The following account of the opening of the Second Vatican Council was prepared by Dr. J. D. Douglas:
Rain fell steadily on several hundred persons—mostly women in black—who had gathered by 7 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square for the opening of the Second Vatican Council.
Pope John XXIII was scheduled to meet conciliar fathers in the great Hall of Benedictions at 7:30 to invoke the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but it was 9:55 before he ascended the papal throne in St. Peter’s. Five minutes later he spoke his first words clearly heard throughout the packed basilica:
“Protector noster aspice Deus.”
Mass was celebrated by the bearded Eugene Cardinal Tisserant, French-born dean of the College of Cardinals. As he pronounced the words of consecration, Swiss guards bowed the knee and lowered their arms. Following the mass, cardinals and patriarchs came to make obeisance to the Pope individually. Then, representing their kind and to avoid protracting the proceedings, came two archbishops, two bishops, two abbots, and two superiors general.
By noon the rain had given way to strong sunshine and the square was half filled as council proceedings were relayed in Latin by loudspeaker. The first session, a service of worship, lasted until 1:15. Cried the crowd, “Viva il Papa.”
One leading American evangelical observed, “New Delhi was peanuts to this.”
The Pope’s address at the opening session voiced the hope that the council might pave the way toward the “unity of mankind.”
“Unfortunately,” he said, “the entire Christian family has not yet fully attained … unity in truth.
“The Catholic church, therefore, considers it her duty to work actively so that there may be fulfilled the great mystery of that unity, which Jesus Christ invoked with fervent prayer from his heavenly Father on the eve of his sacrifice.”
The Pope avoided mention of the conviction that only through a return of the “separated brethren” to the Roman Catholic Church can unity be achieved.
In Rome, as one made the precarious journey through Europe’s worst traffic scrambles, the impression was that the influx of more than 90 per cent of the hierarchy from 76 countries left the normally cosmopolitan eternal city singularly unmoved.
The central bronze doors of St. Peter’s have been cleaned so that Filarete’s superb Renaissance workmanship can again be clearly seen. Facing each other across the nave in the basilica are tiers of seats divided into sections. This was the spot where in Nero’s day Christians were flung to the lions.
NEWS / A fortnightly report of developments in religion
U. S. AMBASSADOR AT THE VATICAN
In a last minute reversal, the U. S. State Department authorized the American ambassador to Italy, G. Frederick Reinhardt, to attend opening ceremonies of the Second Vatican Council.
Department spokesmen had announced earlier that a U. S. representative would not be present because the council is a “purely religious gathering” and not a ceremony in which the Pope is extended recognition as head of state of Vatican City.
The United States has sent representatives to such events as the funeral of Pope Pius XII, the coronation of Pope John XXIII, and ceremonies honoring pontiffs on their birthdays and coronation anniversaries. As is well known, however, there is no U. S. ambassador to the Vatican. One of the points on which President Kennedy based his election campaign was opposition to the appointment of a Vatican ambassador.
In this case, Reinhardt reportedly informed the State Department that since several hundred American citizens are taking part in the council, he felt it would be appropriate for the U. S. ambassador to attend the opening.
The department reconsidered and told Reinhardt to be on hand.
Security precautions have been tightened since twice in recent weeks incendiary bombs were planted in the basilica. Mine detectors were employed the night prior to the opening. Interpol was asked to help by notifying council officials of known religious fanatics.
Arrival of two Hungarian bishops marked the first direct contact between Rome and the Hungarian hierarchy in some 14 years. The Apostolic Bishop of Sofia appeared unexpectedly. The largest delegation from a Communist country came from Poland—a cardinal and 13 bishops.
Some 28 Protestant observers were on hand, but on the eve of the opening not a single major Orthodox representative had been named. At the last minute, Moscow announced that the Russian Orthodox Church was sending two observers. The sparse Orthodox representation is explained partly by the internal dissension between Greek and Russian groups, and partly by the traditional Orthodox view which accepts no council after the eighth century as valid and holds that separation of Greek and Latin Churches made further infallible pronouncements impossible.
Vatican Council II, as it is officially known, is unique in not having been called to counter some specific heresy or other pressing danger or (so far as is known) to introduce new doctrine.
Said American Bishop John Wright: “Christianity does not need a million campaigns against a million heresies so much as a timely statement of its own first principles.”
A radical difference from the last council is seen in the present determination to face up to conditions in an ever-changing world and to evaluate in Christian terms the scientific, technical, social, and economic revolution.
Thus, subjects to be discussed are expected to include the ethics of tax evasion, the problem of getting the sacraments to nuclear war victims, and the use of mass media for religious purposes. (The council became the first religious conclave to be transmitted via the American Telstar communications satellite.)
