Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-12-17
New York Pastor
Challenges Virgin
Birth of Christ

New York. Dec. 16--Putting aside
. the vestments Of priesthood and
stepping into the pulpit in the black
, robe of q doctor of divinity, DR..
Leighton Parks, rector of st. Bartho-
lomew's Protestant Episcopal Church.
!. today challenged the virgin birth Of
!. Christ and the bodily resurrection.
| He declared he would welcome a trial
by Bishop Manning of the New York
diocese.
DR.. Parks, who Is II years Of age
Nnd has been for twenty years rector
, at that fashionable Park Avenue
| Church, rejected the recent pastoral
letter issued by the house of bishops
+, of the denomination. The letter. call
ing upon the clergy to uphold the
Catholic tradition" of the church
and the Nicene Greed. was declared
by Doctor Parks to be autocratic.
! After this letter had been read
pursuant to requirements, DR.. Park
| Began his address by saying he wore
| no vestments because he appeared
mot as your minister, but as doc
/ tor of theology" He conducted his
earlier services in his vestments.
Declaring the integrity of the
| clergy was at stake. DIR. Parks asked
Gam I, who have preached the faith
for fifty years, to be called dishonest
because l do not agree with by
bishop?
"Am to be accused of heresy be-
cause ] preach doctrines for which
there is ample foundat ton in the
. scripture? Are bishops the sole de-
| finers of the faith? If they are, |
have no right to speak.
Not one teaching of this church
can be changed by one bishop, or by
al the bishops nut together. Their
| authority is carefully restricted. and.
when the English church broke away
from the Catholic tradition, it gave
| to each minister an equal authority
with his bishop. For them to behave
as final definers of the Christian
faith is onctrary to constitutional
| law"
There was widespread belief DIR.
Parks said, that the recent letter is
sued by the house of bishops, refer
red to Bishop Lawrence of Massa-
chusetts. He declared the bishops
did not name Bishop Lawrence be-
cause to have done 90 would have
necessitated a trial for him and "a
trial of Bishop Lawrence would shake
! this church to it's foundations.
Instead, he said, they have ordered
to trial "a poor, unknown minister" !.
This minister was said by officials OF
the church to be the Rev. Lee w.
Heaton of Fort Worth, Texas. DR..
Parks asserted he did not believe
Rev. Mr.. Heaton would ever be
brought to trial.
| DR.. Parks declared acceptance or
the physical resurrection of Christ
| was unnecessary to the faith and as
serted that making it so would be
fundamental heresy because it made
the physical more important than
the spiritual.
The doctrine of the virgin birth, he
said, was justified by only three
passages in the Bible.
| "And scholars tell me-" he contin-
ued. that virgin in the Greek really
| means married woman. We find st
Paul saying that Jesus was born of
| the flesh after the seed of David
And the scholars find that Joseph,
and not Mary was descended from
| David"
DIR. Parks, known as broad
churchman", was called to st. Bar
tholomew's in 1904 from Emanuel
church, Boston, where he had been
rector for % years. He was at one
time in charge of the American
church in Geneva and later with the
American chapel in Paris. His pres
ent church is an exceeding wealthy
one.
DIR. Parks has seldom figured in the
public press. In 1916 he differed
with Bishop Manning over the resur-
rection.
DIR. Percy Stickney Grant. rector
of the church of the Ascension who
engaged in a controversy with Bish-
op Manning last winter. also criti-
cized the pastoral letter of the house
of bishops in his sermon today. He
declared many clergymen and some
bishops did not accept the pastoral
letter as authoritative.
There are many n the church.
English and American, who still be-
lieve in an authority almost papal
and wish practically to return to
medieval wavs". DIR. Grant said
! "They have little sympathy with pros
! testantism''