Protestant Preview of Second Vatican Council

A fortnightly report of developments in religion

Who?

Some 2,600 members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy who will be voting, plus observers, consultants, and an assortment of other onlookers.

What?

The Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church.

When?

Beginning Thursday morning, October 11, and continuing through December 8; reconvening after Easter, 1963, and continuing into the month of June.

Where?

In Rome, Italy, with plenary sessions to be held at St. Peter’s Basilica.

Why?

For the announced purpose of bringing about limited internal reform whereby Roman Catholicism may become more relevant to the times and therefore more attractive to those outside the church.

How?

Through parliamentary assembly over which Pope John XXIII has veto power.

The Second Vatican Council, perhaps the most vastly organized and certainly one of the most significant conclaves in church history, opens in Rome October 11.

On that day some 3,000 members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy will march into the architecturally awesome St. Peter’s Basilica, largest church building in the world, to begin what they consider to be their twenty-first ecumenical council. They will be responding to the call of Pope John XXIII, who selected October 11—“the Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary”—because of its association with the third General Council at Ephesus in 431 when the doctrine of Mary’s divine maternity was upheld.

The first day will doubtless be marked by pomp and ceremony such as only the Roman penchant for spectacle can produce. What will happen thereafter remains a big question up to the eve of the council. Whatever develops, controversy seems an inevitable aftermath, and the ultimate impact is beyond measure. To the 550,000,000 on Roman Catholic rolls the deliberations will be sacred sessions. To other millions they will be a saga of sacrilege. To most ecumenical leaders they will be a prelude to dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches.

First billed as primarily an instrument to help bring about Christian unity, the forthcoming council subsequently came to be discussed more and more in terms of a limited internal reform movement.

The Pope has said that placing church practices and disciplines in step with the times will make for an “appealing influence” toward “those who are separated.”

Thus the preparations for the council consisted of exploring numerous facets of Roman Catholicism to determine if and how they could be brought up to date. Ten preparatory commissions and two secretariats, employing some 1,000 workers, turned out 119 booklets totaling 2,060 pages of study matter. The booklets present 67 topics which will make up the basic council agenda, though some may be deleted and others added.

The 12 general areas of the topics are theology, bishops and government of dioceses, discipline of clergy and laity, religious communities, sacraments, liturgy, studies and seminaries, Eastern churches, missions, laity, communications media, and Christian unity.

Specifically, of subjects which seem to have a good chance of being discussed, the following are of particular interest to Protestants: a clearer formulation of Roman Catholic doctrine (including that on the nature of the Church), religious liberty, a means of dealing with Communism, church-state relations, mixed marriages, and relations with other religious communions.

The most discussed feature of the council is the welcoming of non-Roman representatives who are being given the title of “delegate-observers.” The delegate-observers will have neither voice nor vote, but have been promised access to certain sessions which will be closed to the press. Pledges to secrecy will be required.

This will be the first council with non-Roman representatives. Protestant and Orthodox observers had been invited to the First Vatican Council (1869–70), but declined.

The council will operate as legislative machinery, even though the necessity for a deliberative assembly may seem superfluous in view of papal infallibility.

Ten working commissions paralleling the preparatory commissions will channel proposals to the plenary sessions. It is understood that the Pope has veto power over all matters. The plenary sessions will be attended by some 2,600 members of the hierarchy, and each will be entitled to vote. The voting participants will be referred to as “conciliar fathers.” Every Roman Catholic priest holding the rank of bishop or higher will have the right to sit as a conciliar father and must send a substitute if he is unable to take part.

Final decisions will be made at closed-door plenary sessions, although formal votes will be taken at public sessions. Latin will be the official language. It is uncertain as to how many times the Pope will preside in person.

Also uncertain is the manner and extent to which information will be released about council proceedings. All debate will take place in sessions which are closed to the press. The reporting of interaction among the conciliar fathers will apparently depend on “leaks,” which, in turn, will probably be subject to various influences and controls.

The council’s posture toward the communications media already has precipitated a minor crisis. It has become readily apparent that there are conflicting points of view in official Catholic circles regarding the free flow of Catholic information to the general public. Indicative of the gravity of the tension was the abrupt resignation on August 30 of Msgr. John E. Kelly, who for seven years was press chief for the Roman Catholic Church in America. Kelly, a friendly and efficient public relations expert, was director of the Bureau of Information of the National Catholic Welfare Conference in Washington. He favored easier access to Catholic news by the general press (including Protestant publications), a policy which meets much skepticism in the Vatican.

Liaison between Kelly’s bureau and the Vatican press office was so limited that he held out little hope of being helpful to American newsmen. Only a few days before his resignation, Kelly’s achievements had been cited by the non-sectarian Religious Heritage of America, which conferred upon him its 1962 Communications Award for having “served with distinction in the field of religious information.” The citation noted that in his Washington post he had made “outstanding contributions to public relations and information techniques within the church.”

Contrasting with the open information policy of Kelly is the position of the Vatican press office, which has stipulated that media and newsmen seeking accreditation for council proceedings must “intend to maintain an entirely correct attitude in reference to the Holy See.”

As there are conflicting views toward release of information, so there are contrasting proposals within the Roman Catholic hierarchy as to what the council should do. Some elements favor more severe intransigence, but others are pleading for a new spirit and are winning a measure of support.

