The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-15
DIVORCE LAWS ID REMAIN THE SAME Fpscopa|Ian CIeTgynGn Gan Re- mary Innocent Person SENTIMENT WAS DIVIDED Proposition to Change Name of Church Is Reported By Committee as
 Inexpedient at This
 Time.
SENTIMENT WAS DIVIDED

bate today rejected an amendment to the divorce canon, which sought to prevent the re-marriage of divorced persons by clergymen of the denomination. While the house of bishops may yet act on the question, 1t Is certain that no change will be made by the present convention.
 The present law of the church. which has been In operation since 1859, allows the re-marriage of the innocent party to a divorce granted for inhdelty. At sew eral conventions. attempts have been made to repeal this law, and when vote was taken today by the house of depu- ties, sitting as a committee of the whole on the question of reporting the proposed amendment to the house itself the re- formers were successful by vote of 2l4 to 191, and this vote was regarded as rep resenting the actual strength of the con tending forces.
 Vote By Dioceses.
 The final vote, however, was taken by dioceses and orders, and where a diocese was evenly divided in sentiment. its strength was counted in the negative. The vote by dioceses was clerical-for the amendment, 30; against, 21; divided, 10.
 Lay yote-For. 20: against, "A; divided s.
 Practically the entire strength of the middle western states, the stronghold of the high church party, declared for the proposed reform, but the Pacific states and number of the southern states voted against a change of the present canon. The diocese of New York op- posed the amendment while that of Pennsylvania favored it. In New Eng land, Vermont and Western Massachu- setts voted for a change, as did the lay deputies from Rhode Island. The clerical deputies from Maine favored the amend ment but the votes u Connecticut and Massachusetts were cast in the nega- tive.
 The convention will have no session to- morrow.
 Unable to Define Communicant.
 The committee on the state of the church reported to the house of deputies that it had been unable to define the terms "Communicantp as required by the dioeese of Albany Upon the return or the committee a special committee was appointed to report to the next conven- tion on the subject.
 proposition bearing on changing the name of the church came before the house, when the committee on prayer DOCK reported that 1t considered 1t inexpedlent to strike the words Protestant Episco- nal" from the title page of the prayer hook in view of the fact that the joint commission appointed three years ago to consider a change in the name of the church had reported in favor of making no change at this time. The committee report was upon Q resolution to strike the two words from the prayer book, h. troduced by Rev. Talbot Rogers of Fon- dulac. Wis The matter will be discussed later.
 Rev. pr. Reece, also of Brookline in presenting the report of a special com mittee to consider requests for the use or the revised version Bible in churches, ! recommended the use of the Westmin- ster Bible at morning and evening prayer. The report will be discussed later
 To Petition Legislatures. | A resolution was adopted appointing a committee, consisting two bishops, two clerical and two lay deputies for the pur- pose of petitioning state legislatures in the interest of reforming the divorce laws.
 The resolution is subject to concurrence by the house of bishops
 The house after voting, 233 to no, to order a vote DY IHe CO11fDllltt LII lhD whole at not later than noon today on the canon amendment forbidding clergy men to remarry any divorced person, went into committee of the whole to fur | ther consider that question:
 1 The Rev. A. O. Glazebrook of Eliza | beth, N J., the first speaker, attacked l those members of the laiety who were 1 supporting the supposed new canon on the ground of expediency rather than by the rule of interpretation of scripture, and vigorously opposed change.
 The Rev. H. s. Sneed of Georgetown also opposed the amendment and the Rev. Dr. A. A. Morrison of Portland, Me-, questioned the right of the church to sanction the proposed legislation because in his view 1t did violence to clergymen by conflicting with their ordination VOWS. George c. Thomas of Philadelphia, who in brief address supported the reform movement, was the last speaker before the hour came for the vote to be taken.
 Vote to Report Amendment. In accordance with the motion passed yesterday the first division was upon the question of reporting as a committee of the whole the amendment forbidding the remarriage of any divorced person. It was voted 214 to 191 to report the amend ment The division furnished the first test vote on the divorce issue at the present convention. An amendment referring to the bishops the request of divorced per son for permission to receive the sacra- ments also will be reported to the house, the vote to do so standing 280 to 126. The amendment makes an exception in the case Of a penitent person in imminent danger of death. and in the case of inno- cent person in a divorce for the cause of adultery.
 The house, as a committee of the whole, dissolved and resumed its regular session. discussion developed over the amount of time which should be allotted for final consideration of the divorce question.
 Resumed Divorce Question. The house of deputies resumed the dis cussion of the divorce question this af- ternoon. Chief Justice J. H. Stinson of Rhode Island, supreme court. said he was profundly convinced that there was nc way by which Llvorces could be stopped except by provisions against re-marriage The closing argument in favor of the old canon was made by Rev. pr. Lewis Parks of New York. who criticized the lawyers | in the convention. Rev. Dr. Davenport rf