Some Anglo-Catholics still hope for a reopening of the question of the validity of Anglican orders pronounced null and void by Leo XIII with, however, uncertain dogmatic force. But it is felt that to consider the question might jeopardize cordial relations presently enjoyed with other churches.
Some older fathers are concerned about the impression abroad that the church is to be brought up-to-date, remembering that 50 years ago modernists were condemned for talking of bringing the church into line with modern thought. Hans Kung’s book is regarded with increasing suspicion by conservatives who feel it does not sufficiently stress that the price of reunion is the return of Protestants to Rome.
William Cardinal Godfrey, Archbishop of Westminster, in leaving London for his sixth visit to Rome this year, again denied that non-Catholics can expect any restatement of doctrine. Catholic authorities are emphasizing more clearly that the council should be regarded as a gentle invitation to all Christians to once again seek that fold entrusted by Christ to Peter.
A penetrating word came from English Catholic theologian Gordon Albion:
“When the church has cleaned her face, removed the distracting cosmetics, it is to be hoped that the General Council will release in the church a mighty missionary force so that real impact may be made on the de-Christianized masses.”
The most staggering factor of all remains that Pope John XXIII, patronizingly dubbed an interim pope, has established in four years a remarkable climate of good will, which would have been incredible a decade ago. He has made no concession, yet has an attitude of charity very different from past popes, who bluntly held that there is no salvation outside of the church.
Says Archbishop Murphy of Cardiff: “A caretaker pope! And he summons a General Council! How much more care can you take?”
Two things are clear: (1) Whatever the ultimate outcome, the church will seem less a intransigent institution to non-Catholics after the captains and kings have departed, yet (2) it will not have changed its essential nature by one iota. Speculation on what the council will do is futile. The official reaction is, to quote Pius IX’s classic word in 1870: “You will find the Holy Ghost inside the council, not outside.”
Council Agenda
The Second Vatican Council was not scheduled to begin discussing items on its agenda until October 22, according to the council secretariat. Until then, the conciliar fathers (voting delegates) were to meet in closed-door plenary sessions about every second day to elect personnel to the council’s ten 24-member commissions.
Vatican Radio said that from October 22 to October 31 plenary working sessions would be held in secret every day except Thursday and Sunday.
The plenary sessions are being held in the central nave of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Evangelicals And Unity
Simultaneous with the opening of the Second Vatican Council in Rome came a declaration from the National Association of Evangelicals’ Board of Administration which pledged “to work with renewed zeal for the realization of the true unity which Christ desires for his Church and to pray that his will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
The NAE said it “rejoices in the mounting desire for the revitalization and unity of the Church …”
The statement stressed that “the true basis of Christian unity is found only in the Holy Scriptures and in the apostolic heritage carried forward by the Reformation.”
Accordingly, the statement listed seven points of reaffirmation: the Scriptures as final authority, justification by faith, the priesthood of believers with the Lord Jesus Christ as sole mediator between man and God, responsibility for worldwide witness “despite charges of proselyting and specious accusations of divisiveness,” spiritual unity independent of organic union, the Christian hope of the personal return of Jesus Christ, and the futility of ecumenical conversations which do not affirm scriptural authority.
“Evangelicals have been the pioneers in advancing Christian unity,” the statement said, “because they believe that only a spiritually united church can effectively confront an unbelieving world.”
Moses In The Marsh?
Moses crossed a marsh, not the Red Sea, according to a new translation of the five books of Moses to be issued by the Jewish Publication Society of America in January.
The publishers herald the effort as the first translation of a section of the Bible directly into English from the traditional texts preserved through the centuries by the Masoretic scribes.
Leading Jewish Bible scholars from the English-speaking world shared in the new work, which also contends that the third commandment forbids perjury rather than profanity.
Dr. Harry M. Orlinsky, professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, is editor-in-chief.
B.B
A Matter Of Dress
An Ohio teen-ager attracted international attention this month by refusing to wear bloomer-type shorts in her gym class. Judy Rae Bushong, 17, daughter of a part-time minister, believes that such dress is immoral. Her refusal to wear shorts caused her to be expelled from Springfield Township High School, near Akron.
Christmas Stamp
The first Christmas postage stamp in U. S. history will go on sale November 1 in Pittsburgh. Postmaster General J. Edward Day unveiled its red, green, and white design at a news conference in Washington this month.
It is no secret that the four-cent stamp is aimed at encouraging the use of first-class mail for Christmas greeting cards. The Post Office Department hopes to alleviate its deficit with the added revenue.
The Church In Crisis
How did the church community face up to the crisis in Mississippi? What was the role of the clergy in the bloody conflict brought on by the enrollment of Negro James H. Meredith1Meredith was raised a Methodist, but now describes his religious beliefs as a mixture of Judeao-Chrisdan ideas and, possibly, Buddhism. at the University of Mississippi?
