Col. E. N. Sanctuary, notorious anti-Semite and American leader of the World Association against Jewish Aggression, who twists Biblical phrases in his efforts at inciting racial hatred, has been conducting so – called midweek prayer services at the blue-stocking Broadway Presbyterian Church, Broadway and 114th street, the Jewish Daily Bulletin learned yesterday.
The last of this series of six services will be held in the lecture room of the church tonight.
Sanctuary will begin conducting Bible classes in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Sunday morning at 10 o’clock, it was learned at the same time.
Most of the leading members and officials of the two churches, both of which have wealthy congregations, were out of town yesterday. The sextons at both, however, confirmed the fact that Sanctuary had received or was to receive the hospitality of their institutions.
At the Broadway Presbyterian Church, Charles Jones, the sexton, explained that the anti-Semite’s audiences, which have been large, have consisted principally of “outsiders” during the past six weeks.
“We’re near Columbia University, you know,” he said, “and during the warm season our sessions are attended chiefly by summer students from there.”
NO PASTOR FOR FLOCK
Asked who is the pastor, Jones said the church has been without one since last February, when Dr. Walter D. Buchanan, its last spiritual leader, died. Since then, he declared, the affairs of the church have been in charge of a governing body known as the session, of which Dr. Frank C. Yeomans, a Park avenue physician, is the clerk and head officer. The session invited Sanctuary to use the lecture room of the church on Wednesdays.
“Not more than fifteen of our members have attended any single midweek meeting conducted by Col. Sanctuary,” the sexton said. “I must say that the ones who did go were somewhat surprised and dissatisfied with the type of thing he was talking about. We usually have old-fashioned prayer meetings, you know, and Sanctuary did almost everything except hold the type of services to which our members are accustomed.”
On the first night of Sanctuary’s appearance at the church, he said, several policemen were discovered outside the door before the meeting began. This was distasteful to the session, which subsequently succeeded in having the police guard withdrawn.
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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.
