Sticking To The Church
Methodist services attract larger attendances in Communist East Germany than in the free western division of the country, says a church official in Berlin. Dr. Ernst Scholz, a district superintendent, declares that “it is really wonderful how the people in a Communist country stick to the church and love their master, Jesus Christ.” His report was made by tape recording to the North Glendale, California, Methodist Church, which contributes to the support of churches in East and West Berlin.
Protestant Panorama
Unity commissions of the International Convention of Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ voted last month to seek authority from their respective governing bodies to formulate “a proposal looking toward a plan of union.”
A former nun was among fourteen persons baptized October 20 into the membership of the Baptist church in Warsaw, according to Ecumenical Press Service. The woman had been a member of a Roman Catholic order for twenty years.
Methodist churches which bar Negroes were censured by the denomination’s Council of Bishops in a strongly worded statement calling on all Christians to fight for the equal rights of all racial, religious, and cultural groups.
Two United Church of Canada ministers picketed the city hall in Edmonton, Alberta, last month to protest the election of Mayor William Hawrelak, who had been accused of “gross misconduct” by a judicial inquiry while in office in 1959. The ministers reported receiving threatening telephone calls because of their protest.
The North Central District Association of the Evangelical Free Church of America expelled one of its congregations where the pastor and some members speak in tongues and engage in other “Pentecostal-type practices.” The vote on the ouster of the Vine Evangelical Free Church of Minneapolis was 94 to 10. The pastor, an ordained clergyman of the Assemblies of God, said he felt the basic issue was the sovereignty of the local congregation.
Miscellany
A planeload of sixty Cubans made up “the first refugee air flight in history sponsored jointly by Protestants and Catholics.” The group was taken last month from Miami to Boston, where the Massachusetts Baptist Convention assumed placement responsibilities. All are Roman Catholics. The federal government paid transportation costs. John F. Thomas, director of the U. S. Cuban Refugee Program, called the flight “a historic step in interfaith cooperation to aid victims of Communist oppression.”
At its first congress since it was formed in 1944, the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians (Baptists) in the U. S. S. R. adopted a new constitution. Said one report: “The charter practically has no limitations to the beliefs which Baptists may hold.”
Bible societies in Africa plan to step up Scripture distribution. At their first joint meeting this fall, delegates vowed to place easy-to-read Bible portions into the hands of 150 million Africans each year. Present rate is 50 million annually.
A $50,000 grant from the James Foundation to Princeton Theological Seminary will establish an experimental program to prepare ministers for service in blighted inner-city areas. It will be a pilot project extending over a period of two years.
A new Christian Servicemen’s Center was dedicated last month at Wrightstown, New Jersey. It will serve the thousands of military personnel stationed at nearby Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base.
The congregation of Central Presbyterian Church in Des Moines, Iowa, voted to donate up to $4,000 to the city government to cover a portion of the property taxes from which it is exempt.
A fund drive is under way to provide a second campus for Tarkio (Missouri) College. The extension campus for the Presbyterian school would be located in St. Joseph, Missouri, and would offer junior and senior courses.
Representatives of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (Southern) and the Reformed Church in America proposed last month that their denominations combine administrative structures of the programs in which the two bodies are now cooperating to make their witness more effective.
The four-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hannover (West Germany) voted last month to admit women to the ministry. The church thus becomes the thirteenth of the twenty-seven denominations in the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKID) to approve the ordination of women.
The previously all-white District of Columbia Baptist Convention admitted its first Negro church last month. The convention, affiliated with both the American and Southern Baptist Conventions, received into membership the 3,000-member Shiloh Baptist Church by a vote of 600–25. The church will retain its ties with the local Negro conventions and the Progressive Baptist Convention on the national level.
Personalia
The Rev. Theodore A. Aaberg resigned as president of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod because of poor health.
Dr. Jacques Maritain, renowned Roman Catholic philosopher, was named to receive France’s highest literary award, the National Grand Prize for Letters. There has been some speculation that the 81-year-old French layman is about to be named a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.
Dr. Duncan Fraser appointed moderator-designate of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
They Say
“Jerusalem was destroyed only because everybody interpreted the Torah in his own way.”—Mrs. M. Verlinsky, Haifa magistrate, in levying $167 fines against eight ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students found guilty of violent demonstrations against Christian children’s centers.
“The situation which was created by court action can be corrected by court action. Those who have made the long, difficult, complicated, expensive journey to the U. S. Supreme Court to eliminate God from our schools traveled with the aid of organizations and individuals who shared their goal. Others who share opposite goals must be willing to travel a similar arduous road if they wish to regain what they treasure.”—Mrs. Bella V. Dodd, New York lawyer who repudiated her Communist party membership, in Guideposts.