The two ministers most closely involved were the Rev. Duncan M. Gray, Jr. and the Rev. Wofford Smith. Gray, rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in the campus town of Oxford, was beaten and cursed as he tried to quiet a group of rioters. Smith, Episcopal chaplain at the university, risked rifle fire to plead for order.
Religious News Service reported that Gray also was rebuffed in his attempts to reason with former Army Major General Edwin A. Walker, who was later arrested and charged with encouraging mob violence. Walker was said to have climbed upon the pedestal of a Confederate statue to urge a continued protest against the admission of Meredith. Gray then mounted the pedestal and called for an end to the disorder. He was pulled down, cursed, and beaten before being rescued by police.
“Walker said some unpleasant things,” Gray declared. “His attitude was contemptuous. When I told him I was an Episcopal minister, he said it made him ashamed to be an Episcopalian.”
At one point in the riot, Smith went to the front steps of the Lyceum, the university administration building which was the scene of the most violent clashes between rioters and U. S. marshals and Federal troops. He asked the rioters to “halt this onslaught,” but his appeal went unheeded.
Collective action came from ministers of Oxford following the riot with the issuance of a call for repentance. Sunday, October 7, was set aside, and a number of Oxford ministers made specific references to the crisis from the pulpit.
The most outspoken comments came from Gray, whose sermon included a reference to Mississippi Governor Ross R. Barnett2Barnett is a Southern Baptist and teaches a Sunday school class in the First Baptist Church of Jackson, Mississippi. as a “living symbol of lawlessness.”
Who could blame the students for the violence, he asked, “when the governor of the state himself was in open rebellion against the law, a living symbol of lawlessness?”
“We cannot blame this tragic business only on thugs and irresponsible students,” said Gray, whose father is the Episcopal bishop of Mississippi. “The major part of the blame must be placed upon our leaders themselves, and upon you and me and all the other decent and responsible citizens of Mississippi, who have allowed this impossible climate to prevail.… It is for this that we pray God’s forgiveness this morning.”
The fact that the Federal Government chose a Sunday to activate the Mississippi National Guard and register Meredith failed to arouse any appreciable indignation. A few days later, however, President Kennedy found himself at odds with the ministerial association of St. Cloud, Minnesota, because of a Sunday speaking engagement. Kennedy was to have appeared at a political rally at 4 P. M. on Sunday, October, but the time was moved up to 11 A. M. The ministerial association drafted a protest and asked that he change the time so as not to conflict with church services. Kennedy went himself to an 11 A.M. mass in St. Paul and telephoned his speech to St. Cloud at 12:30 P.M.
The Mississippi crisis also had repercussions in Canada. The Rev. E. L. H. Taylor of St. James Anglican Church in Caledon East, Ontario, wired a message of support to Barnett and told newsmen he felt Kennedy’s use of Federal marshals and troops in Mississippi was “a brutal encroachment” upon the state’s constitutional rights. Anglican Bishop Frederick H. Wilkinson of Toronto said he deplored Taylor’s action.
Call For Repentance
Here is the text of the call for repentance adopted by the clergy of Oxford, Mississippi:
We the clergy of the Oxford and University community do hereby call upon the people of our community and the State to make Sunday, October 7, 1962, a specific time for repentance for our collective and individual guilt in the formation of the atmosphere which produced the strife at the University of Mississippi and Oxford last Sunday and Monday, resulting in the death of two persons and injury to many others.
Further, we do urge that this be a specific time of turning from those paths of violent thought and action to the Christian way of peace and good will, which turning is the heart of true repentance.
It is our firm belief that obedience to the law and to the lawful authority is an essential part of the Christian life. The outgrowth of this conviction in the situation in which we find ourselves can be no less than acceptance of the actions of the court and wholehearted compliance with these as individuals and as a State.
Not only must we ourselves act in accord with these principles, but we must actively exert positive leadership and influence such as that provided on October 2 by certain businessmen of our State.
We issue this call mindful of the promise of our God:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14).
Nixon On The Bible
“The strength of a nation’s faith in God,” says Richard M. Nixon, “can be measured only in terms of the personal faith of each of its individual citizens.”
The former U. S. Vice-President, in an article in the November issue of Decision, published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, adds:
“Only to the extent that individuals have made personal commitment to that faith can America be truly characterized as a nation strong in its devotion to God.”
Nixon recalls the religious activities and experiences of his youth.
“I remember vividly the day just after I entered high school, when my father took me and my two brothers to Los Angeles to attend the great revival meetings being held there by the Chicago evangelist, Dr. Paul Rader. We joined hundreds of others that night in making our personal commitments to Christ and Christian service.”
