News Worth Noting: December 21, 1962

CHRIST ON THE MOUNTAIN—Sculptor Lincoln Borglum says his 175-foot statue of Christ will be the largest ever built by man. It will rest atop Spearfish Mountain, South Dakota, and may be completed in two or three years if sufficient funds become available. Idea for the mountain-top monument was conceived by the late U. S. Senator Francis Case, son of a Methodist minister.

PROTESTANT PANORAMA—Methodist observance of 1963 as “Aldersgate Year” will begin with watch night services and round-the-clock prayer vigils on New Year’s Day. Church officials urge “special emphasis on Christian experience and evangelism” and a “soul-searching study” of Romans for each Methodist congregation.

Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Schleswig-Holstein became the second member body to dissociate itself from the World Council of Churches’ statement on the Cuban crisis, charging that the statement was biased. Earlier, the American Lutheran Church disowned the statement which voiced “grave concern and regret” over the U. S. blockade of Cuba. At still another synod meeting in Hanover Bishop Hanns Lilje, a member of the WCC Central Committee, said that the majority of the churches of the West could not support the WCC statement because it was only as the result of “the firm attitude of the USA” in the Cuba conflict that war had been averted.

Latest timetable for union negotiations between New Zealand’s Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Associated Churches of Christ calls for members of the local churches to vote on the merger plan in 1965.

Church attendance gains were reported by the superintendent of Southern Baptist missionary work in Cuba, Herbert Caudill, in a statement read at a home mission board meeting in Atlanta.

Church of the Nazarene claims two construction firsts during 1962: a $100,000 church at Nazareth, first Protestant church to be built in the reconstituted state of Israel, and another in Brasilia, the first to be dedicated in the new inland capital of Brazil.

Should legal penalties be incurred by women who undergo abortions for pregnancies induced by rape? No, said a statement issued last month by the Association of Protestant Women in the Rhineland, Germany. The declaration said that “it must be left to the free personal decision of the woman concerned whether she wishes to complete a pregnancy forced upon her against her will.”

Disciples of Christ dedicated $2,000,000 addition to their St. Louis publishing house.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION—A program to broaden Methodist work among college students and faculty members was introduced at the biennial meeting of the Association of Wesley Foundations in Nashville. The meeting marked the 50th anniversary of the first Wesley Foundation organized at the University of Illinois.

The Church Federation of Greater Chicago is studying a plan to create a mass communications center designed to train seminary students for broadcast ministries. The proposal would also establish religious radio and television stations for Chicago and a program syndication center.

Taylor University trustees will seek to affiliate the school with the North Indiana Conference of the Methodist Church.

MISCELLANY—An angry mob destroyed a Protestant chapel under construction at Colorado, in the Colombian province of Bolivar. Missionary News Service reported that the mob also descended upon the manse and forced the national pastor to flee. The chapel is related to the Inter-American Mission, the Latin American branch of the Oriental Missionary Society.

The Second Assembly of the East Asia Christian Conference has beeen scheduled for February 26-March 5, 1964.

California’s ban against the use of peyote, a drug producing hallucinations taken by some Indians during religious ceremonies, was upheld in a ruling by San Bernardino court. Three Navajos were found guilty of violating the California Narcotics Law for participating in a peyote ceremony. They were given a suspended sentence of two to ten years and placed on probation for two years. An appeal is expected.

A total of 700,000 copies of the Gospel of John have been sent to Cuba within the last two years by World Gospel Crusades. The demand for the Scriptures reportedly remains greater than the supply.

American Friends Service Committee is launching a two-year study of non-violent action and its application to international conflicts. The Rev. James E. Bristol, a Lutheran, will conduct the study. About $15,000 has been appropriated.

PERSONALIA—Dr. Martin Cole elected president of Texas Lutheran College.

Dr. Donald Willard Cole named dean of students and associate professor of counseling and psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Dr. Henry Endress resigned as stewardship director of the Lutheran Church in America to be vice president of Waterloo (Ontario) Lutheran University.

Publication of Young Life, a monthly circulated by the Christian youth organization of the same name, was temporarily suspended following resignation of editor Joan Weathers.

Reserve Officers Association will bestow its annual “Chaplain of the Year” award for 1963 on Army Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel) Maurice S. Kleinberg, Jewish. He is cited for “outstanding leadership, efficiency, and professional skill.”

Governor-elect George Romney of Michigan is relinquishing duties as president of the Detroit Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon). He said there was no conflict of interest but that he would find it “difficult and impractical” to continue his Detroit work from the state capital at Lansing.

Moma Markovic, a Yugoslav government official and Communist party member, named president of the federal Commission for Religious Affairs, an agency which mediates church-state problems. Markovic will replace Dobrivoje Rabosaljevic, who has held the post for more than 12 years. No reason was given for the change.

Paul A. Hopkins, former secretary of the Evangelical Foundation, Inc., of Philadelphia, elected secretary for Africa by the American Bible Society.

WORTH QUOTING—“We need a reinstatement of the possibilities of single-blessedness, a climate of opinion where dedication to the single life, whether religious or secular, can be protected and given honors.”—Dr. Gwenyth Hubble, World Council of Churches executive.

“The King James Version is still the most glorious collection of good strong English there is.”—Dr. Rudolf Flesch, readability expert, in How To Be Brief.

“Queen Wilhelmina’s death is a great loss to not only the citizens of her own country but to the world. She was truly a great leader and a noble woman.”—U. S. Senator Frank Carlson, president of the International Council for Christian Leadership (the late queen was honorary president of ICCL).

Deaths

DR. JOHANNES SANDEGREN, 78, leading Swedish missionary figure and retired Lutheran bishop of Tranquebar, India; in Uppsala, Sweden.

DR. FRANCIS CARR STIFLER, 78, retired editor for American Bible Society; in Summit, New Jersey.

DR. CLIFTON E. OLMSTEAD, 36, chairman of Department of Religion, George Washington University, and author of History of Religion in the United States; in Washington, D.C.

BERNICE LIND, 37, missionary to Brazil, fatally injured in crash of single-engine plane at Juazeiro do Norte. Also killed were four-year-old son and three-month-old daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. Harold Reiner. All served under Baptist Mid-Missions.

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