The National Council of Churches, which like its predecessor the Federal Council was a creation of the denominations, made abundantly clear through its fifth General Assembly in San Francisco this month that the denominations are now virtually creatures of the ecumenical movement.
Four Major Denominations Nominated For Amalgamation
A prominent Presbyterian stepped into an influential Episcopal pulpit this month and made a far-reaching proposal: amalgamate United Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, and members of the United Church of Christ (Congregational Christian-Evangelical and Reformed).
Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, Stated Clerk of the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. and former president of die National Council of Churches, made the proposal in the pulpit of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, on the threshhold of the NCC’s fifth General Assembly.
Merger mechanics might consume 10 years, said Blake.
A name? Possibly the “Reformed and Catholic Church in the U. S. A.”
Size? Twice as large in membership as any single U. S. denominational organization now in existence. Total membership of the new church could easily reach 20,000,000, especially if other denominations joined with the four named (Blake left the way open for such a development).
Despite the fact that Blake is a noted champion of ecumenicity, his proposal came as a surprise to many. It caused some evangelical observers to conclude that super-church plans are moving along even more rapidly than had been generally supposed.
Blake projected immediate implementation of his plan. He suggested action by the United Presbyterian General Assembly in the spring and the Episcopal General Assembly next fall.
Here are excerpts from Blake’s sermon:
Led, I pray, by the Holy Spirit, I propose to the Protestant Episcopal Church that it together with the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. invite the Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ to form with us a plan of church union both catholic and reformed.…
… God requires us to break through the barriers of nearly 500 years of history to attempt under God to transcend the separate traditions of our churches, and to find a way together to unite them so that manifesting the unity given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ, his church may be renewed for its mission to our nation and to the world, “that the world may believe.” …
Our culture, our civilization, our world leadership are under the materialistic threat of Marxist communism. But our culture becomes increasingly secular, our civilization becomes increasingly decadent, and our world leadership becomes increasingly confused precisely because their Christian foundations are undermined and eroded. And our divided churches all more and more sectarian in fact, are all therefore less and less Christian in influence.
Let us begin by remembering the requirement that a reunited church must be both reformed and catholic. If at this time we are to begin to bridge over the chasm of the Reformation, those of us who are of the Reformation tradition must recapture an appreciation of all that has been preserved by the catholic parts of the church, and equally those of the catholic tradition must be willing to accept and take to themselves as of God all that nearly 500 years of reformation has contributed to the renewal of Christ’s church.
Let me pause here to be quite sure that all of you understand exactly the sense in which I am using the word catholic. In common parlance in America we often talk about “the Catholic Church” and mean “the Roman Catholic Church.”
That is not the meaning of catholic that I here use. At the other extreme all our churches repeat the Apostles’ Creed in which we say, “I believe in the Holy Catholic Church.” All claim to be catholics in the strict sense of confessing that Jesus Christ has established one universal church in all ages and in all places and that we are at least part of it.…
… The proposal I make is to establish a church both catholic and reformed, I mean one which unites catholic and reformed understandings and practices in an even broader and deeper way than that already present in your communion.
The reunited church must have visible and historical continuity with the church of all ages before and after the Reformation. This will include a ministry which by its orders and ordination is recognized as widely as possible by all other Christian bodies. To this end, I propose that, without adopting any particular theory of historic succession the reunited church shall provide at its inception for the consecration of all of its bishops by bishops and presbyters both in the apostolic succession and out of it from all over the world from all Christian churches which would authorize or permit them to take part.
I propose further that the whole ministry of the united churches would then be unified at solemn services at which bishops and representative ministers from each church would, in humble dependence on God, act and pray that the Holy Spirit would supply to all and through all what each has to contribute and whatever each may need of the fullness of Christ’s grace, commission and authority for the exercise of a new larger ministry in this wider visible manifestation of Christ’s Holy and Catholic Church.
The reunited church must clearly confess the historic trinitarian faith received from the Apostles and set forth in the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds. Hence there is no real issue between the Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches. The difference that must be bridged is the issue between those in all our churches who stand for a corporate confession of historic faith and those who fear that any required confession is too restrictive.…
… It will be important for all entering this union to attempt creatively to develop a new form of government that avoids the monarchical, clerical and authoritarian tendencies that have been historically the dangers of Episcopal Church government.
Equally, this new form of government must avoid bureaucratic dangers that appear to be the chief threat of non-Episcopal churches. It is the essence of Protestant concern, however, that decisions should generally be made by ordered groups of men under the guidance of the Holy Spirit rather than by a man who has personal authority to impose on others his decision or judgment.
