The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1940-06-22

resignation from the African Metho-
dist Episcopal Church of America, to
take effect Immediately at this session
of the New England Conference.
feel sure that the present presiding
Bishop has not the courage and back
bone to allow this letter to be read on
the conference floor"
"Other reasons for my desire to
resign from the A.M.E. Church" said
Rev. Fuller, "are as follows: First, an
A.ME. Minister and presiding elder
are compelled to dance to the Bishops
music, if they desire to hold their
jobs. They must take all kinds of
verbal abuses on the conference floor
from the episcopal Hitlers and
Mussolinis" if the former should think
out loud in terms displeasing to the
episcopal dictators. Fifth Column
and Trojan Horse methods are the
Order of the Day in the AM.E.
| Church at the present time. Today
! it is almost impossible to receive a
reply to letter written to bishop
unless it is concerning some money
that minister is DESTROYS of sending
him.
at is gravely assumed that every
A.ME. Minister settled over a parish
| holds a commission from the Bishop to
preach doctrine of exaltation of the
present sons and daughters of Richard
Allen, but must hide all the injustices
and hypocritical demOgOguery prac-
ticed on the local church"
"To the Bishops, such as l am writ
ing here is 'Iconoclastic Radicalism'
of the worst sort, and they feel it to
| be a terrible phenomenon in which
| they see ground for serious apprehen-
sion lest the A.M.E. Church be ex-
posed and its deformity uncovered.
A real honest and upright minister in
the A.M.E. Church today must stoop
to every form of self-stultifying
humiliation if he wants to get along
with his Bishop. At the present time,
the A.M.E. Church is top-heavy with
ignorance, cheap politics, and money
| grabbing schemes. Every year men
are ordained to the A.M.E Ministry
who have never graduated from
Grammar or High School. Men are
placed on important committees such
as the Judiciary Committee to try men
| for their misdemeanors, and the men,
bers of this same trial board are them
| selves such 'Dumbells' that they can
not utter ten words without murder
ing the Kings English; and justice
and fidelity are foreign to them. A
vivid example of dishonesty came in
the year of 1887 when there was an
! iY,iC cobo1D,o 70 STOOL
of the Trustees of Peoples Church in
/ Chelsea by taking them to the Su-
perior Court in Equity in Boston. But
! a great surprise and a very rude
awakening awaited the schemes, for
the court handed down a decision in
favor of the Trustees of Peoples
Church forever barring the Bishop
from sending any minister to the
Chelsea Church without the consent of
the Trustees and members of said
church.
"A similar law was passed at the
General Conference of the Methodist
Church in Atlantic City, NJ, in May,
1910 which renders Bishops and pre-
siding elders powerless to act in re-
gard to moving pastor from, or send
ing him to, church without the con-
sent of both the pastor and the people
to whom he is to be sent. This is a
very fine and just law; for after all
the people pay the bills and salaries
of the churchmen and why shouldn't
they hold in their hands the power of
appointment of ministers.
"The present pastor of Peoples
Church has been there for the past
five years and has received just thir-
teen dollars in mission money from the
New England Conference which shows
just how adequately the Mother
Church contributes to the aid of its
local pastors and churches. / searched
the records of the New England
Annual Conferences for the past
thirty years and found that for every
dollar that the A.ME. Church has
contributed to the local Chelsea
Church the latter has given fifty dol
lars in return.
"In conclusion | would like to say
that in my opinion the real trouble
with the AME. Church is obviously
at the top, and when there is malfea-
sance at the top there is sure to be
non-feasance at the bottom; and he
church is riding for sure and sudden
disastrous fall in the very near future
if the powers of the Bishops and Cen
eral Officers are not cut down, and
the ministers and laymen in the local
churches given their rightful place
and power to have a voice in the run
ming Of the church which they, and
not the Bishops and General Officers,
are paying to keep going.
6If +ba a M II Cb,,,ol ;r 10 h. It'll
out of its present demoralizing and
chaotic condition; if it is to redeem
itself once more and be saved from
utter collapse and oblivion, a new type
of leadership must be developed
which the people can trust"
LUTHER MARION FULLER.