Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-27
BOWMAN'S SIDE OF IT.
The Bishop of One of the Rival Evan
gelical Factions Tells
WHAT CAUSED THE RECENT SPLIT.
Arbitration Would Be Violation of the
Church Discipline.
INDEFENsIBLE ACTS OF DUBS PARTY

NoRRIsTowN, Feb. 26.-Bishop Bowman,
of Chicago, who is this week the presiding
officer of the Evangelical Church Confer
ence of the Eastern District of Pennsyl-
vania, now in session here, was asked to-
day if he had anything to say concerning
the strife which has divided the church and
which still continues. He was asked if any
overtures had been made by the faction
which withdrew from the church, and which
it had been reported is proposing to return.
In reply he furnished the following state
ment:
"The Evangelical Association has the
Episcopal, or associated, form of church
government-that is, all the churches con-
nected with the association are under one
government. ALI the ecclesiastical ar
rangements are subject TO the control of
their general conference, which meets every
four years and is composed of delegates
elected to the different annual conferences
in accordance with their numerical strength.
Where the schism Began.
"At the General Conference held at
Buffalo the adjudication of several i'm
portant questions as well as the election of
the general church officers, displeased a
number of delegates somewhat prominent
in the councils of the church, and who re-
fused to sign the proceedings of that body,
in violation of the constitution of the
church. Afterward, in opposition to the
laws and usages, this faction, known as
the Dubs faction, organized independent
which made it their special aim to
antagonize the regular publications of the
church, as we'll as to oppose, arraign and
assail the general officers of the church,
holding them up to public ridieule. That
faction labored to reduce the circula-
ton of the regular church literature and in
troduce in its stead their own, going so far
as to publish their own separate Sunday
school literature.
'sNevertheless, they claimed that the
profits of the church publications should
fall to them equally with those who labored
assiduously to build up these interests, and
commenced suits at laws, in violation of the
discipline. even before the church was
given an opportunity to decide the questions
at issue by its own highest tribunal, the
General Conference.
Why Arbitration Is Not to Be Thought or
"After these acts of opposition to the
church, and after they had already met in
their separate assembly, thus consummating
the schism in the church, arbitration was
proposed by other parties, a method of
action which the church could not recognize.
To the General Conference of the church,
the only authoritative body which might
have entered into any negotiations, no offer
to arbitrate was made, hence that body adj
justed the question at issue in accordance with
the laws and usages of the church, taking
the ground that whoever desires to remain
in the church must submit to the decisions
of the highest legislative body and supreme
court of law in the church.
''There will be peace in the church when
ever a revolving minority submits to the de-
cision of the majority. No government can
arbitrate with an insurrection while the lat
ter is in arms against its authority. The
document published by the Dubs faction,
proposing certain arbitration schemes, con-
tains, according to its own face, consider
able less than one-fourth of the ministers in
the church, and comes from a faction which,
while it issues words of peace, is engaged in
violent acts of warfare against the author
titles and Institutions of the church. -