Nixon, unsuccessful Republican presidential candidate in 1960 who is now running for governor of California, stresses that during his boyhood “we learned and studied the Bible itself rather than about the Bible.”
“If I might venture a comment,” he declares, “I think that some of our voices in the pulpit today tend to speak too much about religion in the abstract, rather than in the personal, simple terms which I heard in my earlier years. More preaching from the Bible, rather than just about the Bible, is what America needs.”
In a television speech this month, Nixon said he favors a constitutional amendment legalizing non-sectarian prayers in public schools.
Back To The Court
Test cases which are expected to produce a clarification of the constitutionality of prayer and Bible reading in public schools are now formally before the U. S. Supreme Court. The court announced this month that it will hear arguments involving Pennsylvania and Maryland in which diametrically opposite decisions were reached by lower courts.
In Pennsylvania, a three-judge Federal district court ruled early this year that the reading of passages from the Bible in public schools is unconstitutional.
In Maryland, the state’s Supreme Court upheld the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer and readings from the Bible as a constitutional practice in Baltimore’s public schools.
The U. S. Supreme Court also announced this month that it would not hear an appeal of an Oregon court decision barring distribution of publicly-purchased textbooks to students of parochial elementary schools.
Meanwhile, the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs in semi-annual session voted concurrence with the Supreme Court decision of June 25 banning official governmental prayers.
On Capitol Hill, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to replace the stars on the wall above the desk of the Speaker with the national motto—“In God We Trust.”
Democratic Representative Fred Marshall of Minnesota, sponsor of the resolution, credited the original suggestion to the late Democratic Representative Louis C. Rabaut of Michigan, who died during the first session of the 87th Congress. Rabaut was a prominent Catholic layman and sponsor of the 1954 resolution placing the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Freedom Versus Security?
Methodist Bishop Edgar A. Love led a delegation to the White House this month to protest prosecution of the U. S. Communist Party. The delegation met with White House aide Meyer Feldman to present a petition endorsed by 900 prominent citizens registering opposition to the Internal Security Act of 1960 (McCarran Act).
The petitioners, among whom are 128 Christian and Jewish clergymen, declare that “the danger to the vital interests of the country” posed by prosecutions under the act “requires immediate action by the Executive to safeguard our freedoms and to maintain the integrity of our democratic institutions.”
Disciples Battle Integration Problems
A Sunday evening communion service at the Hollywood Bowl opened the 113th annual assembly of the International Convention of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ). From the brilliantly-lit stage echoed the challenge of President Leslie R. Smith, who called for a return to the power of God as a solution to the problems of the world. He rejected as inadequate such means as education, free enterprise, social status, organization and promotion, materialism, realism, humanism, behaviorism, and existentialism.
For the next four days, the assembly met in Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium for its business sessions. Some 9,500 ministers and laymen were registered for the assembly.
Three years ago the Christian Churches adopted as their slogan for the sixties “The Decade of Decision.” This year’s meeting with its theme of “The Power of God” sought to assess the decade’s progress. Some observers felt that the slogan has not caught fire with the bulk of the constituency and that nothing has yet transpired of extraordinary significance.
It was reported that 226 men and women from North America—out of a membership of nearly 2 million—now serve as foreign missionaries. It was also reported that “as of December 31, 1961, there were 73 missionary candidates.… It is estimated that we will need a minimum of 40 new missionary candidates per year during the decade of decision, so the department regrets that it is far below its goal.”
The assembly coincided with the crisis at the University of Mississippi, and delegates adopted an “emergency resolution” expressing concern. The recommendations committee chairman said the resolution was not directed primarily to Mississippi but was aimed at support for “the federal government and what it is trying to do to insure human rights.” The resolution deplores “the defiance of the Federal Court order by the officials of the State of Mississippi and encourages the U. S. Department of Justice in its efforts to secure compliance to the Federal laws in all states, including Mississippi.”
The assembly had to face up to its own integration problems, and passed a resolution calling for church agencies to work for speedier integration. One delegate remarked that this resolution put the convention back to 1946: “we said the same thing and have done too little to put it into practice.” On a standing vote, the resolution carried by a two to one majority.
But the integration problem continued to haunt the Disciples, particularly with regard to their educational institutions. The crux of the problem lay in the fact that some delegates wanted to name those institutions not yet integrated. Extended discussion complicated the issue, but the resolution finally passed easily. It urged the colleges and universities of the Christian Churches to hasten full integration of the student bodies, faculties, and staff.
The Disciples also expressed opposition to capital punishment despite observations from the floor that it is a “divine order and not an invention of man.” Another resolution urged local congregations to study political and social issues and to express their responsible Christian judgment to government agencies. One delegate said that local congregations “have no chance to vote under National Council of Churches resolutions even when they have far-reaching consequences.”
