Arizona republican., 1913-09-27
General Convention Of Pro
testant Episcopal Church
Which Meets in New York
Next Month to Have
Problems
CHANGE DEPUTIES
REPRESENTATION
One Of the Leaders in This
Movement is Rev. Dr..
Randolph X. McKim OF
Washington, President OF
Deputies
CSpecial to The Republican,

Especial to The Rcpubhcan)
NEW YORK. Sppt. 2G.-The general
convention Of the Protestant Episco-
Ial church, which meets in New York
"a October 8. Will be the occasion OF
q determined effort on the part Of
the larger dioceses in the country TO
change the plan of representation in
the house of deputies The change
VIII be advocated on the ground that
the present plan Of representation is
Unjust, incquitable. undemocratic and
un-American.
one OF the leaders in this move
ment is the Rev Or. Randolph IL
ATcKim Of Washington. who is now
the president Of the house of deputies.
At the annual convention of the
diocese of Washington which was
held in May Of this year, DR. McKim
introduced resolutions which We're
adopted and which have served To-
start the agitation that may come
before che convention.
In the preamble to his resolutions,
Dr. Mckim set forth that under the
system Of representation now exist
ing in the church, dioceses that have
less than 5000 communicates have
as. many representatives and as many
votes in the house OF deputies as
those diocesos which contain $4,000
or even 10000 communicates.
Legislation adopted under these
conditions" said Dr. McKim yester-
day. may utterly fail To reflect the
mind of the church. and may there
fcre fail TO command the loyal sup
port Of the several dioceses. More
over. should any vital issue of Chris
tian doctrine or ritual or ecclesias-
tcal polity, upon which the mind Of
the church was sharply divided. be
decided by a technical majority Of
votes. which really represented a
small minority of communicates the
peace and unity of the church is ser
iously impeTiled.
There is widespread demand
that our present undemocratic and
un-American system. which is a ira
vcsty upon representative govern
ment, shall be changed
by agreeing upon a certain num-
! Der of clergymen in a diocese as a
unit, III Il vote by dioCeses and orders.
and by adopting the fractional sys-
! tenn of voting in the smaller diOceses.
/ il is possible to approximate equality
| o. representation without reducing or
/ increasing the present number Of
deputies from the dioceses. The re-
( presentation in the house Of bishops,
! as it stands at present approximates
| sufficiently the principles of the
| equality of the dioceses. after the
anaIosy Of the United States senate.
The case has been cited time and
time again of the diocese Of LeXing-
ton which has - clergy and 1887
communicates and has the same vot-
York, for example, with 412 clergy
and 86,250 communicates
Under our present system of re
presentation. the two dioceses Of Viz
ginia and Southern Virginia with 19S
clergy and 31.2OS communicates. nave
IL the general convention Is votes
while the six dioceses Of Kansas City
indianapolis, Springfield Dallas. Della
ware ana Duluth. with 1S6 clergy and
2t29S communicates, have As votes
II do not think it is necessary foI
me to refer to any other examples t,
show the injustice ana un-American-
ism OF the present system of repre-
scntation."
The Diocesan Convention at Wash
ington by resolution authorized Z
| committee of three clergy and tw,
laymen to prepare a memorial to tn,
general convention asking that body
. 70 take immediate steps to remedy
defects. a few weeks later the dio-
cese of Maryland passed similar reso
lutions and these were followed b.
resolutions of the diocese of SoutherI
Virginia.
The convention meets for thre,
weeks in the grounds of the Cathedra
Of st. John the Divine and durns
: those weeks the men who want tn
Plan of representation changed viii
work constantly to carry out thei
: wishes.