Ecumenical aggression was typified most strikingly in a move reported by Religion Editor George Dugan of The New York Times, a development which despite its failure was perhaps even more significant than the highly-publicized denominational merger proposal advanced by Dr. Eugene Carson Blake.
Dugan said in a dispatch from San Francisco that the rejected move would in effect have made the NCC a super church.
“It was learned,” he reported, “that at least two highly-placed churchmen had proposed that the National Council be permitted to ordain clergymen, administer the sacraments and accept individuals and denominations into membership.”
Dugan declared that the recommendation was turned down after heated debate in a closed Message Committee session.
Personal dissent to assembly message explained. See “Dissenting Duo” on p. 30.
Editor G. Aiken Taylor of the Presbyterian Journal, who provided on-the-spot coverage of the NCC assembly for CHRISTIANITY TODAY, said it was evident that the powers of a super-church had begun to take shape “even while interest in a super church was being publicly disavowed.”
Dominant theme of the Assembly was “comprehensive long range planning” for greater unity among the churches. Reports were saturated with references to “constantly enlarging areas of agreement” and to “increasingly effective denominational oversight.” Delegates listened to a bevy of speakers blaming the present ineffectiveness of the Church in a revolutionary world on a “fragmented witness,” an “inadequate sense of wholeness,” and the “scandal of our divided churches.” They heard repeated calls to “widen the base of ecumenical discussions,” to “go beyond togetherheit” (togetherness) in our relationship, to “reject denominational, racial, national or any other kind of division,” and to “shed the blood of our denominational separateness.”
The NCC’s Division of Foreign Missions suggested that unity must come in response to rising ecumenical desires of the churches. The Division of Christian Education announced plans to overhaul curriculum planning in the light of emerging ecumenical concepts. The Division of Home Missions indicated that its chief emphasis would now become one of reorganization in order to bring a new unity to program planning and execution. The Division of Christian Life and Work implied that solution to current problems depends on willingness to submit to bold and venturesome steps in united communication and implementation of the Gospel.
Uppermost in delegates’ thoughts was the pre-assembly proposal delivered in a sermon by Blake, Stated Clerk of the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., that his church join with Episcopalians, Methodists, and the United Church of Christ in working out a plan of organic union patterned after the United Church of South India. The proposal, offered by Blake as an individual and not in his official capacity, was warmly endorsed by Bishop James A. Pike of the Episcopal Church, Bishop John Wesley Lord of The Methodist Church and Drs. Fred Hoskins and James E. Wagner, co-presidents of the United Church of Christ.
An indication of the temper of the assembly was afforded by interest shown in a faith and order luncheon. The Commission on Faith and Order was created three years ago explicitly to deal with theological and polity differences between the churches and to promote their unity. Five hundred tickets to the luncheon were sold out well in advance of the assembly. Guests heard Bishop Lesslie Newbigin of the Church of South India and Dr. William A. Norgren, NCC director of faith and order studies, reiterate the substance of remarks made earlier by Faith and Order Chairman James I. McCord, President of Princeton Seminary, to a plenary session of the assembly: “Cooperation is not enough.… It is a luxury now that we can no longer afford.… We must take a radical step forward in our quest for visible, corporate unity.” This theme appeared in the opening address by retiring President Edwin T. Dahlberg, who declared, “An effective Gospel for the whole world needs a united church.” It was echoed by General Secretary Roy G. Ross, later re-elected, who suggested in his decade report that the churches want the council to give them leadership in “depth thinking” and to articulate their common theological convictions and provide leadership in implementing these. Dr. A. Dale Fiers, chairman of the General Program and Field Operations Committee, said “the churches must be willing to lose their lives for the Church.”
Mixed Feelings Greet Merger Proposal
Dr. Eugene Carson Blake’s proposal to merge four or more major Protestant groups into a single denomination drew a variety of comments from highly-placed churchmen.
Bishop Gerald Kennedy, president of the Council of Bishops of The Methodist Church, said there was “nothing new” in the proposal.
He said “there is nothing specific enough in the proposal … to suggest a new approach to the problem [of church union] or the possibility of the elimination of difficulties involved …”
Kennedy noted “there are a large number of churchmen who are committed to closer cooperation but are not at all enthusiastic about organic union that would make a Protestant Church top heavy with administration and machinery.
“Certainly we believe in the value of the variety of our tradition, while at the same time we want to consider carefully every proposal leading to increasing Christian cooperation.”
