Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-16
NEXT CONVENTION
Joint Committee Suggests
Cincinnati and 1910.
BOTH HOUSES IN SESSION
Church Work in Arctic, Tropics and
Alaska Discussed.
DEBATE ON NEGRO QUESTION
Bishop Brown Of Arkansas Makes a
Presentation From a Southern
Standpoint.
DEBATE ON NEGRO QUESTION

RICHMOND, Va, October 16.-Both
HOUSES of the Episcopal general conven-
ton devoted the early morning hour
largely to routine business. At O'Clock
there was joint session, when the gen.
eral subject of church work in the arctic,
the tropics and Alaska was to be fully
considered.
The joint committee of the convention
on time and place of next meeting re-
ported TO the house of deputies recon-
place Cincinnati
Negro Question in the Church.
Much interest has been aroused by a
vigorous attack against the proposition of
! Bishop Brown of Arkansas in the last
number of the Churchman. the organ Of
the Episcopalians, published in New York.
| In this article Bishop Brown is represent
ed as the enemy of the negro race. He
delivered a speech on the subject in the
house of bishops yesterday and his re-
marks We're intended, in part as reply
to the attack made on him by the Church
man. Bishop Brown said in part:
! Il have a letter in my possession from
prominent priest in the church, who
claims that the amalgamation of the An
/ glo-Amercan and Afro-American races Is
! the ultimate solution of our difficulties,
ard that they will be solved in this way
within fifty years. | pass this seating
! theory by with the observation that this is
the solution upon which many of the most
representative negroes have set their
! hearts. and that, if this church wants to
further them in the realization of that
desire. the erection of an Afro-American
episcopate of either the missionary or suf-
/ fragan type with any degree of represen-
tation in the general convention would be
action along the right line; otherwise 1t
would be fundamentally wrong"
Negro Bishops Would Increase.
IF we should consecrate only one or
! two African bishops and divide the whole
south into as many jurisdictions the col
ored episcopate, with its delegations,
would. perhaps, not be embarrassing and
hurtful to an unbearable degree. But
what good would be done by two or three
| colored bishops with vast Jurisdictions?
| If an Afro-American episcopate is to JUS
| tify the hope that its friends, both black
and white, entertain, there must ulti-
mately be nearly as many colored bishops
| in the black belts of the south there
are white bishops now. If we think it
worth while and advisable to grant the
appeal of all we should confidently expect
that colored bishops will increase on an
| average of one per year during the next
twenty years.
Possibly the house of bishops, which
Will be much larger by the end Of that
period than it is now, could endure its
| thorn of twenty co,ored bishops, but have
| you any idea that the house of clerical
and lay deputies could endure their
| 'thorns of as many negro delegations?
| Every Southerner knows that it would be
intolerable. and that the end would be
| the breaking up of the general conven-
| ton"
AS to Southern Ladies.
| He said that negro delegations would
also appear at the triennial meetings of
the woman's auxiliary.
would not that be interesting to the
southern ladies? What the Afro-Ameri-
cans need is several bishops. They know
it; SO do we. But since social conditions
will not permit any such increase in our
house of bishops, nor any large repre-
sentation in our house of deputies, let US
acknowledge this in an open and straight
forward manner, and give them the au-
tonomous church. with their own general
convention and all that goes with it,
| The house of deputies yesterday also
entered into the discussion OF the ques-
| ton relating to the amendments to the
constitution upon racial lines and the an
nouncement that this would be the order
explains the presence of a crowd which
overlooked the galleries and the seating
capacity Of the house. The convention
| plunged boldly into the discussion Of the
question and the best means Of providing
| for the spiritual welfare of the coored
race under the supervision Of the church.
Three Plans Suggested
| Three plans were suggested-that provid-
Ing for suffragan bishops. that providing
for negro bishops with Jurisdictions of
their own and the Arkansas plan, which
would give to the black man an entirely
separate church.
| The committee on bishops for the negro
| terialized by the diocese of Pennsylvania
| and the conference of colored people, re-
ported through Its chairman, Rev. DR..
Huntington of New York, that the plan is