Because it feared a serious schism, the Long Island Conference of the Lutheran Synod of New York, whose convention just closed, today stands committed to take no official stand on the Nazi attempts to merge Protestant and Catholic elements in Germany into a single German Christian Church.
At the close of the convention at the Covenant Lutheran Church, Ridgewood, F. J. Stussy, lay preacher, who took a directing role in the conference program, said shortly:
“It’s none of our business!”
The conference was devoted largely to deploring a decrease in church going in the sect and the need for more generous financial support for the church. The plight of their brethren in Germany, compelled to bow under the ecclesiastical overlordship of the Nazi ordained Bishop Mueller, was discreetly ignored.
From an unofficial source it was learned that the issue, if brought up on the convention floor, might have resulted in a row and precipitated a split in the conference —if not in the Synod itself.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
