A program to recruit social workers and other personnel for Lutheran health and welfare agencies was authorized by the National Lutheran Council at its 43rd annual meeting, held in Detroit January 31-February 3.
The council is a cooperative agency for six U. S. Lutheran bodies that represent about 5,483,000 members, or about two-thirds of American Lutheranism. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, which has 2,387,000 members, is not officially connected with the NLC, but cooperates in some of its programs.
The recruitment service will be launched next July in an effort to alleviate the shortage of qualified personnel in the field of Lutheran social welfare. A major aim of the program will be to develop and maintain a common registry of Lutheran social work personnel for referral on request to church welfare boards and their allied agencies and institutions.
At its opening session, the council welcomed as a new participating body The American Lutheran Church, formed last year by a three-way merger. The churches which went into the merger all had been NLC members.
A guest at this year’s NLC meeting was the Rev. Kurt Schmidt-Clausen of Geneva, acting executive secretary of the Lutheran World Federation.
Schmidt-Clausen declared that church mergers not based on sound theological doctrine may increase instead of reduce the number of Christian creeds.
He said the “essence” of some interdenominational mergers is to be found “in the attempt to make the merging churches give up not only autonomy of their church organizations but also their doctrinal ties with their fellow-confessional churches in other countries.”
This loss of international doctrinal ties, he asserted, will lead “inevitably” to the creation of national churches “all bound together by the name of ‘Christian Church’ and nothing else.”
A statement on “Religious Faith as a Factor in American Elections” was adopted by the council and recommended to its participating bodies for use as they may determine. The document stresses that the religious affiliation of a candidate for any office is a “valid concern” of the voter, “but it has to be balanced against all the qualifications of this candidate and other candidates and should not be taken out of the context of the total political situation in which the voter has to make his decision.”
Also approved by the NLC was a statement on “Church Hospitals and the Hill-Burton Act.” The statement urges religious groups to “make every effort” to finance their hospitals completely with their own resources and other voluntary contributions, accepting public funds “only when the possibility of providing much-needed facilities under community auspices has been thoroughly explored and found not feasible.”
The council also adopted a budget of $2,068,422 for regular work and certain special phases of its program in 1961, a budget of $2,214,428 for 1962, and a tentative budget of $2,327,269 for 1963. Funds totalling $4,179,000 were allocated for distribution from the 1961 Lutheran World Action appeal.
A report from the Lutheran Immigration Service said that nearly 60,000 refugees had been resettled in the United States since 1948 by the agency and its predecessors. The LIS, operated jointly by church bodies participating in the NLC and the Missouri Synod, was inaugurated in January, 1960, combining activities of the former Lutheran Refugee Service, the Lutheran Resettlement Services, and the immigrants’ service bureau of the NLC.
Dr. Robert W. Long, executive secretary of the council’s Division of American Missions, called for finding “new and imaginative ways to witness together” in an effort to win the unchurched.
He said the task which looms before the Christian forces at the beginning of the sixties is “monumental,” as some 350,000 persons annually are added to the unchurched millions of the United States. But, he said, the task is also “fraught with opportunities and glowing potentialities.”
Nazarene Gains
The Church of the Nazarene counted 10,792 new members on profession of faith following a four-month “Try Christ’s Way” campaign which ended February 1. They were among 92,831 persons who sought spiritual help at Nazarene altars during the church’s evangelistic thrust.
The crusade began with a church-wide prayer and witnessing campaign in which about 1,800,000 persons were contacted with the Christian message and invited to church. It was in keeping with the Nazarene quadrennial (1960–1964) theme of “Evangelism First.”
The Church of the Nazarene is one of the larger Protestant denominations that stands for “scriptural holiness in the Wesleyan tradition.” Emphasis is given the doctrine of sanctification as a second work of grace. The church claims the best record of growth among Holiness denominations in the United States during the last 50 years (current total: approximately 318,500 members in 4,741 churches).
Unity Movement
Presidents of seven major Baptist bodies are being asked by a Providence, Rhode Island, minister to appoint committees for a “grand convention” launching a movement toward Baptist unity.
Dr. Homer L. Trickett, pastor of historic First Baptist Church in Providence, in a recent sermon called for union of all Baptists in America and for a return to the New Testament as a “common point of beginning” by all groups “seeking the road to unity.”
Now he has sent letters to Baptist leaders urging action on his proposal. The messages went to heads of the American Baptist Convention, National Baptist Convention, U. S. A., Inc., National Baptist Convention of America, Baptist General Conference, North American Baptist General Conference, Seventh Day Baptist General Conference and Southern Baptist Convention.
Trickett asked the presidents to “appoint a representative committee on the unity of Baptists in the United States and to authorize this committee to carry out negotiations that shall be aimed at securing a significant unity of fellowship, of program and of action among all Baptists in this country.”
He suggested the convention take place in his church, which is the oldest Baptist sanctuary in the country and the first church of any denomination in Rhode Island.
EUB-Methodist Merger?
A proposal definitely for or against merger with The Methodist Church will be presented to the next General Conference of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, according to Dr. Reuben H. Mueller, senior EUB bishop. The conference will meet in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in October of 1962. Between now and then, regional conferences will discuss the possibility of union.
