Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-29

VIOLENCE IN CHURCH,
No Let-Up in the War of the Bishops
Of tne Christian Evangelical
Association.
MINISTERS FORCED TO BE SILENT,
Some Dragged From the Pulpits They
Strove to Occupy and Others Held
Down in Their Pews.
MINISTER'S FORCED TO BE SILENT,
OFFICERS OF THE LAW CALLED UPON.
The General Conference at indianapolis in October VIII
Make Matters Worse


ALLENTOWN, PA, March 2S.-For three
weeks past the bitterest conceivable relig-
ious feud has been in progress throughout
Eastern and Central Pennsylvania, among
the congregations of not less than 100
churches attached to the Christian -Evangel-
ical Association. 1t is attended with Incl
dents and accompanying features that prob
ably have not been psralleled in any eccles-
iastical quarrel of recent years.
Each of these congregations is split in two
factions, namely, the Bowman and the anti
Bowman, and each faction has been strug-
Cling, tooth and nail, for three Sundays now,
to secure possession of the respective
churches and psrsonages to the exclusion of
their opponents. Policemen guard the
church doors at many places TO prevent the
use of physical violence by any of the con-
testants; churches are barred and locked
at other points by the factions
having the upper hand in order that their
Rdversaries may not get in; two preachers,
claiming to be the regularly appointed pas
tors, present themselves before each congre-
cation to preach. while only one can do SO;
and in almost every family the household is
divided against itself, and fathers rise up
against the children and children are at war
with the fathers, all by reason of animosi-
ties engendered in the great dispute.
The Origin of the Trouble.
These troubles are the immediate outcome
of the recent meetings of the Eastern Con-
ference of the Association held at Allen
town from February 26 to March 5, and OF
the Central onGerence held at Berwick
from March to March 10, full details of
which have already been published in The
DISPATCH. The complications with which
they had to deal were in turn inherited flom
the squabbles among the three Bishops OF the
Association year ago, which shook
the organization from top to bottom and
eliminated in the overthrow of all three
Bishop Dubbs' friends claimed that his ex-
pulsion was illegally and upjustly effected,
and they accordingly preferred charges
against Bishop Esher and Bishop Bowman,
upon which they too were deposed. Dubbs
withdrew from his Office, but Bowman and
Esher did not and continued as the heads
of the church to hold Conferences
Bishop Bowman, claiming to have au.
thority to act as chairman of the Allentown
and Berwick Conferences. was estopped,
after innumerable stormy scenes, from pre-
siding at either by the majority of delegates
composing those Conferences, and he with
his followers set up Independent Confer
ences, Then each of the two conflicting
Eastern Conferences, as well as the two con-
fictiug Central Conferences made the Gus
tomsry ministerial appointments for the
coming year to fill the various charges with
in their jurisdiction. The natural and un-
avoidable consequence has been that the
members of each congregation have been
called upon to decide which of the two min
listers sent to them they will accept as their
pastor, and the solution of this problem has
carried the war into each family.
The Anti-Bowman People Ahead.
The unseemly public contests for supre-
macy began in the churches on March 8,
and have been continued with some slight
diminution of zeal on the succeeding Sun
davs. The most violent disturbances thus
far have occurred in the churches here at
Allentown, in Reading, Birdsboro,
Catasauqua, Slatington, Easton, Bethlehem,
Mahonoy City, and Drehersville, though
the troubles have taken unseemIy shape 10
a less degree in scores of other places. In
most of the battles the anti-Bowman people,
being in the majority, have contriyed to
win the greater number of victories, and
are now holding tenaciously TO the advan-
tages already gained. In a few congre-
cations temporary truces have been patched
up, by which the rival pastors are allowed
to preach to their respective followers on
alternate Sundays, with a division of ex-
penses, and in few other congregations the
Bowman adherents are too weak numeric-
ally to offer successful resistance to the
ruling faction.
1p this city the Bowman pastors are not
even permitted to cross the thresholds OF the
Zion, Salem and Ebenezer churches, and
when they attempt to do so, they have been
invariably elected with the aid of police
officers The only Bowman stronghold here
1C mr. oil u-ho
Bowman held hisiindependent Eastern Con-
ference. Last Sunday the Bowman faction
Of the Salem Church were obliged to hold
their services in Hunsicker's Hall, hired for
the occasion.
Frequent Resorts to Violence.
At Reading and Birsdboro the Bowman
ite preachers are allowed to enter the
churches, but not to preach, and in each
case they have had to content themselves
with merely reading formal protest against
their exclusion from the pulpits. The Bow
mantle pastor OF the Sixth Street Church
holds forth to his followers in the Hebrew
Synagogue. AT Catasauqua, on the first
Sunday, the trustees had to resort to physi-
cal force in holding down in his seat the
BOwmanite pastor, after he had tried to en-
ter the pulpit already occupied by his anti
Bowman rival, and the Chief of Police,
with squad of officers. had to be called in
10 quell the melee MANY women and chill
dren wept, and great excitement pre- vailed.
AT Slatington the Bowman appoinree,
having presented himself according TO in.
structions from his Conference and read the
formal protest, was repeatedly ordered to sit
down, anG falling to obey, was seized vigor-
ously by the Chief of Police and compelled
TO sit and keep silence. Hymns and sacred
songs were sung during the disturbance, but
many in the congregation uttered loud ex-
elamations and shed sorrowful tears. At
EaSton the Rev. W. II. Stauffer, who is
much beloved by his flock, but who has
espoused the Bowman cause against their
wishes, is not allowed to preach, and is
obliged to sit each Sunday silent witness
TO the services conducted from mis- pulpit by
another.
Officers of the Law Called.
In each of the ati-Bowman churches
deputy constables and policemen are dis
tributed through the crowd of worshi per.
on Sundays TO guard against possible in
yasion by the other party. At Maho nov
City and Drehersville the Bowman preach
ers are informed at the sanctuary doors that
they cannot preach, and they are powerless
10 make the attempt. This is also the case
with the great majority of the churches.
and this situation will doubtless be main
tained until the end. At Terre Hill, Lam
caster, Bernville and Heginsville agree
ments have been reached by which both
Bowman and anti-Bowman preachers fill the
pulpits without collision with each other.
In each case the control of a church is
disputed by either faction, the courts will
have to decide the merits of the controversy
and this will entail an untold amoupt Of
litigation. To meet the Necessary ex penses