A resolution critical of the anti-Communism movement was referred to a committee for further study. A resolution on federal aid to education also was turned back.
In other action, the Disciples approved a resolution expressing concern for people who are not able to pay for medical care and urged “enactment of necessary legislation by the appropriate legislative bodies of the government of the United States.” The resolution was an amended version of a motion which specifically tied medical coverage to Social Security. A rival resolution opposing governmental help for medical care was defeated.
In dealing with the population explosion, the assembly voted to endorse education for “family planning through the use of contraceptive procedures.” The same resolution calls for improved food programs and more opportunities for people to migrate from overpopulated areas to less populated lands.
Among resolutions which failed to pass was one condemning the civil defense program and urging churches and Christians to refrain from participation in it.
The Disciples Peace Fellowship presented $6,354 collected in a “Dollars for the United Nations” campaign.
Elected president of the convention was Dr. Robert W. Burns, minister of the Peachtree Christian Church of Atlanta for 32 years.
“The main task facing the church is unity,” he said. “I shall take steps to do what I can to bring it closer to reality.
“We have as one of our ideals the reunion of the divided house of God, hoping one day to include even the Roman Catholic Church. It is difficult to see how this may be done, but I am confident it will be done, someday.”
Thoughts looking toward eventual merger with the United Church of Christ will continue, he declared.
Burns said he also would give special attention to attempting to repair the “1906 tragedy” when the Churches of Christ split from the Disciples of Christ.
“All those who were active in the fight which split the denomination have since died. I am interested in what binds us together.… I have every intention of writing their leaders and letting them know how eager I am to work with them and to help them. I would like with all my heart to bring about a rapproachement.”
A battery of church unity resolutions was headed by one formally accepting an invitation for the Disciples to participate in the Consultation on Church Union, better known as the Blake-Pike proposal for merging several large Protestant denominations in America. Nine delegates will be sent to the consultation at its next meeting.
With three resolutions touching on the Supreme Court’s decision on official prayers, the assembly passed with only a scattering of “no” votes a resolution supporting the court.
Two resolutions critical of the court were turned down. Both called for initiation of steps toward amendment of the U. S. Constitution.
Still another resolution called for responsible study of the issues in religion in public education, including “the place of religious ceremonies in public-supported schools.” Churches are asked to study shared-time proposals.
In a standing vote the assembly affirmed the appointment of Dr. A. Dale Fiers as first full-time executive of a commission for restructure of organizations of the Christian Churches.
Twin Cities’ Seminary
Fifty students began classes last month in the new United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, located on a 68-acre site at New Brighton, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul. It will be affiliated with the United Church of Christ. Finishing touches are being put on a classroom-auditorium building. A library-administration building is still under construction.
Weekend Wanderers
More and more Americans are spending weekends away from their homes—and their churches.
When and if a shorter work week comes, this number will grow even larger.
To reach the wandering church people and those who have no religious affiliation, some new evangelistic initiative needs to be employed, according to Methodist Bishop T. Otto Nall of Minneapolis.
At a conference of Methodist ministers convened by Nall, five Ohio clergymen described successes with some unconventional programs in their state.
The Rev. Tom Canter of Avon Lake, Ohio, told of his first attempt to bring a service to a local shopping center.
A quartet from the church sang Gospel hymns and he preached a sermon. But there was little interest, said Canter. However, when the quartet switched to “barbershop” type songs and Canter explained simply “what Jesus means to me” and told of the church’s interest in all people, he discovered he had developed a popular kind of new ministry.
The Rev. Carl Ling of Fostoria, Ohio, said his church leased a site adjacent to a state park to provide a ministry to campers. Church members in the parks found it easy to bring non-church friends with them to services, with the result that about 40 per cent of the congregations were made up of unchurched persons, he reported. Ling noted that Minnesota had nearly 500,000 state park campers last summer.
The Rev. Dale Riggs of Van Wert, Ohio, said churches in his area conduct Sunday evening services at the county fair and operate a chapel on the fairgrounds throughout the week. Old-time Gospel hymns are sung and evangelistic messages are preached, and personal contact is made with at least a thousand families.
The Rev. Conrad Diehm of Xenia, Ohio, said about 12 families join his congregation each year because of services sponsored each summer at a local drive-in theater. The drive-in services, he said, include Sunday School sessions for children in a picnic grove adjacent to the parking area.
Dr. Howard Mumma, superintendent of the Akron Methodist distict, said there were 33 “off-beat” projects conducted by Methodists in Ohio during the past summer and they reached 85,000 persons, of whom 45 per cent did not belong to any church.
Graham In South America
After basking in the ecumenical air of São Paulo, Brazil, for the first six days of his South American crusade, evangelist Billy Graham moved on to Paraguay and Argentina and there found some of the stiffest resistance he has ever encountered.
