CHURCH AND STATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 24, 29 January 1938, Page 19

CHURCH AND STATE.

GERMAN CONFLICT. CONTROL TO BE EXTENDED. BERLIN. Herr Hans Kerrl, Reich Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs, issued an order, the seventeenth of its kind, removing the administration of the German Evangelical Church to a large extent from its bishops and placing it in the hands of State-appointed officials. In the so-called intact provinces ef Baden, Bavaria, Hanover and Wnerttemberg moderate Lutherian bishops who dominate the situation locally are left undisturbed in the fulfilment of their offices, but the Minister reserves the right to veto the appointment or diemissal of church officials. In the instance of Prussia, NassauHessen, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, where the clash between Church and State has been most intense,! Stateappointed officials are empowered to exercise authority in all church matters "excepting those of public worship and belief." In an interview with a provincial newspaper, which is reproduced, evidently on express instructions, throughout the German Press, Herr Kerrl denies that he intends to carry out "a division of State and Church in the sense that the State desires to be indifferent to or, indeed, do harm to the welfare of the Church. ,, No State Religion. With evident reference to the impressions of this kind gathered by many observers here from a recent article in the "Schwarze Korps," organ of Herr Himralcr's S.S. (Black Guards), Herr Kerrl repudiates the suggestion that the National-Socialist State desires to substitute a State Church or State religion for existing religious communities. All the arrests and disciplinary measures taken against pastors had, he declared, been carried out only for infringement of the law of the State which all citizens had to obey. He went on to stigmatise the fraternal councils of the Confessional (opposition) Church movement as "totally illegal." It would appear that by allowing a greater measure of authority to the Lutheran bishops of the southern provinces Herr Kerrl hopes to drive a wedge between them and the more determined Confessional movement in North Germany led by Pastor Niemoeller, who has been in prison awaitiii" trial since July.