Month: May 1958

An interfaith team of five religious leaders will leave New York next Tuesday to confer with top church and political leaders in Europe and the Middle East. Soviet Russia is on the itinerary. The National Conference of Christians and Jews is sponsoring the trip. The conference said the team will discuss with foreign leaders the problems affecting religious groups throughout the world. This is the first time such an interfaith team has entered the Soviet Union.

Members of the group are Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell, pastor of New York’s Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church; Dean Leonidas C. Contos of Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles; Dr. Samuel L. Gandy, dean of Dillard University Chapel in New Orleans; Rabbi Irving Lehrman of Temple Emanu-el in Miami Beach; and Roy J. McCorkel, director of the conference’s Commission on Religious Organizations.

A conference spokesman said the group has been kept small intentionally. The leaders hope to encourage an intimate exchange of ideas between the foreign and American religious leaders. The Americans will try to get authoritative viewpoints on the relationship between politics and morality on issues facing the world today. The team will visit Moscow, London, Prague, Vienna, Istanbul, Belgrade, Budapest, Rome, Geneva, Paris, and cities in Egypt and Israel.

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Seminary development was in the news during the week. In New York, Union Theological Seminary, largest interdenominational seminary in the world, announced a $16 million program. Charles C. Parlin, chairman of Union’s development committee, said the program is a long-range one designed to meet the needs of its increased enrollment. Before World War II the largest student body the seminary ever had in one year totaled 314. Today, 669 students are preparing for service all over the world. The seminary hopes to modernize facilities, increase faculty salaries, develop advanced studies and internships, provide student scholarships, and build new student residences, offices, lecture, and seminar rooms.

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At Notre Dame University in Indiana, a cornerstone was laid for the new $3 million theological seminary scheduled to open on the campus next fall. The Rev. Theodore J. Mehling celebrated a solemn High Mass prior to the blessing of the cornerstone. Father Mehling is provincial of the Holy Cross Fathers who operate Notre Dame University. He said the new building will provide residence and training facilities for 200 seminarians, as well as 28 rooms for faculty members, student priests and semi-retired religious workers. Funds for the seminary were raised through a nationwide appeal. Earlier this year the university announced a $66 million development program.

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The American Jewish Congress, meeting at Miami Beach, heard a warning that Jewish existence as a people is in danger in the Western world. Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress, told 1,500 delegates that the danger lies in a lack of challenge. Through the centuries, he said, Jews have reacted constructively and heroically when threatened. Conversely, he said, we have not been conditioned to maintain Jewish solidarity and identity in normal times. Dr. Goldman said that because of the lack of challenge, a process of disintegration is at work, especially among the younger generation. Sidney Hollander of Baltimore, convention chairman, declared that recent bombings of Jewish schools and synagogues in the South stemmed from lawless resistance to school integration. He said there must be a reversal of the policy of the Southern states of organizing massive resistance to the nation’s desegregation policy.

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Ten thousand women gathered at St. Louis this week for the fifth quadrennial national assembly of the Women’s Society of Christian Service. The WSCS is the Methodist women’s group. Delegates represented 31,000 local chapters, as well as larger area groupings. Dr. Walter G. Muelder, dean of Boston University School of Theology told the women they now have tremendous social, cultural, and religious power. Women must use it, he said, as a trust. Dean Muelder said that at the very time when economic opportunity tends to entice the woman away from home and church, both these institutions need her ministry with a greater sense of vocation than ever. The Methodist women also heard a plea that they work for measures that will combat crime and delinquency in the United States.

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In Los Angeles, Protestants welcomed a group of 82 White Russians, who arrived from Hong Kong on their way to new homes in Brazil. The Russians have lived in China since 1919. They are “old believers,” members of a Russian Orthodox sect. The 82 who arrived in California are the vanguard of 192 White Russians to be resettled in Brazil. Another 500 are expected to follow at a later date. Transportation for members of the sect was arranged by the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration with the help of a $100,000 allotment from Church World Service, a relief agency of the National Council of Churches.

The bearded Russian men, their wives and children, were to sail for Brazil from Los Angeles with 60 tons of farm supplies contributed by American Protestants through Church World Service. A 6,000-acre tract of almost virgin land will replace farms seized by the Chinese communists from the old believers in 1951 and 1952.

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In Washington, a congressional conference committee agreed not to raise second-class mail rates for religious and other non-profit periodicals (which may or may not be legal.) The conference committee voted, however, to increase third-class rates for other printed matter sent by non-profit organizations. This hike will be only one-fourth of a cent per piece, and it won’t take effect until July 1, 1960.