In São Paulo, Graham enjoyed the unsolicited support of at least two Roman Catholic priests who participated in the crusade, one of whom even attended a workers’ meeting. Newspapers gave liberal coverage to the crusade, and the impact was broadened considerably as Graham appeared on television nightly.
By contrast, the evangelist ran into a virtual boycott by the mass media when he reached Asunción, Paraguay, where Roman Catholicism is the established religion. Of 20 correspondents invited to a pre-crusade press conference, only one showed up. Not a single editorial, picture, or report of the meetings in Asunción appeared in the city’s newspapers—although paid advertisements were allowed to run. The boycott prompted a public reprimand of the press by General Alfredo Stroessner, president of Paraguay. It was the first time in Graham’s career, which has taken him to 60 countries, that he had been ignored by the local press.
The Asunción crusade included a week of meetings with associate evangelist Joe Blinco. Graham spoke at two concluding services. Aggregate attendance was estimated at 40,000 with some 800 decisions for Christ.
Said a leading Protestant spokesman in Asunción,” The evangelical cause for the first time has united as never before with a personality of its own.”
On the closing day of the crusade a gigantic demonstration was scheduled by Roman Catholics to promote allegiance to the Vatican Council (and, some observers are convinced, to keep people from going to hear Graham). Public and private schools were closed for the afternoon and plans were made for a parade, a mass, and a musical and artistic festival in front of the Cathedral Church, just two blocks from the Estadio Comuneros, largest basketball stadium in the city, where Graham spoke. Sponsors of the Catholic demonstration had planned to throw 600,000 leaflets from a plane that afternoon to invite people to attend. At the scheduled hour for the parade an unusually severe tropical rainstorm struck, with winds ranging up to 100 miles per hour. The entire afternoon and evening program was cancelled.
But by 7:30 p.m. the sky was studded with stars and the closing meeting of the crusade went on as scheduled with thousands on hand. At 10:30 p.m., after the crowd had filed out of the stadium, it again began to rain.
Graham’s next stop was in Cordoba, Argentina, where a well-known priest writing in a Catholic daily newspaper warned Roman Catholics to “keep away” from the evangelist’s meetings.
The Graham schedule included subsequent meetings in Rosario, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay. The South American tour was to close with meetings this week in Buenos Aires.
Graham and fellow team members met with American missionaries at each point on the tour. Accompanying the evangelist as vocal soloist was Ray Robles of Los Angeles. Team musicians George Beverly Shea and Tedd Smith are currently conducting a concert tour in Britain.
As usual, locally-recruited choirs sang at crusade meetings. In São Paulo, a 150-piece orchestra was added.
Graham had numerous speaking engagements in addition to the public services. In Asunción he addressed nearly 300 members of the British and American communities in the city’s cultural center, plus 400 high school students in the International College of the Disciples of Christ. He also had interviews with the U.S. ambassador, William P. Snow, and General Stroessner.
An eight-day Graham crusade in El Paso, Texas, will begin November 4.
Latin Advance
Latin leaders of the evangelical movement in Middle and South America took the initiative last month to lay groundwork for a united Christian witness throughout the continent. At a Consultation on Evangelism in Huampaní, Peru, they agreed to name a continuing committee on evangelism to be called CLASE—Comité Latino Americano Sobre Evangelismo. Although conference planners had intended no continuing organization, the Latin American delegates to the consultation insisted on taking corporate action.
Evangelist-pastor Fernando Vangioni of Argentina was elected to chair the all-Latin commission of nine, which represents Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.
“This may prove to be the most significant step taken in the history of the Gospel in Latin America,” observed one of the 300 delegates to the consultation.
The consultation was the concluding event of the second Latin American Congress on Evangelical Communications. The congress, which ran for ten days, was held at the Peruvian government’s economical resort hotel at Huampaní, near Lima. Delegates represented 24 countries.
Both LEAL (Evangelical Literature for Latin America) and DIA (Inter-American Radio-TV-AV) were strengthened organizationally by the congress as membership rolls were increased and auxiliary ministries added. LEAL now lists 54 member organizations and DIA, 30. These include bookstores, publishing houses, radio stations, national audio-visual committees, missions, and church denominations. Under LEAL patronage, an auxiliary association of Christian publishers came into being, together with an association of writers and journalists.
Harmony was broken only during the closing sessions of the radio section of the gathering when Brazilian representatives of CAVE (Evangelical Audio-Visual Center) felt obliged to withdraw after DIA, under a new constitution, was unable to secure by exception their admittance to membership. CAVE, which represents 27 diverse evangelical denominations and ministries in Brazil, has no doctrinal statement as is now required by DIA for membership. The participation of CAVE delegates has been received with appreciation in two or more previous conventions, but must now assume fraternal status only.
