Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-22
DIR. LEAKS CHURCH
At Harrisburg All Torn Up Over the
Former Pastors Letter
MAKING VERY UGLY CHARGES
Rev. Mr.. Yocum Will Not Be Held Respon
sible for an Injustice.
VERY POINTED COMMUNICATION

rPEcrAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPArcH.I
| HARRISBURG, March 21-The transfer
of Rev. DR.. Leak to this city has been the
cause of much discussion in Grace M.
E. Church, over which he will soon preside.
The trouble has arisen from the fact that
DIR. Leak is not member of the Central
Pennsylvania Conference. which embraces
Harrisburg district.
Rev. E. II. Yocum, who has been pastor
of Grace Church, thinks he has been sub
jected to very unjust treatment. Rev. Yo-
cum is out in communication in which he
| says that, on learning that private meetings
| of his church had been held to devise means
| to secure another minister under the unwar-
rantable assumption that he had concluded
to leave his charge at the close of his third
year, he informed committee whi ch
waited on him that in view of the opposi-
tion to him by several members of the
church he had determined to close his pas
torate. Rev. Yocum, in his printed state
ment, says:
Didn't Want to Hold On.
"From this time forward, ,notwithsta nding
all statements to the contrary, and also in
the face of declarations respecting wire
go fs' ;1t;S' ess., N"sn WIZ:
I spurn with well-merited contempO
1 have neither expected nor wished
to continue as pastor of Grace Church De-
yond the close of the third year. When, at
length, a selection was made outside the
membership of the Central Pennsylvania
Conference, did expect, as did the entire
conference OF which am a member, that a
transfer would be made only upon the basis
of an equitable exchange between confer
ences. This was the condition, and the
only condition, insisted upon in the corre-
spondence which was bad with Bishop
Fowler, by myself, prior to the meeting of
our conference at Sunbury on the 11th
inst"
After stating that Bishop Fowler had
told him that ne had arranged to make the
transfer by exchange between conferences,
but that the representations made to him
(the Bishop by the brethren from Grace
Church had been that his (Yocum' Sd PASTOR
ate had been a fiat failure, and that the
church
Was Ready for Disintegration.
and that he (the Bishop had no alternative
but to provide place for him in this con-
ference, Rev. Mr.. Yocum adds: ''When it
was determined that both DR.. Leak and
myself were to be provided for in the Gen.
trail Pennsylvania Conference, emphatic
ally and repeatedly insisted that 1 should
not be made the instrument of injustice and
injury to my brothers in the ministry; that
If there was anywhere vacancy, no matter
how inferior that vacant place might be, 1
should be appointed to it. and be thus
spared the humiliation of seeing my brother
minister suffer, not through my fault, it is
true, but through my misfortune in becom-
ing the victim of grossest Misrepresentation.
The conference session closed, and nv
plea for my brethren was not Needed for 1
found myself appointed to one of the most
desirable stations in the conference, where
a united congregation awaits my coming to
enter upon the duties of my pastoral office.
In the effort, however, to make room in the
conference for transferred man, there are
several brethren who are deeply and justly
aggrieved. 1t could not be otherwise. Let
the responsibility rest where it justly be-
longs, and it is responsibility of no trivial
character"