NATIONAL CHURCH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 14 April 1939, Page 6

NATIONAL CHURCH

AIM OF GERMAN MINISTER REMOVAL OF JEWISH INFLUENCE ‘COMBATING MISUSE OF RELIGION” ORA—By Electric Telegraph —Copyrichtl LONDON. 13th April. The Berlin correspondent of "The Times” says that the German Church Minister, Herr Kerri, is persevering in his efforts to convert the Evangelical Church into a German National Church, professing what the Nazis call positive Christianity. The principles to which the Evangelicals subscribe are outlined in a declaration signed by Dr. Werner, head of the Church Council, and by provincial bishops. "The supernatural or international churches of the Roman Catholic or world Protestant type,” says the declaration, “are a political debasement of Christianity. “The Christian faith is in unbridgeable religious opposition to Jewry. Nazism’s fight against the churches’ claim for political power is the continuance and the completion of Luther’s w ork.” The signatories of the declaration are founding an institute for research into and the removal of Jewish influence from the church, also for establishing a centre to combat the misuse of religion for political purposes.