Korean Jubilee
Presbyterians in Korea commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of their first General Assembly with celebrations at Seoul’s 7,000-member Youngnak Presbyterian Church and with painfully earnest but thus-far unsuccessful attempts at reunion.
The U. S. ambassador to Korea, Samuel Berger, saluted the assembly’s new moderator, the Rev. Kee-Hyuk Lee, at a special jubilee service, as “a linear representative of what is probably Korea’s oldest institutional democracy.” The Presbyterian Church in Korea, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, was first established as an independent, self-governing elective presbytery in 1907, and as a General Assembly in 1912.
Looking ahead, the assembly adopted a five-year, five-pronged evangelistic program and approved in principle a call for 100 new missionaries to help in evangelizing the unreached 93 per cent of the country’s population. Fraternal delegates from the three cooperating churches, Dr. L. Nelson Bell of the of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S., Dr. George Sweazey of the United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., and the Rev. Colin Dyster, stated clerk of the Australian Presbyterian Church, were asked to participate in evangelistic meetings both before and after the assembly.
Looking back, the assembly agonized over its lost unity. Less than a mile away, in another church, a rival assembly was in session, representing about one-third of the church’s members who had broken away from the parent body in 1959 in an anti-ecumenical schism.
During the week, this separatist assembly was split again by the violent withdrawal of a small group of shouting extremists related to Dr. Carl McIntire’s anti-ecumenical International Council of Christian Churches. In the hope that the withdrawal of extremists might pave the way for reconciliation, both assemblies moved to end their sessions by recess rather than by formal adjournment, leaving a door open for possible reunion in the “Jubilee Year.”
Prospects for a rapid rapprochement, however, were not bright. Stern conditions were laid down by the anti-ecumenical assembly. They included withdrawal from the Korean NCC and the severance of relationship with all missionaries who are related to the WCC. This would break the Korean church’s historic relationship with the United Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian, and Australian Presbyterian missions. The conditions were rejected by the ecumenical assembly.
As a result of the week’s developments, the ever-shifting pattern of Presbyterianism in Korea now shapes up somewhat as follows. The Presbyterian Church in Korea (ecumenical assembly) includes about 49 per cent of the total Presbyterian constituency of the country. It has 374,000 adherents, as compared with the 235,000 adherents of the second largest Korean Protestant denomination, The Methodist Church.
The rest of Korea’s Presbyterians are divided into three major groups and a handful of splinters. The anti-ecumenical assembly includes some 32 per cent of the Presbyterian constituency and unites a 1951 schism with a 1959 schism into a fragile reunion which opposes both the WCC and the ICCC. It is related to the Orthodox and the Bible Presbyterian churches.
The ROK Presbyterian Church represents approximately 15 per cent of the Presbyterian constituency and is a more liberal schism related to the United Church of Canada. It separated in 1954. The Koryu Presbyterian Church (about 2 per cent of the constituency) is what was left of the 1951 schism when one large segment of that church refused to enter the anti-ecumenical reunion of 1960. All the rest (another 2 per cent) are splinters, like the Reconstruction Presbyterian Church which still keeps alive the issue of compromise with Japanese shinto worship; the Bible Presbyterian Church, a 1960 McIntire schism; and this week’s latest McIntire schism which will have nothing to do with the former McIntire schismatics but which is now forming its own 20-man assembly.
The splinters are irritating but peripheral. Major hopes for Protestant renewal and revival in Korea will center for the future on the rocky road to reunion along which, with varying degrees of speed, the country’s three major Presbyterian churches are traveling. If they reach reunion and face outward together for Christ in this generation, the church will celebrate its next jubilee in less than fifty years.
S. H. M
Trial That Never Came
On a rainy Saturday the dark Gothic of Manhattan’s Central Presbyterian Church on Park Avenue provided the setting for yet another episode in the singular case of Dr. Stuart H. Merriam, ousted pastor of Broadway Presbyterian Church—a few miles to the north. The New York Presbytery had removed Merriam last May, charging him with “a rigid approach to theological matters” and a lack of good judgment and awareness of “the fitness of things” (see CHRISTIANITY TODAY, May 25 and June 8 issues). Now he was appearing before a special judicial commission of the presbytery on charges of “untruthfulness” and “talebearing.”
The charges stemmed from an incident in which he telephoned a State Department official to discuss the case of a young self-exiled Iranian scholar who had come to the minister for counsel. The young man had contended that the Iranian government was corrupt. Dr. Merriam was alleged to have deceived the State Department official by not telling him that the Iranian was listening and that the conversation was being tape-recorded. It was also alleged that Dr. Merriam then allowed a neighborhood newspaper reporter to hear this recording and write a story about it, thus breaking a “confidence.”
