The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-10-23
WILL ADOPT ENGLISH
GERMAN EVANGELICAL CONFER
ENcE FAvoRs DROPPING THE
MOTHER TONGUE
REV. A. label SAYS
ACTION is NECESSARY
Declares That Language of the Land
Must Be That of the Church If the
Rising Generation Is to Be Held in
the Conference.

The German Evangelical conference
yesterday practically declared for the
adoption of English as the official Ian
guage of the church
At it's annual meeting, now in Ses-
sion at Zion church, Winifred and
Bancroft streets, the Rev. A. label, of
Faribault, read a paper on the Ian
guage of Our Conference" in which he
recommended that English be adopted
as the official language of the church.
He said that if the Evangelical asso-
citation wished to hold and increase it's
membership amongst the young gen.
Grafton of German-American men. and
women it must discard the Teutonic
tongue for the current language of the
United States.
''The language of the church should
be the language of the home" said Mr..
label. MEN and women should Wor-
ship in the language in which they
converse. In America this is English.
Declares 1t a. Duty.
cit is the duty of the Evangelical as
ISOLATION to discard German for the
language of the country in every par
ish, where the majority of the mem.
bers understand that tongue.
eff we wish to hold our young men
and women within our church, and II
we are to increase our membership
through conversions, we must speak
English in our churches. The Ameri-
can born German is an American IN
every sense Of the word. While he has
the most profound respect for the land.
Of his fathers, he loves America. He
wants to be American in all his acts.
He wants to worship his God in the
language Of Americans.
ct may be hard on the older MEM
berS of the church to have English
supplant German, but the day is not
far distant when all the Evangelical
churches in America will conduct their
services in the language of the coun-
try.
Fifteen Per Cent Use English Now. )
Already Is per cent of our churches
have discarded German, and those
congregations which have done SO
show the greatest growth and the
greatest activity among the younger
members. We will all be obliged to do
likewise soon." 1T
Rev. Mr.. labels address created some
excitement and brought forth much
comment from the members of the
conference.
A majority of the ministers coincid-
ed with his views and Endorsed the
stand which he took. So
Rev. H. Plantikow followed with "a
paper In winch ne SAID that the Evan
gelical association was purely an
American institution, and as such
would ultimately be obliged to cast
aside every vestige of old country Gus
toms and traditions, even to the Ian
guage of the fatherland.
Others who spoke were Rev. HI.
Bunse, Winona: Rev. A. Geyman,
Preston; Rev. G. w. Williamson,
Rochester, and Rev. M. Schoenleber,
Cherry Grove.
Next Conference at Morrison.
Last night the daily sermon was
preached by Rev. A. Reech, of st.
Charles. The conference voted to hold
the next annual meeting the third
week in October, 1905, at Morrison.
MINI.
Rev. Mr.. Behren, the European rep
resentative of the association, was
present at the meeting yesterday and
made an appeal for funds for the cree
ton of church at Berlin. There is a
congregation of more than 500 families
in the German capital, but they are,
unable to build place of worship.
Sunday the new Zion church, at
Winifred and Bancroft streets, will be
dedicated. Bishop Horne, of Cleve-
land will officiate at the services.
Many of the pastors in attendance at
the conference will remain for the ded-
ication ceremonies.