BREAK WITH BAPTIST MINISTERS

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 21, 19 October 1944, Page 7

BREAK WITH BAPTIST MINISTERS

Action By Dr. Hodge (By Telegraph.—-Press Association.) AUCKLAND, October 18.. His decision to resign from the ministerial ranks of the New Zealand Baptist Union, thus definitely associating himself with the action of the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle in seceding from the union, was announced by Dr. Alexander Hodge at a meeting of members of the tabernacle tonight. When a letter from Dr. Hodge to the secretary of the Baptist Union was read, the meeting stood in endorsement of its contents. In his letter Dr. Hodge referred to statements which had been published in the “New Zealand Baptist” and for which the executive of the union had accepted responsibility. He felt there was now no hope that the matter of his suspension by the, union could be fairly and dispassionately judged by the delegates to the November assembly. . The events which took place earlier in the year when the breach occurred between the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle and the union were recounted by Dr. Hodge, who’ said the present use of the denominational paper to discredit him before he could address his fellow Baptists at the assembly was a disregard for ordinary justice. He met the executive in Auckland in the hope that a fair hearing would be given to him and his colleagues. He asked for adequate time for access to evidence and for the right of cross-examination. All three were refused him. He had now reached the point where he must decline to expose his church and himself any further to Baptist Union procedure. “I therefore send you my resignation from the ministerial ranks of the New Zealand Baptist Union,” said Dr. Hodge. “I do this not because I desire to anticipate the verdict which the assembly will doubtless give under the influence of official propaganda, but because the current use of the denominational organ reduces the forthcoming hearing to a fiasco."