Merriam’s lawyer, Theodore Sager Meth, trained in both law and theology, argued that the charges as stated were insufficient to warrant a judicial trial. He declared he had gone through the entire digest of past Presbyterian cases and could find record of no previous trial on such grounds, cases being reserved for gross matters such as embezzling and selling of worthless stocks. Meanings of Hebrew and Greek terms were adduced by Meth to show misuse of proof-texts on the part of the prosecution. He declared that under prosecution charges as stated, “we are all guilty.”
During recess, members of the secular press confessed amazement that a church would bring a minister to trial on such charges, for it was becoming obvious to them—without benefit of a Calvinist or a Niebuhrian view of sin—that the charges would condemn the prosecution and everyone else as well as the accused.
The nine-member commission retired for two hours of deliberation, and then returned to throw out the case:
“… Foolish and indiscreet offenses against the truth have been committed by the accused. Nevertheless, influenced by our desire to exercise our authority ‘under a dispensation of mercy and not of wrath,’ we sustain the objection of the defense that the charges as stated are insufficient to warrant a judicial trial.”
The majority decision was called “a dismissal and not an acquittal.” Thus Dr. Merriam was never brought to trial.
Present at the proceedings was Dr. George Nicholson, who only the day before had announced his resignation as pastor of the nearby Rutgers Presbyterian Church. He described the issue involved as “the unconstitutional and unchristian attack on the Broadway session and congregation” by a minority in charge of the presbytery.
The New York Presbytery had that same week voted to cut off Dr. Merriam’s salary as of November 1 on grounds that he had violated an agreement not to interfere in the affairs of Broadway Church. He had preached for Dr. Nicholson at Rutgers as summer supply. The Rev. Graydon E. McClellan, General Presbyter of the New York Presbytery, said that this alone would have been acceptable but that Rutgers Church had added Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services to accommodate Broadway members who were worshiping in Rutgers. The presbytery also voted to counsel Rutgers’ pastor and officers on United Presbyterian law and procedures. Nicholson, a Scot who preaches periodically in Glasgow Cathedral and has been moderator of presbyteries in Scotland and South Africa, did not appreciate “the implication that I don’t know my Presbyterian law.”
The New York Presbytery also complained to the Newark Presbytery about the activities of one of its members: lawyer Meth, who is a minister and formerly taught homiletics at Union Theological Seminary. Certain aspects of his handling of the Merriam case were brought into question.
Some members of the Broadway Church returned to it one Sunday following Merriam’s period as Rutgers’ supply minister. They expressed “unswerving loyalty” to Merriam, and some expressed distress over the removal of the biblical motto, “We Preach Christ and Him Crucified,” from above and behind the pulpit—reportedly done to avoid offense to some. Church members said church locks had been changed, prayer meetings had been listed in the bulletin and never held, and in the absence of elders, communion had been served “cafeteria-style.” The church is said to be in financial distress, attendance one Sunday evening was reported to be seven, and a Presbyterian minister in another church had been heard thanking some of his members from the pulpit for attending one of the Broadway evening services.
Dr. Paul F. Hudson, who had been appointed by the presbytery as Broadway’s interim pastor, has departed for another pastorate. The Rev. H. Richard Siciliano, staff member of the presbytery, takes over the pulpit in a supply status.
Presbyterianism, it is said, is not faring well in Manhattan these days with the Broadway and Rutgers churches being the only ones in the presbytery which had been growing. In explaining the great influence of New York Presbytery officials, some point out that this is a “missionary presbytery,” with many poor churches in need of financial help from the fewer wealthy churches—making individual churches more dependent on presbytery than is normally the case. George Nicholson refers to fellow ministers who have told him privately that they agree with his stand on the Merriam case but that “I’m just three years away from retirement,” or “My wife tells me not to get mixed up in it.” One denominational leader in New York’s Interchurch Center has said the whole controversy could have been avoided were it not for the zeal of a core of “ecclesiastical eunuchs” determined to save face to the bitter end.
F.F.
Deaths
Dr. Charles Francis Potter, 76, founder of the first Humanist Society of New York, died this month in a New York hospital after a long illness. Potter, a Unitarian minister, participated in a famous series of five debates in 1923 and 1924 with the Rev. John Roach Straton, fundamentalist minister. Potter also did research for attorney Clarence Darrow, who argued for the defense in the 1925 Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee.
Other deaths:
Dr. Joseph Chandler Robbins, 88, former president of the American Baptist Convention; in West Haven, Connecticut.
The Rev. John W. Brenner, 88, former president of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod; in Bay City, Michigan.
Elder H. H. Votaw, 81, former secretary of the Religious Liberty Association of Seventh-day Adventists; in Washington, D. C.
