El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-09-28
PLAN UNDER WAY TO CHANGE
EPISCOPAL REPRESENTATION

The general convention of the PrOtes-
tant Episcopal church, which meets In
New York on 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 will
be advocated on the ground that the
present plan of representation is unjust,
lnequltable, undemOcratie and un-Amer-
lean.
One of the leaders in this movement
is Rev. DR.. Randolph II. McKim, of
Washington, now the president of the
house of deputies.
AT the annual convention of the do
cese of Washington, which was held in
May of this year, DR.. McKim introduced
resolutions which were adopted and
which have served to start the agitation
that may come before the convention.
In the preamble to his resolution, DR..
Mchlm set forth that under the system
OF representation now existing in the
church, dioceses that have less than 5000
eommunlcants have as many representa-
tIves apd as many votes in the house
OF deputies as those diOceSes which con-
tain $4,000 or even 10000 communicates.
Legislation adopted under these con-
ditiOns," said Dr. McKim, may utterly
fail to reflect the mind of the church,
and may, therefore, fail to command the
loyal support of the several dioceses.
Moreover, should any vital issue of
Christian doctrine OF ritual, or ecclesias-
teal polity, upon which the mind of the
church was sharply divided, be decided
by a technical majority of votes which
really represented q small minority of
communicates, the peace and unity of the
church Is seriously imperiled.
There is, widespread demand that
our present undemOcratic and IN
American system, which is a traVesty
upon representative government, shall
be changed.
BY agreeing upon a certain number
Of clergymen in a diocese as the unit,
IN a vote by dioceses and orders, and by
adopting the fractional system of voting
IN the smaller dioceses, it is possible to
approximate equality of representation
without reducing or increasing the pres
ent number of deputies from the do
ceses. The representation in the house
OF bishops, as it stands at present, ap-
prOxlmates sufficiently the principles of
the equality of the diOceses. after the
analogy of the United States senate.
The case has been cited time and time
again of the diocese OF Lexington. which
has p clergy and 1887 communicates.
and has the same voting power as the
diocese of New York, for example, with
412 clergy and S6,250 communicates.
Under our present system of repre-
sentatiOn, the two dioceses of Virginia
and southern Virginia, with 1913 clergy
and 81 POS COMMITMENTS, have in the
general convention 16 votes. while the
six diOceses of Kansas City, Indianapolis,
Springfield, Dallas, Delaware and Duluth
with 1856 clergy and 24,29S communi-
cants, have 48 votes. I do not think Il
is necessary for me to refer to any other
examples to show the injustice and un-
Americanism of the presnt system of
The diocesan convention at Washing
ton by resolution authorized a commit
tee Of three clergy and two laymen to
prepare memorial to the general con-
yentiOn asking that body to take imme-
date steps to remedy defects. a few
weeks later the diocese of MARYLAND
passed similar resolutions and these
were quickly followed by resolutions of
the diocese of southern Virginia.
The convention meets for three weeks
in the grounds of the Cathedral of st.
John the Divine.