The Jackson Sun from Jackson, Tennessee • 13

The Jackson Sun, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 1982 13A Cou rt seeks to avoid chu rch case a raise, but Mrs. Johnston had refused to sign the increased checks saying the congregation hadn't had a chance to approve the raise. On June 27, Mrs. Johnston was fired and the new secretary-treasurer immediately signed two checks one for $1,000 and another for $1,200 to Johns for back pay.

Johns was later given a petition signed by 18 church members calling for Johns' resignation and a meeting of the 30- to 40-member congregation to decide on the Johns and other members' of the First Pentecostal Church of Jackson also received a letter from some of the men who had signed the church's incorporation papers in 1979 calling a churchwide meeting. To keep from having a meeting, Johns had the locks on the church changed and preached one Sunday until 2 p.m. sedive," the pastor said. Contributions to the church had remained steady, but apparently Mrs. Johnston and her family had started putting their gifts into the building fund, from which Johns doesn't get a percentage.

These which "did not follow Christian ethics," kept Johns' salary at the $160 level, Johns testified. The church board voted Johns By ROGER MALONE Sun reporter General Sessions Judge Robert Holt Tuesday tried to keep Jackson's First Pentecostal Church from settling internal disputes in court by suggesting they hold a meeting open to all members, an action some church members say the Rev. L.J. Johns has refused to take. The church board was in Holt's court Tuesday afternoon to get about two years' worth of records from former church Secretary-Treasurer Linda Johnston, who Johns said was fired after she "manipulated" his salary and tried to run the church.

Mrs. Johnston's attorney, Jere Albright, argued that his client was trying to keep Johns from taking money from the church treasury without the congregation's approval or knowledge. He said Mrs. Johnston had kept the records because the church board isn't the official governing body of First Pentecostal Church of Jackson, a corporation that was formed in 1979 when the local church split from the national United Pentecostal Church He said Johns didn't want the church to meet because he was afraid the members would vote to have him dismissed as their pastor. Although Holt said he didn't have the power to order the church board to call a meeting of its divided members, he strongly suggested that such a meeting could save days of court time and be the best step toward reconciling the church members.

"I'm a firm believer that church matters should be settled by church members and not outside courts," Holt said, then recessed for 15 minutes. When court reconvened, the church board members of which attended the hearing had agreed to hold a membership meeting Aug. 22, and Mrs. Johnston had agreed to let the board look at and photocopy the records she was keeping. She insisted, however, on retaining the originals.

According to Johns' testimony Tuesday and Albright's questions, the events leading to the church split were: Johns' salary, set at the greater of $160 a week or 40 percent of the Sunday offerings, had taken a "no Sun photo by lorry Atfwrton During a General Sessions Court recess the Rev. L.J. Johns, right, pastor of First Pentecostal Church of Jackson, talks with attorney Lloyd Utley. Albright said Johns had refused to allow the church members to meet and talk about their internal problems. Johns had changed the locks on the church and, on another occasion, preached until 2 p.m., about 2Vi hours longer than usual, to keep the members from meeting, the attorney said.

BUY TOT No Senate opposition expected to nomination of Wellford the 1 duster MEMPHIS (AP) Judge Harry W. Wellford of U.S. District Court apparently faces no opposition today when he goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee for hearings on his nomination to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker of Ten nessee said late Tuesday that nobody had registered with the committee to speak against Wellford's nomination.

That is a different situation than Wellford faced four years ago when he was nominated for the same court by then-President Gerald Ford. At that time, Wellford ran into Automatic seat belts ordered The most comfortable way to relax! Our cotton and polyester robes in solids and prints. Choose from zip-front, gripper-front and button-front. Sizes L. a storm of criticism from civil rights groups and from U.S.

Rep. Harold Ford, of Memphis. The nomination was never considered by the full Senate. President Jimmy Carter nominated Judge Bailey Brown, also of Memphis, for the same appeals court seat after he took office. Now Brown is retiring and Wellford is getting a second chance for promotion to the court in Cincinnati.

Most of his most-vocal critics from 1976 now say they will not oppose Wellford. Rep. Ford said Tuesday he has. withdrawn his opposition to Wellford because the judge has withdrawn from the all-white Memphis Country Club. The congressman said his decision was not related to Wellford's recent decision to reduce the prison sentence of Ford's brother, for-, mer State Rep.

Emmitt Ford, who was convicted of conspiring to defraud an insurance company. Wellford reduced the sentence from 18 months to eight months in prison, clearing the way for Emmitt Ford's release to a half-way house in Memphis almost immediately. The judge's action came over the objections of the U.S. Attorney's office in Memphis. Lingerie Downtown and Old Hickory Mall WASHINGTON (AP) A federal appeals court Wednesday ordered auto manufacturers to install automatic passenger restraints in all new cars by the fall of 1983 unless the government can show that more time is needed for the automakers to comply with federal seat belt legislation.

The court said the Transportation Department can proceed with revising the seat belt law, but warned the department against any "attempt to change the law by administrative fiat." The ruling gave the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis- i tration, which earlier this year had scrapped the automatic restraint rule, until Oct. 1 to show whether the new compliance date can be met. The court two months ago restored the federal regulation that requires automakers to begin installing either passive seat belts or air bags in large and midsize cars this fall, saying the law had been "unlawfully rescinded." But, in its ruling Wednesday, the three-judge panel said the court would give auto manufacturers until the fall of 1983 to comply. The insurance industry, which had filed suit to have the rule re-imposed, had agreed that, practically, the rule could not take effect this fall. It was not immediately known whether the government will appeal today's ruling.

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