AN EXTRAORDINARY WIDOW’S MITE—What does a thriving debt-free church do with a windfall of $342,625? A 74-year-old widow left the sum to Bethel Baptist Church of Toronto with the proviso that half be spent on the local church and half be given to missions. The congregation will decide what to do with the money at its annual meeting this month. Meanwhile, the Rev. Roy Cook is worried: “I don’t want the money to be a bane on the church. People sometimes think because a church is endowed there’s no reason to give.” “Christian living,” he adds, “shrinks along with their giving.”
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION—U. S. churchgoers are so busy with their leisure that Vacation Bible Schools find it ever more difficult to recruit workers for the full two-week stint. Because of this Gospel Light Publications is begrudgingly adding to its 1963 line a five-day curriculum, which it says is the first ever ofered. “Frankly,” said an official, “we are heavily in favor of the ten-day school, but unmistakable trends show that our new five-day course will help many churches with their problems.”
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (United Presbyterian) and University of Pittsburgh are expanding their cooperative education programs, raising new speculation of a possible merger. Seminary officials, however, deny a merger move, although they foresee further expansion of specialized cooperative ministries.
Assemblies of God plan total separation of their two schools in Springfield, Missouri, Central Bible Institute and Evangel College. The Rev. J. Robert Ashcroft, now a joint president, will retain his office with Evangel, which is seeking regional accreditation, and a new president will be selected for Central.
California Baptist Theological Seminary, American Baptist school at Covina, won accreditation last month from the American Association of Theological Schools.
John Brown University, interdenominational school in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, is embarking on a ten-year development program costing $3,510,000.
PROTESTANT PANORAMA—A demand that the independent Valley Presbyterian Church of North Hollywood, California, cease using the term “Presbyterian” in its advertising was lodged by Los Angeles Presbytery of United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A.
Mass evangelistic assault on Wellington, New Zealand, this month is the first of several planned for 1963 by Churches of Christ, spearheaded by Central Avenue Church of Christ in Valdosta, Georgia. Thirty-five Americans and two tons of literature were imported for the month-long effort.
World Mission Board of American Lutheran Church ordered a program cutback, blames 1962 convention for not providing sufficient appropriations. Forty-five volunteers are ready, the board says, but it now appears that no new missionaries can be sent in 1963.
Baylor University President Abner V. McCall ordered cancellation of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” because of the play’s profane language. McCall cited numerous complaints in his directive to the drama department at Baylor, largest Southern Baptist school. Cancellation order won unanimous endorsement from Texas Baptist Executive Board.
PERSONALIA—The Rev. John M. Burgess, first Negro Episcopal bishop to have jurisdiction over white congregations, consecrated last month as suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts.
Bishop O. T. Jones elected senior bishop of the Church of God in Christ at the Negro group’s national convocation in Memphis.
The Rev. John C. Harper, rector of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Bedford, New York, appointed rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, world-famous “Church of the Presidents” on Lafayette Square in Washington.
Veteran Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., says he will retire as minister of the 11,000-member Abyssinian Baptist Church, Harlem, next December 1.
Dr. Homer L. Payne appointed director of Belgian Gospel Mission.
Bishop Otto Dibelius will continue for the time being as head of the Evangelical Church of Berlin and Brandenburg, which in separate synods in East and West Berlin has not been able to agree on a successor.
Dr. Hudson T. Armerding appointed provost at Wheaton College.
The Rev. Joseph Wenninger appointed president of Simpson Bible College.
MISCELLANY—Two freshman coeds perished in a dormitory fire at Central (South Carolina) Wesleyan College.
Two children were injured by a bomb thrown in front of a Negro church used for pro-integration meetings in Birmingham, Alabama.
In a survey of 845 members of the Luther League of America, 87 per cent confessed that they had cheated in high school examinations. The survey was compiled by the Rev. Ralph R. Helierich, editor of Time Out, official organ of the league, which is a youth auxiliary of the Lutheran Church in America.
Evangelist Billy Graham addressed thousands at a noon rally in the Pentagon concourse last month. Films of the meeting, which also featured the U. S. Army Chorus, will be made available for showings at American military bases throughout the world.
A spokesman for the Yugoslav Embassy in Washington says there is no prospect for reopening religious bookstores in Belgrade. The shops, including one operated by the British and Foreign Bible Society, were shut down under a law which prohibits distribution of foreign publications except by Yugoslav firms registered with the government.
A spokesman for Church World Service, which is conducting a campaign for blankets for homeless Algerians, says there are still some 600,000 persons without them. About 40,000 had been distributed by December 10 as the winter began to set in.
WORTH QUOTING—“Fearful and unprepared we have assumed lordship over the life and death of the whole world of all living things. The danger and the glory and the choice rest finally in man. The test of his perfection is at hand. Having taken God-like powers, we must seek in ourselves for the responsibility and the wisdom we once prayed some deity might have.”—Novelist John Steinbeck, in accepting the 1962 Nobel Prize for literature.
“Despite all the reservations which we have in regard to the Roman Catholic Church, the improvement of relations between this church and ourselves, as expressed in the invitation and sending of observers to the Second Vatican Council, should fill us all with joy and thankfulness. Let us hope that the matter will not rest with this beginning, but that one day a genuine doctrinal discussion may become possible between the two churches concerning the commission laid upon us both to witness to the truth in Christ.”—Dr. Kurt Schmidt-Clausen, executive secretary of the Lutheran World Federation.
Deaths
DR. ROY A. BURKHART, 67, nationally known author, pastor emeritus of First Community Church of Columbus, Ohio, and organizer and first president of World Neighbors; in Columbus.
DR. ASA J. FERRY, 82, well known Presbyterian minister who had served churches in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Wichita, Kansas; in Asheville, North Carolina.
JACK SHULER, 44, evangelist; in Van Nuys, California. He was a son of Dr. Bob Shuler, retired Methodist minister who for many years served Trinity Methodist Church, Los Angeles. Evangelical Press Service said the young Shuler’s death was attributed to bronchiectasis.
REV. H. J. KUIPER, 76, for more than 25 years editor of The Banner, official organ of the Christian Reformed Church; in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
