The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-02-07
WANT THEIR PASTOR
Rev. Dr.. McMinn's Victory
Over His Opponents in
The Church.
WON'T ACCEPT THE RESIGN ALTON
A Majority of the Members of the
Congregation Satisfied of
His Abilities.
WON'T ACCEPT THE RESIGN ALTON

There was a special meeting of the MEM
bers of the Summit Avenue Baptist Church
last night for the purpose of deciding
whether they should accept the Rev. DR..
McMinn's resignation as pastor of the
church, which he rendered them at their
last meeting. The Sunday7school room, in
which the meeting was held, was crowded,
and, with the exception of a very few, those
present were all members of the church.
Outsiders were requested to withdraw be-
fore the meeting was called to order. The
Bible Glass teacher of the Sunday-school,
who does not happen to be a member of the
church, but is a great friend and admirer of
DR.. McMinn, was also ordered out. 1t was
noticed that the only persons objecting to
the presence of the representatives of the
press and other outsiders were the gentle
men who object to DR.. McMinn.
MODERATOR CHOSEN
The meeting was called to order by Mr..
| G. G.. Rochat, who asked one of the brothers
to make a prayer. A hymn followed and
the meeting was then thrown open for busi.
ness. The first thing done, was the election
of a Moderator or Chairman. The pastor as
a rule acts as Moderator at all meetings of
the church, but as he was the bone of con-
tention he absented himself. He was at the
meeting of Sherman Council, Royal Area
mum, where he delivered an address. Those
| opposed to the pastor nominated Mr.. G. G.,
Rechat for moderator. Those in favor of
the pastor nominated young Mr.. W. T.
Hunter. while Mr.. c. w. McPeek was the
candidate of the neutrals. Mr.. Hunter was
elected Moderator, receiving ninety-three
votes. Mr.. Rochat received twenty-one and
In npnn nIOrhfnAn
A VOTE.
MI. Hunter Immediately proceeded to the
business of the meeting. He asked whether
the voting should be done by standing or by
ballot. A warm discussion followed. The
'kickers" wanted the voting done by ballot,
and gave as their reasons for so doing that
if the people voted by standing up they
would not vote according to the dictates of
their conscience, which they would do if they
cast a ballot. Another thing they would be
afraid of being talked about unpleasantly if
they voted against their pastor.
Thu other side claimed that if they took a
standing vote there would be no opportunity
of stuffing ballot boxes and the like, nor
would there be any grounds for saying that
there was any trickery or manipulating of
votes,
The standing vote was carried by a vote of
Sc to 81.
A question then arose as. to whether the
newspapers SHOulu De gwen any luLOfiilallOu
of the meeting. By a vote of 81 to IL, only
63 persons voting, it was decided to give the
press the result of the meeting.
BIG FOR THE PASTOR.
Moderator Hunter then announced that
they would proceed to vote upon the ques-
ton that the meeting was called upon to act
upon, namely, the pastors resignation. A
standing vote was taken, as was decided
upon, and it resulted in a vote of 112 against
the acceptance of the resignation to 81 for
acceptance.
AS soon as the result of the election was
announced the moderator appointed q COM
mittee of three consisting of Messrs. II. B.
Lowe and j. Golf, and Mrs. Margaret Gem
berling to wait upon the pastor and notify
him of the result, and ask him to withdraw
his resignation. The committee was also
directed to request the pastor to make his
own terms for remaining
DR.. M'MINN NOTIFIED.
The committee called at the pastors resi-
dence Immediately after the meeting, &C
companied by a number of his friends from
the church, but Dr.. McMinn had not re-
turned from delivering his address. The
ladies and gentlemen waited, however, until
he did come, so anxious were they to tell him
the good news.
When DR.. McMinn arrived they pounced
upon him and covered him with congratula-
tions, almost pulling his arm out of its
socket.
The committee asked him to do as they
were babe, to tell him. but he would not give
them any decided nswer He told them to
wait until next Friday night at the meeting,
when he would say all he had to say.