CLERICAL SCANDALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18827, 30 September 1924, Page 7

CLERICAL SCANDALS.

EXTRAORDINARY CASES.

AMERICAN MINISTERS* ACTS. A. and N.Z. NEW YORK. Sept. 28 The Rev. Joseph Yates, of Oklahoma, in a farewell note to his congregation, informed them that he had eloped with a 14-year-old member of the choir. ,'. Mr. Yates wrote that when a clergyman strayed from the straight and narrow path the publicity given to his action created more feeling than if an average person had Btrayed.. Mr. Yates recently divorced his wife, naming another clergyman, the Rev. Bertram Millar, as co-respondent. The latter committed tuicide. • ,'* J In his note Yates said that he also had contemplated suicide, but did not wish to put an extra stain on the cloth after the extensive publicity recently given 'to the rase of the Rev." Lawrence Htght, of Mount Vernon, Illinois, who fell lin : love with a member of his congregation. It was alleged that Hight poisoned his wife, and that the woman in the case poisoned her husband. Both are now in the same gaol as a result of Right's complete confession. .; . ' .;';,'■.;••.';'■:;.:.;••'.: ■:.;....