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Here are some briefs from the words of Religious News Service:

In New York the Jewish Theological Seminary of America established a new institute of ethics named after former Sen. Herbert H. Lehman. One quarter of the projected $1 million endowment already has been raised.

In Dallas, Texas, 300 white Protestant ministers issued a statement declaring enforced segregation morally and spiritually wrong. The ministers urged school boards in the area to make their desegregation plans public as soon as possible.

In Chicago, Dr. Ruh Edwin Espy, a National Council of Churches official warned that the world’s people must learn to live closer with one another. Dr. Espy sees world population growth to 6 or 7 billion by the year 2000 (He must be seeing things, for this is a doubtful projection). [In fact, world population was over 6 billion in the year 2000.]

When the Syrian Orthodox Youth Organization meets in Pittsburgh in July, the young delegates will get occasional breaks from the routine of convention business, but they will be religious breaks. Planners of the convention have arranged for the delegates to relax by listening to informal 10-minute talks by religious leaders. Sounds like the postman taking a walk on his day off.

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And now for some foreign news items:

In Portugal, a 15-ton statute to our Lady of Fatima was unveiled in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of Fatima. The shrine commemorates the appearance of the Virgin to the three shepherd children of Fatima in 1917. The statue was donated by American Catholics, and was carved by an American Dominican priest, Father Thomas McGlynn.

In the new city of Jerusalem, a towering new structure was dedicated as the supreme religious center for the entire Orthodox Jewish world. It is a seven-story building on the highest hill in the new city, and will serve as the seat of the chief rabbinate of Israel. It will house also a new Orthodox research and information center, a rabbinical library and a liaison office for Jewish religious foundations throughout the world.

And in Ruschlikon, Switzerland, European Baptist leaders urged revitalization of the Baptist conception of the priesthood of all believers. Baptists from 17 countries met for a conference on evangelism sponsored by the European Baptist Federation. Dr. Joel Sorenson of Stockholm was chairman. He said the consensus of the delegates’ report was that the Baptist idea of the priesthood of all believers must be revitalized through good neighborly contacts and adequate programs for laymen.

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Dr. Charles Allen, Atlanta pastor, in his syndicated column this week passed along some excellent suggestions under the title of what he calls “The Race Issue.” Taking his text from Galatians and calling it an expression of the “climate of freedom,” he goes on to urge:

1. We must grant to our opponents the same freedom that we demand for ourselves.
2. The freedom of the pulpit must be maintained. There was a time when heretics were burned. Now, he says, they are sometimes fired. So long as a minister is loyal to truth, he should be encouraged to speak his honest convictions on vital matters.
3. Let us quit calling our opponents names. Good, honest men differ on important matters. Name-calling is unbecoming. Someone has said that “Labels are libels,” and few people should want to be libelous.
4. In this controversy over race relations, only reason and tolerance will win in the long run. Force in any form, threats, intimidation, coercion, have not the ghost of a chance of winning. Force may win a skirmish but it will lose the war.

Can you think of four better guiding principles in trying to forge our way through the mass of tis so’s and tain’t so’s about this subject?

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Two final items of a local nature that may or may not have any particular religious and/or moral significance.

It has been an amusing and not un-educational experience of reading the local paper “The Tempest in a Teapot” regarding the wearing of shorts, as reflected in letters to the editor. However, the letter of May 14 contained a statement that was rather nettling. The “Old-Time Reader” closes his letter by saying that “God meant for people to wear clothes.” It is difficult to be patient with people who are sure that they know what the intent or purpose of the deity was or is on any subject. The immediate reaction this reporter had to that sentence was this: “If God had intended people to wear clothes, is it not reasonable to assume that they would have been born fully clothed?” which makes the whole thing ridiculous. Emotionally inclined people, particularly the blood and thunder type, are sure they know God’s purpose on every subject. Those of us who try to make up our mind on the basis of evidence take no stock in such nonsense.

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The last item is this. This program has emphasized rather heavily and frequently the traditional and imperative practice of separation of church and state as a part of our social scheme of things. Yesterday I attended a political convention in Jonesboro, where the (self-phrased) “platforms” of candidates were read. One candidate, who later was nominated for an important office, included in his platform statement, not only the fact that he affiliated with a particular religious denomination, but went on to nauseous lengths to describe how long he had been so affiliated, the various posts he had held in the church, that he had been Sunday school teacher, superintendent, etc., etc., etc. Conceding, that it may be perfectly proper for a candidate to indicated that he is church-affiliated, it not only is in poor taste but also a violation of our principle of church-state separation to make such an obvious bid for votes on the basis of a religious appeal. There is no necessary relationship between church membership and good citizenship or good performance of a public official. That candidate maybe secured some votes by this appeal. It may be also that he lost at least one by so doing.