Charles P. Taft, prominent Episcopalian and former president of the Federal Council of Churches, said he had no major objection to the plan but feared that many laymen preferred a diversity in forms of worship to the uniform liturgy which was likely to result from the amalgamation of national church bodies.
He expressed a preference for the unity in diversity approach of the World Council of Churches, saying that it encouraged but did not require union at the congregational level.
Dr. Fred Hoskins, general secretary of the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches and co-president of the United Church of Christ, expressed fear that Blake’s proposal will be “widely misunderstood in many places as a specific plan rather than as a proposal for a procedure.”
Dr. James E. Wagner, president of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the other co-president of the United Church of Christ, said “there was a danger that those looking for an opportunity to criticize or minimize the National Council of Churches would seize upon this and say this [the Blake proposal] is what the National Council of Churches is doing.”
The Rt. Rev. Arthur C. Lichtenberger, presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, said, “It is the opening of a very significant move. Out of this might come a plan that would be acceptable to all the people involved.”
The most enthusiastic endorsement of Blake’s plan came from Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike, who called it the “most sound and inspiring” ever offered in the United States.
“I hope and pray,” said Pike, “that his plan will be received by the four churches—and others—in the Christian spirit in which it has been offered and that definite action toward its fulfillment will soon be forthcoming.”
Dr. Ramsay Pollard, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, characterized the possible merging of four denominations as “a fine thing for those who want to do it.” He added, however, that “I don’t think Southern Baptists would be interested.”
Dr. John W. Behnken, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, lamented lack of attention to a doctrinal basis. “There should be agreement in matters of doctrine,” he asserted, in any projection of mergers.
Dr. C. T. Caldwell, noted senior minister (now retired) of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S., said he was “not impressed” with the merger idea. Fie said he feared that the plan might face so much opposition that it would itself cause division.
Church unity discussion occupied nearly two-thirds of the total “Message to the Churches,” adopted as the mind of the assembly.
As a practical way to begin implementing the desired unity at the local level, Pike suggested that denominations immediately begin establishing new churches on a cooperative basis, in a sort of “federated” operation within local congregations. According to the Pike proposal, a single congregation might well be fully a part of several denominations. In Pike’s thinking this could include multiple ordinations if necessary. “I envision a single congregation with multi-denominational connections as a practical step preliminary to church union,” he told a news conference.
Paralleling the theme of increasing unity was the theme of increasing NCC influence and direction in the life of the churches. It was made abundantly clear that the time has passed when the council should be viewed as an organ of expression of the fragmented (or even cooperative) will of the churches. The time has come—it was repeatedly insisted—when the council must increasingly provide leadership which the churches will follow, when comprehensive long range planning will be done on the behalf of the churches in areas of curriculum development and programming.
Speaking to consultants and alternate delegates, Dr. H. Conrad Hoyer of the NCC Division of Home Missions noted that the council is now being viewed less as an agency accomplishing work for the denomination and more as an agency coordinating and directing the work of the denominations.
In Christian education, papers prepared by NCC consultants are even now being used by numerous denominational bodies as material upon which these denominations are building their own curricula, according to reports submitted by the division. The Department of Higher Education sees itself charged with unifying the interests and programs of all who are interested in Christian higher education. And the Division of Education expects to formulate new patterns for training the Christian ministry within the denominations in cooperation with the American Association of Theological Schools. “Something newer and more creative is needed than the addition of new courses to the theological curriculum or the maintenance of present percentages,” said a departmental report.
The Division of Foreign Missions already is producing, through Friendship Press, study literature used by many member denominations. This service will be enlarged. A report to the assembly indicated that new avenues are continuing being explored to see “what can be produced interdenominationally to be fully used denominationally.”
Dissenting Duo
Following adoption of the “Message to the Churches” by the NCC General Assembly, two leading figures called newsmen together to explain their dissent.
Dr. Henry P. Van Dusen, chairman of the Message Committee, and Dr. Truman B. Douglass, who wrote the first draft of the message, objected to the deletion of a statement relating to the “churchly” nature of the NCC. Van Dusen and Douglass assert that the council needs to make more specific the nature of its own integrity as a church.
To meet this alleged deficiency, they had proposed (1) to extend the denominations’ surrender, for instance, of their missionary obligations to the NCC, (2) to commission laymen to special ecumenical service in what many interpreted to be tantamount to ordination, (3) to ask churches to alter ordination procedures to include references to a broader church, and (4) to arrange for the observance of the sacraments by council units.
The proposals were deleted in committee because some felt that the matter belonged within the purview of other committees and others questioned the strategy and propriety of using the message as the medium for a drastic move.
Van Dusen and Douglass made clear that they would pursue their plans later.
