STATE AND CHURCH

Wairarapa Daily Times, 17 September 1934, Page 5

STATE AND CHURCH

STRUGGLE IN GERMANY. SENSATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. (Received Monday, 11.45 a.m.) MUNICH, Sunday. A sensational development in the struggle between Herr Mueller and the Evangelical Bishops followed upon a sermon by Dr. Meiser, a. Bishop of the Bavarian Church, deploring Nazi attacks on dissenting bishops. Crowds inside and outside the church sang the Lutheran fighting hymn, (1 Our God a Tower of .Strength is He.” This is the first time it has been heard in Munich streets since the Reformation. Nazi flying squads attempted to disperse the crowd, some of whom assembled outside the Brown House, still singing the hymn. Dr. Maralirens, Bishop of Hanover, issued a further challenge to Herr Mueller, claiming that four-fifths of the clergy in his diocese will support him. He declared that whoever con ; centrates oiii outward unity and seeks to compel it by force, disregarding the conscience, destroys the true unity of the church and endangers the unity ot the nation. Herr Siebert, the Bavarian Premier, speaking at Neerdlingen, warned dissenters that the Reich would not tolerate the appearance of schisms. The ‘ ‘ Times ’ ’ Berlin correspondent says that indignant crowds held meetings of protest against Wurni’s suspension and roughly handled Nazi functionaries. Wurm reruses to recognise the validity of the suspension and continues to claim the leadership of the Regional Church, though he was unable to gain access to the ecclesiastical buildings. The decree, ordering church officials to take the oath of allegiance to Herr Hitler, prescribed for public officials and soldiers, is also causing widespread trouble. Almost half of the 16,000 pastors in Germany have resolved to resist it.