 

 

More than a thousand teachers and community leaders will attend 38 human relations workshops this summer. The workshops will be held at leading colleges and universities throughout the country, with the help of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. The conference also will give $30,000 in scholarships for the program. The money will help pay the expenses of those taking part. Details on the program were announced at New York by Dr. John L. McMahon, national chairman of the conference’s commission on educational organizations. Dr. McMahon is president of Our Lady of the Lake College in San Antonio, Texas. The workshops will last from 2-6 weeks. They will train teachers and community workers in how to deal with interracial and inter-religious problems. Since 1941 the conference has aided more than 340 workshops in every part of the country, with more than 13,000 educators and other community leaders taking part in the sessions.

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Mrs. May Roper Coker of Hartsville, South Carolina, is the reigning American Mother of the Year for 1958. Her selection was announced in New York by Mrs. Daniel A. Poling, president of the American Mother’s Committee. Mrs. Coker was chosen for her success as a mother, her religious and spiritual integrity, her constant practice of the golden rule, and her sense of civic and international understanding. She has reared three daughters of her own and five step-children. Besides taking part in numerous civic, business, and cultural affairs, she is an active member of First Baptist Church in Hartsville and a Sunday school teacher.

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The National Council for Jewish Education held its 82nd annual conference at Atlantic City, New Jersey. All-faith support for Jewish religious schools was urged by Dr. Samuel Dinin, dean of the University of Judaism at Los Angeles. Dr. Dinin said better schools result in better communities and therefore deserve support from all residents of the community.

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Catholic mother of the year is Mrs. Leo Stupfel of McMinnville, Oregon. She was chosen by the Family Life Bureau of the National Catholic Welfare Conference. The bureau cited Mrs. Stupfel for her ability to devote time to her church and community and still be an extraordinary success as a Christian mother. Mrs. Stupfel is a member of St. James Church in McMinnville. She has eight children, four of whom are active in religious life.

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At Rye, New York, businessmen were urged to concern themselves not so much with profits as with spiritual production. The advice came from Alfred H. Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Mr. Williams spoke at the 17th annual conference of the Laymen’s Movement for a Christian World. He said the time has come for business to set new goals – the goals of broadening and deepening the lives of each individual within our large business organizations.

J.C. Penney, chairman of the board of the J.C. Penney Company, was another speaker. He declared that our challenge and purpose are to discover and translate the Sermon on the Mount into business conduct. The Laymen’s Movement is a nonsectarian association of individuals pledged to bring Christian principles into their everyday affairs.

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Plans have been announced for a multi-million dollar center in Washington to commemorate the religious heritage of America and its free institutions. The proposal was disclosed by the organization, Religious Heritage of America, at the conclusion of the 8th annual Washington Pilgrimage of American Churchmen. The intercreedal center would give recognition to the contribution of all religious groups. It would include an auditorium, a chapel, a library, and a museum where documents relating to religious freedom could be enshrined. A committee was named to survey sites in the capital and to plan an architects’ competition for a suitable design. Sponsors of the project acknowledged that it might take 10 years or more to raise the necessary funds. But they said it would fill an obvious need in the capital, which now has no shrine to the nation’s religious heritage.

Several awards were presented during the Washington Pilgrimage. Dr. Joseph R. Sizoo, a theologian at George Washington University, was honored as Clergy Churchman of the Year. Cecil B. DeMille, noted Hollywood producer, was cited as Lay Churchman of the Year. And Dr. Georgia Harkness of the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, was given the Churchwoman of the Year award.

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The United States Steel Foundation announced in New York it had made $631,000 in grants to 415 church-related institutions of higher learning. The 415 were among 621 liberal arts colleges, science and engineering institutions, public and private universities, and medical schools included in the foundation’s Aid to Education program. Roger M. Blough, chairman of the foundation’s board of trustees, said the grants were intended to help maintain the vigor of educational institutions.

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At Melrose, Minnesota, a Catholic nun was honored on completion of her 60th year of teaching in Saint Boniface schools. She is Sister Celsa, a Benedictine nun who just passed her 80th birthday. For all but two of the 60 years she has been at St. Boniface, she has taught first grade. The National Education Association called her career a record for service in the same school. Sister Celsa says she’ll keep on teaching as long as her superiors let her do so.

