Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1924-01-03
Breech Widening In Episcopal
Church AS Moderns Defy Bishops
Trial of Rev. Heaton of Dallas, Tex,
This Month for Heresy Cause OF
Bombardment of Bishops for Rad
flying Apostles of Greed.
Written Specially for The Leader
By R. H. WHITNEY

NEW YORK, Jan. 2-In the Epis-
copal Church throughout the country
the breach is widening today over
Modernism with a growing number
OF the clergy and laiety entering the
lists. Hot beds of dissension extend
from New York to Fort Worth, from
Boston to San Francisco. A truce was
declared over Christmas-but now
both sides feel at liberty to resume
action.
The issue is plain. 1t is: Can Chris
tan faith continue to stand unimpair-
ed without full belief in the Virgin
Birth and the Resurrection of the body
as set forth in the Apostles Creed?
Several fashionable and foremost
Episcopal clergymen are openly de-
nying their belief in either. And they
are saying to their Bishop, what are
you going to do about it,"
A leader in the ''Modernist
movement" is DR.. Percy Stickney
Grant, rector of the Church of the
Ascension of New York, who openly
denies the literal truth of the creed.
His vestry and his congregation have
Joined him in his belief Opposed to
him are the standpat Fundamental
lists.
Efforts, so far, to try DR.. Grant as
hereto have failed. He has re-
NAMED technically within the Episco-
pal law. But he stands in open
defiance of his Bishop, the Ri. Rev.
William T. Manning, former rector
of Trinity Church, who has said that
i'll decency's name DR.. Grant ought
to- resign. DIR. Grant has refused
to resign and so far has escaped trial
Seventeen years ago, when the last
heresy trial was held, the Rev. DR..
Algernon S. Crapsey of Rochester,
was unfrocked because he said the
physical father of Jesus was Joseph.
Now comes the Rev. Lee w. Hea-
ton, rector of Trinity Church of
Fort Worth, Texas, who tells Harry
T. Moore, Bishop Coadjutor of the
Diocese of Dallas:
There are those among us who be-
lieve that Jesus was the incarnation
of God and the son of Joseph. This is
my own opinion. Canon Storr and
Bishop Gore of England and Bishop
Lawrence of Massachusetts, affirm
that in the early days of the Christian
Church belief in the Virgin Birth was
neither taught nor held. Christian faith
today could stand uninpaired without
such belief"
His words have caused intense ex-
element throuhout the East and
his forthcoming trial for heresy in
January, DR.. Stuart L. Tyson, vice
president of the Modern Church
mems Union, sent this message to
the newspapers of America last week:
This. trial is perhaps The most
important matter in the generation.
Now that the Bishop Coadjutor of
Dallas has initiated proceedings fol
lowing meeting OF the House of
Bishops, it is the beginning of a
concerted movement to cleanse the
Episcopal Church of modernism.
The procedure of the trial is by de-
position, no oral evidence or cross
examination beng allowed.
Moderns Rally to Defense
of Rev. Heaton.
When this news filtered into New
York, during the week, several of the
most prominent churchmen of New
York caused CONSERVATION by open
comments from their pulpits. The
Dew. DR.. Leighton Parks, famous
rector of St. Bartholomew Episcopal
Church, proclaimed he did not be-
lieve in the Virgin Birth of Christ
and the bodily resurrection as his
torical facts, and dared Bishop Man
ming to bring him to trial So star
ting were his statements that some
OF the congregation walked out while
he was speaking.
On Sunday, December 10th, DR..
Parks electrified his congregation
when after appearing in his pulpit,
shorn of his vestments, he leaned far
over and cried out:
Il wear no vestments because II
come to you today, not as your minis
ter but as a doctor of theology, lest
some should say that it is pity that
their rector is in opposition to the
church doctrine. I tell you the integ-
rity of the clergy is now at stake. Am
l, who have preached the faith for
fifty years, to be called dishonest be-
cause / no longer agree with my bish-
op? Am I to be accused of heresy
because I preach doctrines for which
there is ample foundation in the
Scriptures? My answer will be found
IN First Corinthians, "a. With me
1t is very small thing that I should
be judged by You, or of mans iudg-
ment He that judgeth me is the Lord.
Are bishops the sole definers 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
all the bishops put together. Their
authority is carefully restricted, and,
when the EnC1icI1 church hroI>a ,,v,ox,