Assembly Actions
Here is a summary of actions taken by the fifth General Assembly of the National Council of Churches:
• Admitted as a new member the Syrian Antiochian Orthodox Church, with a membership of 110,000.
• Elected J. Irwin Miller, vice chairman of Division of Christian Life and Work, Disciples of Christ layman and wealthy banker from Columbus, Indiana, as president for the ensuing triennium.
• Re-elected Dr. Roy G. Ross as general secretary and Dr. R. H. Edwin Espy as associate general secretary.
• Adopted and ordered sent down to the churches a message dealing largely with the need for more unity between the churches and less self-sufficiency. The message also called for greater lay participation in the life of the churches; for the support of the aims of the emerging new nations of the world; for increasing zeal in evangelism; for the elimination of racial, national or personal distinctions; for the elimination of economic inequities; for a strengthening of family ties and individual integrity; for labor towards the establishment of a community of nations. In addition, the message (1) called on churches (1) to help in struggle to secure peace and world order in view of ever-present threat of annihilation, and (2) to “move forthrightly and more speedily to eliminate racial discrimination,” condemning all opposition to this goal, especially the use of violence.
• Adopted a resolution affirming Christian responsibility for world community which (1) acknowledged the tragic “turbulence of this revolutionary, nuclear-space age;” (2) affirmed that God calls Christians “to live and work” for “that real community which he had created through Jesus Christ;” (3) called on the churches to support the United Nations; (4) urged the support of reliable and realistic programs of disarmament; (5) urged the repeal of the Connally Amendment; and (6) urged the U. S. to ratify the Genocide Convention.
Ecumenical Student
Lutheran Bishop Anders Nygren, noted theologian of the Swedish “agape school,” is due to arrive in Chicago January 3 to spend 14 months at the Ecumenical Institute in suburban Evanston.
Nygren is the second research scholar to join the institute through a grant from the Danforth Foundation of St. Louis, joining Canon Theodore Wedel, warden emeritus of the College of Preachers in Washington, D. C.
The 70-year-old Nygren has been one of the top leaders in the ecumenical movement.
A New Interpreter
A political scientist who has been operating the United Presbyterian Office of Information for the last three years will become “general director of interpretation” for the National Council of Churches, effective January 1.
He is Dr. Murray S. Stedman, Jr., a 44-year-old Presbyterian layman who succeeds James W. Wine. Wine’s position was that of an Associate General Secretary for Interpretation until he resigned last August to join the campaign staff of Senator John F. Kennedy.
A 1939 graduate of Williams College, Stedman earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1957. He had been elected a Rhodes scholar but World War II prevented his attendance at Oxford.
Stedman has taught political science at Swarthmore College, Brown University, and Columbia. He also served for a time as political science specialist with UNESCO in Paris.
People: Words And Events
Deaths: Dr. William Wistar Hamilton, 91, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention; in New Orleans … Dr. P. P. W. Ziemann, general secretary of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec … Dr. Frederick Bronkema, 62, former head of the department of theology at the University of Dubuque.
Retirement: As president of Maryville College, Dr. Ralph Waldo Lloyd, effective next summer.
Appointments: As president of the Board of Missions of the United Lutheran Church in America, Dr. Paul L. Graf … as executive secretary) of the Board of World Mission of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S., Dr. Thomas Watson Street … as secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions of the Congregational Christian Churches, the Rev. B. Kenneth Anthony … as director of interpretation for the International Convention of Christian Churches, the Rev. James C. Suggs.
Elections: As president of Drew University, Dr. Robert Fisher Oxnam … as Anglican Archbishop of Uganda and Ruanda Urundi, Dr. Leslie Brown … as president of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada, the Rev. J. F. Holliday … as president of the Association of the Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, Otto K. Finkbeiner.
Evangelism Endeavors
San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, where Eugene Carson Blake delivered his now-famous merger sermon, played host to evangelist Billy Graham and his team later the same day.
Graham spoke to the Christian Men’s Assembly, which for the first time met concurrently with the NCC General Assembly. He had made the engagement at the urgent request of an old personal friend, Dr. S. J. Patterson, secretary of the Christian Men’s Assembly.
The evangelist went on immediately to Las Vegas, Nevada, where two days later he addressed a special rally sponsored by the Clark County Ministerial Association. Some 7,300 persons turned out in near-freezing temperatures (highly unusual for Las Vegas), including a 350-voice choir. About 400 registered decisions for Christ. A planeload of movie stars from Hollywood were on hand.
