the stage with flags of other nations whose delegates had been prevented from attending.

>Set Sunday, June 2, as a day for 8,000,000 Methodists to fast, pray "for a speedy termination of war," give to a war-relief fund.

>Decreed that henceforth Methodist ministers must be college graduates, have theological training.

>Decided that Methodist candidates for the ministry need no longer answer aloud Founder John Wesley's famed "soul-searching" examination, which contains such questions as "Are you in debt?", "Are you going on to perfection?" and "Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?" The questions will still be asked but aspirants may answer them "silently."

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