CHURCH IN GERMANY

Taranaki Daily News, 14 September 1934, Page 7

CHURCH IN GERMANY

SUIT AGAINST BISHOP.

JUDGMENT FOR A PASTOR.

London, Sept. 4.

A notable victory was won in the Courts over the Bishop of the Reich, Dr. Mueller, by one of the dispossessed pastors, says the Berlin correspondent of the Times. The German High Court gave judgment in favour of Pastor Buchholz, of the Tempelhof parish, and denied the legality of Dr. Mueller’s decree by which the pastor was retired. The Court ordered the parish to pay the arrears of his salary, to continue his full salary and to allow him to retain his dwelling. The Court added that there was no justification for applying the principle of personal leadership to the Church in an unlimited and unsuitable form, and that the Primate was not entitled to alter the constitutions of the State churches. “A protest must be raised against a decree which so crassly infringes the law.” _ Dr. Mueller, replying to the Danish Christian Council’s resolution of sympathy with the German clerical opposition, which, it said, far exceeds the Evangelical sphere, declares that the outer world cannot see the real conditions in Germany nor appreciate the many reforms effected.