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Gavel. William C. Dean, 14-year-old Cincinnati schoolboy, went to work last March to make a Moderator's gavel from a piece of metal from a mission church bell and eleven scraps of historic wood, including a piece from the walking stick of African Missionary A. C. Good. Last week on the second ballot Schoolboy Dean's gavel went to Rev. Dr. Joseph Anderson Vance, 70, president of the Presbyterian National Missions Board, pastor of First Church in Detroit. The Fundamentalist candidate for Moderator, Rev. Stewart M. Robinson of Elizabeth, N.J., got 126 out of 891 votes cast.
Moderator Vance, tall, lean, large-boned, has held four big-city pastorates in his 47 years of preaching, has been Moderator of the Maryland, Chicago and Detroit Presbyteries. He still has a crooked finger, injured years ago when he was baseball pitcher at King College in Tennessee. An able preacher with a cool style—he once studied law—Dr. Vance is an expert on comparative religions, a middle-of-the-roader theologically. Modest as new Moderators always are, he said that, though his wife had prayed for it, he did not wish the job; it would take five years off his life. To newshawks he said crisply: "I am a constitutional Presbyter. I believe in using constitutional methods instead of irresponsible attacks in meeting weaknesses in the church structure. And I shall so deal with the doctrinal disturbances in the church today."
Purge? Getting down to business, Moderator Vance briskly ruled out of order a Fundamentalist who moved that General Assembly headquarters be censured for "circularizing the Church with partisan literature." Under his firm gavel, the commissioners decisively voted down a proposal to halt various disciplinary measures started against members of Dr. Machen's Independent Board (TIME, June 4, 1934)
But, taking a good long view, Dr Machen announced he would be able to appeal his cause to the 1936 General Assembly. The defeat he expects, he said, will probably lead to a schism in the Church. "I hope so," declared militant Dr. Machen. "I want to see the Church purged of unbelief. I want the elimination of those untrue to the constitution. They are in control of the Church at present."