Methodists favor a merger with the EUB Church. But EUB leaders have in the past voiced concerns about such factors as the difference in size (Methodist, 9,000,000; EUB 760,000) and “questions of absorption” into the episcopacy and the Methodist organizational structure.
End of a Row
Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School announced a successor this month to Dean J. Robert Nelson, who resigned last year in a row over sit-in demonstrations and racial integration.
The new dean, who will take office in September, is Dr. William C. Finch, president of Southwestern University, a Methodist-related school in Georgetown, Texas.
Nelson had resigned, along with 11 members of the Vanderbilt Divinity School faculty, in protest against the school’s dismissal of a student, the Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr.
Lawson, now a Methodist minister in Shelbyville, Tennessee, was ousted following his arrest as leader in the sit-in demonstrations in Nashville.
Of those who resigned with Nelson, all subsequently withdrew their resignations except Nelson and one faculty member who had committed himself to another position. Nelson is now professor at Princeton Theological Seminary.
The Parish Level
Harvard Divinity School is establishing a new academic department on church history and traditions to strengthen training of young men and women for the parish ministry.
In the school’s three-year course of study leading to the B.D. degree, the new Department of the Church will concentrate on church history and traditions as they relate to actual ministerial work at the parish level.
J. Lawrence Burkholder, faculty member at Goshen (Mennonite) College, is the first appointee to the new department. Burkholder has been named associate professor of pastoral theology.
Relocation Leader
Dr. Benjamin P. Browne will begin a two-year term as “Administrator and President-Elect” of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago, beginning September 1.
Browne, who is resigning as executive director of Christian publications for the American Baptist Board of Education and Publication, has been a part-time acting administrator for the seminary for the past year.
His new post will entail special leadership to the school as it relocates its campus in suburban Chicago.
Currently president of the Associated Church Press, Browne is one of the nation’s most distinguished Christian journalists. He founded six writers’ conferences, including the famous National Christian Writing Center of Green Lake, Wisconsin.
Browne has studied at Boston University, Andover Newton Theological School, and Harvard University.
People: Words And Events
Deaths: Retired Methodist Bishop William T. Watkins, 65; in Louisville, Kentucky … Dr. John L. Seaton, retired educator, Methodist; in Short Hills, New Jersey.
Appointments: As general secretary of the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, Dr. Leland A. Gregory … as moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Rev. W. A. A. Park.
Elections: As chairman of the National Council of Churches’ Broadcasting and Film Commission, Dr. Harry C. Spencer … as president of the Protestant Federation of France, Pastor Charles Westphal.
Grants: To the following, fellowships ranging from $1,000 to $4,000, fifth of an annual series (made possible by a $500,000 Sealantic Fund grant) aimed at stimulating advanced faculty study and strengthening sabbatical leave policies, administered through the American Association of Theological Schools: Ross T. Bender, Goshen College Biblical Seminary; Lowell P. Beveridge, Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia; Thomas J. Bigham, General Theological Seminary; William H. Brownlee, Southern California School of Theology; Joseph A. Callaway, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Paul K. Deats, Jr., Boston University School of Theology; Vinjamuri E. Devadutt, Colgate Rochester Divinity School; Edward A. Dowey, Jr., Princeton Theological Seminary; Allan L. Farris, Knox College; Charles R. Feilding, Trinity College; Reginald H. Fuller, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary; James H. Gailey, Jr., Columbia Theological Seminary; Brian A. Gerrish, McCormick Theological Seminary; Harvey H. Guthrie, Jr., Episcopal Theological School; Ray L. Hart, Drew University Theological School; R. Lansing Hicks, Berkeley Divinity School; Edward C. Hobbs, Church Divinity School of the Pacific; Bernard J. Holm, Wartburg Theological Seminary; Charles H. Johnson, Perkins School of Theology; Robert C. Johnson, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary; Gordon D. Kaufman, Vanderbilt Divinity School; Charles F. Kraft, Garrett Biblical Institute; William S. LaSor, Fuller Theological Seminary; Paul L. Lehmann, Harvard Divinity School; Harvey K. McArthur, Hartford Theological Seminary; Frederick W. Meuser, Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary; Paul W. Meyer, Yale University Divinity School; John H. Otwell, Pacific School of Religion; Harold H. Platz, United Theological Seminary; William L. Reed, The College of the Bible; McMurray S. Richey, Duke University Divinity School; Ray F. Robbins, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary; Jim A. Sanders, Colgate Rochester Divinity School; Richard L. Scheef, Jr., Eden Theological Seminary; James D. Smart, Union Theological Seminary; Charles W. F. Smith, Episcopal Theological School; Lawrence E. Toombs, Drew University Theological School; Paul M. van Buren, Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest; Arthur Vööbus, Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary; John von Rohr, Pacific School of Religion; Herndon Wagers, Perkins School of Theology; John T. Wayland, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; John R. Weinlick, Moravian Theological Seminary; David J. Wieand, Bethany Biblical Seminary; John F. Wooverton, Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia.