‘Homage and Courtesy’
Dr. Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, paid his much-heralded visit to Pope John XXIII on December 2.
The Pope received Fisher in his private library in the Vatican Palace. They talked for 45 minutes or more. The only other person present was Archbishop Antonio Samore, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, who acted as interpreter.
Neither reporters nor photographers were permitted to be on hand for the meeting, which opened with handshakes.
Fisher later said that the Pope had expressed “his great desire—as he did on many other occasions—to increase brotherly feelings among all men.”
The Vatican subsequently issued a communique which said in part: “His Holiness Pope John XXIII this morning received in audience Dr. Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, who, as announced, had asked to make a visit of homage and courtesy.”
Congo Cannibalism
Two Protestant missionaries are believed to have become victims of cannibalism in North Katanga last month. Reported missing were Elton George Behrent Knaus, 50, of New Zealand, and Edmund Hodgson, 62, of England. Both men served under the Congo Evangelistic Mission. Knaus has a wife and three children. Hodgson was a widower.
U. N. troops relayed accounts of tribesmen who said they had witnessed the missionaries being hacked to death by machetes.
Missionary Totals
The world-wide Protestant missionary force now numbers 42,250, an increase of 3,644 in the last two years, according to newly-released statistics from the Missionary Research Library.
Of the 42,250 overseas personnel, 27,219 represent North American agencies.
Protestants in the United States and Canada gave almost 170 million dollars to foreign missions in 1959. The U. S. portion averages about $2.75 per capita.
Independent missionary societies showed substantial personnel gains. A slight decrease was recorded for agencies working through the Division of Foreign Missions of the National Council of Churches.
The statistics were released by Dr. Frank Price, director of the Missionary Research Library.
Protestant Panorama
• The Evangelical Union Church, in a statement read from pulpits throughout Communist East Germany this month, urged Christians not to flee to the West even though they are obliged to suffer afflictions. The Church comprises six “united” churches that are among members of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKID). The appeal showed special concern over the loss of vitally needed church and professional workers in East Germany.
• American Baptists plan to establish a standard educational requirement for ordination of four years of college and three years of seminary.
• The Roman Catholic president of Honduras, Ramon Villeda Morales, attended a Protestant worship service in Comayaguela last month. It is said to have been the first time that the country’s head of state had ever entered a non-Roman Catholic church.
• An aggregate of nearly 1,000 persons, some on crutches or in wheel chairs, witnessed a three-day spiritual healing mission at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Chicago last month. Services were conducted by Dr. Alfred W. Price, Episcopal rector who is warden of the Order of St. Luke the Physician, interdenominational society stressing Christian healing.
• Student demonstrators wrecked the homes of two American administrators of Yonsei University, interdenominational mission-supported school in Seoul, Korea, last month.
• The Rev. Alexander Karev, secretary of the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians in Moscow, says he wishes Christians everywhere would be “permeated with a peace-loving spirit toward my country and seek the means of improving relations between our nations and easing international tension.” The Soviet churchman recently returned from meetings on cold-war tensions at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, organized by editor Norman Cousins and financed by the Ford Foundation.
• Methodists are erecting a new office building in Chicago to house seven boards and agencies. The three-level neo-Gothic structure is tentatively scheduled for occupancy by next winter … Construction of the Minnesota Protestant Center, five-story church office building in Minneapolis is expected to begin in 1961.
• Radio advertising paid off quickly for Lutheran churches in Copenhagen. Broadcasting stations had hardly begun special programs aimed at persuading Danes to attend pre-Christmas services when pastors began to report increased church attendance.
• The Church of God plans to build a 12,000-seat auditorium in Anderson, Indiana, to replace the one wrecked by snow last year.
• A slight drop in Southern Baptist seminary enrollment this year was attributed to a variety of factors (including secularism of society and expiration of G. I. benefits) by President Sydnor L. Stealey of Southeastern Baptist Theological seminary.
• The World Literature Crusade organization plans to inaugurate missionary programs for children over U. S. and Canadian broadcasting stations beginning in January.
• American and European Lutheran theologians comment on the forthcoming Roman Catholic Ecumenical Council in a book due to be published next fall. Editor is Professor K. E. Skydsgaard of Copenhagen.
• Milligan (Tennessee) College, Disciples of Christ school, won full accreditation last month from the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.
• A $13,000 federal government grant will enable two Union Theological Seminary students to participate in a pilot project aimed at giving spiritual help to the disabled. The program is being established at the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the New York University Medical Center.
• Hardin-Simmons University plans a $15,000,000 development program that will nearly double the Southern Baptist school’s size in 10 years.
