Religion: Methodists in Russia

The Russian Soviet government has requested that a committee be appointed from the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church to help reorganize the churches of Russia. The Soviet government has found in the social creed of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America the following principles: Protection of the worker from forced unemployment, old age pensions, minimum wage, reduction of hours of labor to the lowest practicable point, and the most equitable division of the product of industry which can be devised. (This creed was adopted by the Methodists in 1912).

Bishop Nuelsen of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who recently returned from Russia, reports that the Soviet no longer interferes with the worship of any sect that does not oppose the government. Three Methodist Episcopal bishops will go to Moscow in April to present the social creed to the government for approval and to cooperate in working out the destinies of the badly disorganized Russian Church.