Religion: Reform & Renewal

While Pike was revealing his mysterious encounters, the Episcopal Church finally agreed that the freethinking bishop will not be tried for heresy. The church's 62nd general convention in Seattle overwhelmingly approved a canonical change making it extremely difficult to initiate action against any prelate accused of unorthodoxy. Under past laws, a request for a heresy trial required the signatures of three bishops, approval by a ten-member board of inquiry. Now a complaint must be signed by no fewer than ten bishops, and requires a two-thirds majority of the House of Bishops before a trial can be held. Pike described the change as a "vindication," dropped his request for a trial to clear his name.

Presiding Bishop John E. Hines pronounced the convention one of the most constructive in years. The delegates approved a report of a commission headed by Harvard President Nathan Pusey, calling for a reform in the training of Episcopal clergymen. Also adopted was the Presiding Bishop's $3,000,000-a-year program to aid urban Negroes—which Hines called a major step toward meeting the crises of the cities.