The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-06-12
ALABAMA ISSUES STIR INTEREST OF
 ALL LEPISCOPALIANS
Church Paper Comments on Recent Develop ments in Diocese of
 Alabama

Alabama
 That recent events In the diocese of Alabama of the Episcopal church are attracting attention of Epis- copalians everywhere is indicated by the following editorial in The Liv- ing Church. probably the church's leading publication in America:
 The diocese of Alabama Is present. ing some grave problems to the church. Strained relations between bishop and rector have been unhap- oily frequent in recent years. The conception that all discretion as to services is vested in the bishop and none in the rector has nowhere else been carried to such an extreme, with the result that strong men have frequently found 1t impossible to administer parishes as rector With out running counter to diocesan ad- ministration that fails to recognize the rector of a parish as. by the law of the church, possessed or full power to perform every act or sacerdotaI function among the peo- pie of the same" subject to the GUS tcmary limitations that are well un- derstood among us.
 Anglican churchmen are trying to commend the eplscopate, as an insti- tuition, to the Protestant world about us. Stress was laid by the bishops at Lambeth upon it's constitutional character. Are we. fin fact. so utiliz- ing a constitutional episcopate as to commend 1t?
 Two present incidents seem to com pei notice,
 The rector of one of the largest parishes in the diocese has been cited for ecclesiastical trial before court whose members are. under the di- ocesan canon chosen by the bishop, We shall observe our invariable prac- tice of not discussing canonical ques- tons that are under judicial in- qury. We can properly express the greatest regret. however, that the is- sue was taken under judicial inquiry at all. Superior to the value of q precise hair-breath interpretation of the language of a canon is to be placed the well being of the church. The promise of the bishop in the ordinal "diligenuy'' to exercise dis cipline is coupled with the other promise to maintain and set for ward" 'quietness, love and peace, among all men" A bishop charging bnt VI liAE Stti b9 WiAh NlSAeNhiNh OA his ordination vows, is bound to be especially punctilious in fulfilling hls own vet we question whether the citation of a prominent rector for trial on the particular issue and un- der the particular circumstances Is so necessary an exercise of discipline as to justify that serious infraction of "quietness. love and peace" that it involves within the diocese.
 And secondly, special eonven- ton has been called for the election of bishop eoadjutor. In his discre- tion the bishop has fixed the place for that convention iat Carlowville, where we have mission numbering 40 communieants, without resident priest a place three miles from the nearest railroad station on branch line, IS miles by public highway from the nearest place of any con siderable size, a place with q popu- lation of 250 inhabitants, with neither hotel telegraph station. nor post of flee, and dependent for it's mail upon rural delivery; a place, therefore, at which delegates to the convention are dependent entirely upon the ex- tent to which private homes may be thrown open for their personal ac- commodation or else upon driving IS miles from and to Selma, the nearest place having public accommodations of any sort. a place therefore from which the 0,000 commandments of the diocese are necessarily excluded. except in so far as those officially required to be present and able to obtain access may be present, at a time when the election of a bishop, and therefore the destinies of the church in U whole generation. are to be determined; a place almost in- accessible to the press and from which the reports can be transmitted only with the greatest difficulty.
 To elect a bishop coadjutor under these circumstances is to afford the greatest handicap to the free choice of the diocese, to involve him who may be chosen In perplexities such as light easily lead to his decliaa tion, if he were a man fit for the position ana, since the election under such very strange conditions would necessarily demand and receive the most rigid scrutiny in both houses of general convention when the qucs- ton of confirmation of the election shall arise, would involve grave dan ger that the national church would refuse to ratify choice thug e. fccted, although apart from any qucs- tion as to the fitness of the candi- date chosen.
 To say all this is not pleasant. The Bishop of Alabama seems not to realize that bishops also are men under authority, that Ttheir lawful actions are hedged about with con stitutional limitations, that they are not absolute monarchs within thc.r realms. and that the disturbance of the peace of diocese is justifiable only when it is an urgent neces- sity.
 The diocese of Alabama is not. at the present time, presenting to the world in general that happy relation ship between bishop, clergy and laity which Is the Ideal of the church TWO WOMEN INJURED