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At Honolulu, three American Quakers and a Methodist were given 60-day jail sentences, which were suspended, for defying Federal Judge John Wiig, who warned them they would be jailed again if they made another attempt to set sail for the nuclear proving grounds. The men said after the court hearing they were undecided about their next move. They were taken to court after the Coast Guard stopped their 30-foot ketch, the Golden Rule, a half hour out of Honolulu Harbor. By sailing for the weapons testing area, they violated orders from the Atomic Energy Commission and the Navy, putting the testing grounds off limits. The Golden Rule was a protest against the continuation of nuclear weapons tests. The journey was sponsored by an organization called Non-Violent Action Against Nuclear Weapons. The crew of four included George Willoughby, executive secretary of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors. Spokesman for the group in court was Lieutenant Commander Albert Smith Bigelow. He told the judge, “It would have been contempt for God if I hadn’t done my best to stop those nuclear atrocities. They are contemptuous crimes against all mankind.”

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More than a million persons were served by the U.S.A. and the United Presbyterian Church social agencies in 1957. The figure was reported at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, by John Park Lee, executive secretary of the National Presbyterian Health and Welfare Council. He spoke at a conference of Presbyterian community and neighborhood house workers. Mr. Lee said 362 social welfare agencies of the two Presbyterian groups served 1,068,000 persons last year. More than half were served by 121 community centers and neighborhood houses. The two Presbyterian denominations will merge at the end of this month to form the New United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.

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In Berlin, East German communist newspapers sharply attacked the synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany. The communists criticized the Protestant organization for failing to condemn West German atomic armament at its recent meeting. The Evangelical Synod adopted a resolution condemning atomic war. But the leaders were split on atom bomb production. Some argued situations were conceivable in which defense with equal weapons is justifiable.

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As the communists protested, seven prominent West German Catholic theologians issued a declaration upholding a country’s right to use atomic weapons if necessary for its defense. The statement, however, noted the devastating effects of atomic weapons and said a state must be prepared to make big sacrifices to preserve peace.

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Major churches around the world were in the news during the week. In the Philippines, Catholic officials announced that the new Cathedral of Manila will be solemnly inaugurated on December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The big Romanesque structure replaces an old one destroyed in World War II. American troops turned guns on the old building to dislodge Japanese suicide squads who made a last-ditch stand there.

In London, Queen Elizabeth II headed an overflow congregation at services marking the reopening of the east end of famous St. Paul’s Cathedral. The east end of the American structure was almost completely destroyed by Nazi bombs during the war. It has now been restored.

And in Quebec, Catholic Archbishop Maurice Roy celebrated a solemn Pontifical Mass opening an anniversary celebration. It is the 300th anniversary of the famous shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre in the tiny village of the same name 25 miles from Quebec City. Three million pilgrims are expected at the shrine during the five-month celebration.

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Yesterday, I perforce, watched the Armed Services parade in Johnson City. I say perforce, because I was waiting for a person to keep an appointment with me, and since he was late, I waited. I found myself in a place where it was almost impossible not to see the parade that was going by. It sadly lacked coordination and continuity.

But these are not important points about it. The major sensation that coursed through my consciousness as I watched the guns, tanks, uniformed persons go by was: What a graphic commentary upon the stupidity of man, who insists upon calling himself civilized. There was nothing civilized about the affair. My next reaction was to wonder how much all this equipment, these uniforms, and other expense of the show, a small one that was repeated many times over not only across the country but around the world, would do toward providing food, shelter, clothing, education, and medicine, for hungry, forlorn and destitute people, of whom there are entirely too many in this world. Yet, here we were making a showy parade out of the fact that mankind is so unwilling to profit by the lessons of history that he goes on kidding himself that by getting ready for war he can have peace.

No loyal citizen would question but what such trappings are a necessary evil of our present nationalistic system of things. But the discouraging and distressing thing about it all is that nobody in responsible place seems to be thinking about changing the system so that, in the foreseeable future, such grisly reminders of man’s inhumanity to man would no longer be necessary. Not only that, but those of us who would change the system, peacefully, substituting law and order where we now have nothing but the code of the jungle, are looked at askance, as if were were trying to destroy the country, when in reality we would save it from its own folly.

Peace has been established in ever-enlarged areas only to the extent that so-called sovereignty is wrapped in the orderly process of law. Such must be applied on a world-wide basis if a just and durable peace is to come about. We may not like the idea of world government, but an increasing number of us would much prefer world government to world suicide. There does not seem to be any alternative middle ground.

There are those who say world government is fine but we are not ready for it. The same thing was said about the formation of our own federation in 1788, but it has endured to prove the doubters wrong. One way to be defeated unnecessarily is to insist before beginning that something cannot be done. It is far more constructive and productive to seek, instead, ways and means by which it can be done, for be done it must if we are to survive.