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Show I THE PASTOR SUSPENDED. Became He Married After Being Divorced Froru No. 1. k "The congrega- iion o St Matthew's German Lutheran church held a secret meetitig on Mon-nay Mon-nay night and passed a resolution suspending sus-pending the pastor, the Rev. Peter !r!c?--, A, Pl-eaml'le declared that Mr. tincb had scandalized the church, first by getting a divorce from his wife, who aesei-ted him, and second, by remarrying. remarry-ing. Mr. Eirich i3 about 50 years o!d. tfis brut wife was very young, the daughter of a Brooklyn merchant. They lived together about a year. One liioruing the wife disappeared, leaving behind a noto in which she stated that she recognized her unfitness to lie a minister's wife, and for that reason she went away and would never return. She went to Brooklyn. An eifort was made to effect a reconciliation, reconcilia-tion, but it failed. Three vears later tho minister procured a divorce. The net created a good deal of talk thn, but nothing came of it. Mr. Eirich married mar-ried his second wife, a beautiful young woman many years his junior, in Troy several months ago. The first his congregation con-gregation knew of his marriage was w hen he brought his wife to church with him ou the Sunday after the wed-ding wed-ding Sinco then there has been turmoil tur-moil in the church. A month after the marriage charges were preferred against the minister before the classis ot which tho church is a member, and an investigating committee reported that, in Its opiuion, the pastor had done wrong, but not guiliciently to affect his standing as a minister. The report was unsatisfactory to tho congregation of the church, and steps were taken to compel him to resign. The meeting on Monday night was attended by seventy or eighty members of the church. Pastor Peterson of the Jersey City Lutheran church presided. Mr. Eirich made a speech in which he said that according to his religious belief be-lief he could not resign, for he had not sinned. Ho wanted to get away from tho church, however, as much as the "If I have sinned," ho said, you all have sinned with me, for as true brethren breth-ren you ought to have warned me bo-fore bo-fore I took the first step in divorce." After he had said this he retired from the room. There were other speeches, and then the resolution passed. The suspension is to take effect August 1. There were only a few votes against tho adoption of the resolution. |