Perhaps the most revolutionary proposal comes from a young priest-theologian in Europe in a book which bears endorsement of two cardinals. Says the priest, Dr. Hans Kung: “It would be a truly Christian act if the Pope and Council (perhaps at the very beginning, when they are invoking the Holy Spirit) were to express this truth: Forgive us our sins and in particular our share in the sin of schism! An honest, humble confession of this sort by the leaders of the Church today would be pleasing to our heavenly Father as few words or deeds could be; and one word of repentance would open more doors to us among our separated fellow-Christians than any number of pressing invitations to return.”

Delegate-Observers

Here is a list of non-Roman Catholic delegate-observers designated for the Second Vatican Council:

World Council of Churches—Dr. Lukas Vischer and another representative whose appointment was delayed.

Lutheran World Federation—Dr. K. E. Skydsgaard and Dr. George Lindbeck.

World Methodist Council—Bishop Fred Pierce Corson, Dr. Harold Roberts, and Dr. Albert C. Outler.

World Presbyterian Alliance—Dr. James H. Nichols, the Rev. Hebert Roux, and the Rev. Douglas Shaw.

World Convention of Churches of Christ (Disciples)—Dr. Jesse M. Bader.

Anglican—Bishop John R. H. Moorman, Archdeacon Charles DeSoysa, and Dr. Frederick Grant.

Evangelical Church in Germany—Professor Edmund Schlink.

International Congregational Council—Dr. Douglas Horton.

Friends World Committee (Quaker)—Dr. Richard K. Ullmann.

Old Catholic Church in Holland—Professor Peter Johannes Mann.

Syrian Orthodox Church of Malabar, India—Father Paul Verghese.

An Eye-Opener

Key Protestant observers in Washington are calling for a thorough review of U. S. government relations with religious agencies overseas.

The issuance and withdrawal of a policy determination by the Agency for International Development has raised many eyebrows among church-state specialists, who were unaware that any appreciable amount of tax money was being granted to missionary enterprises abroad. The policy determination made provisions for such grants and, prior to withdrawal, was being defended by government spokesmen as merely the articulation of policies which have been in effect for 10 years.

The Washington Evening Star said foreign aid records show that “almost half of the assistance to educational institutions has gone to schools operated by Protestant denominations, about 35 per cent to Catholic schools, and 15 per cent to Jewish schools.”

Chaplain Chiefs

Chaplain (Brigadier General) Robert P. Taylor, a Southern Baptist, became chief of Air Force chaplains September 1. Taylor succeeded Chaplain (Major General) Terence P. Finnegan, a Roman Catholic, who retired.

The Army will get a new chief of chaplains on November 1 when Chaplain (Colonel) Charles E. Brown, Jr., a Methodist, succeeds Chaplain (Major General) Frank A. Tobey, an American Baptist.

Convention Circuit

Chicago—Delegates to the annual meeting of the National Baptist Convention, U. S. A., Inc., voted unanimously to send their president to the Second Vatican Council as a delegate-observer. The vote came following the re-election of Dr. Joseph H. Jackson as president of the 5,000,000-member convention, the nation’s largest Negro denomination.

Jackson, who had an audience with Pope John XXIII last December, will probably be the only Baptist delegate-observer at the council.

In his speech to the convention, Jackson praised the Roman Catholic Church for its contribution to racial justice.

“If a prize were given to the church that did the most to beat down racial discrimination and segregation this past year, that prize would go to the Roman Catholic Church,” he said.

Jackson urged fellow Negroes to rely on their own resources to improve their lot and said it was hypocrisy for Chicago churchmen to demonstrate against segregation in Albany, Georgia: “You wouldn’t need to leave Chicago to fight segregation.”

He asserted that the “first mission of the church today is to help win the peace of the world.” He called for the strengthening of the U. N. and for admission of Communist China.

Delegates voted unanimous approval of the establishment of a 100,000-acre model farm for their Liberian mission program.

Oklahoma City—Need for additional finances to support the work of the National Baptist Convention of America received major emphasis at the Negro denomination’s 82nd annual meeting. Approximately $90,000 was estimated to have been received last year from local churches, associations, and state conventions toward the denomination’s annual budget of $100,000. The convention has some 3,500,000 members.

Plans for establishing a new city a few miles from Phoenix, Arizona, were reported by the Rev. F. J. Winbush, president of the Arizona General Baptist Convention. He said the community would be built around a religious temple and institutions to exemplify race leadership. He added it would have a 30,000–50,000 population and would take ten years to build. The project, estimated to cost $50,000,000, will be supported through the National Baptist Foundation of America, a non-profit group created for the community.

Philadelphia—The first annual meeting of the Progressive Baptist Convention of America drew more than 1,000 delegates from 29 states, the District of Columbia, and Bermuda. The convention was formed last November by a group which seceded from the National Baptist Convention, U. S. A., Inc., in a bitter dispute over the presidency. Statistics on the size of the new body were not made public.

The keynote address by Dr. T. M. Chambers of Los Angeles stressed the necessity for delegates to “get into the fight for civil rights.” He urged support for Freedom Riders in the South and for youth engaged in sit-in protests.

Kansas City, Missouri—Development of nuclear weapons as a security measure against Communist aggression was endorsed by the Baptist Bible Fellowship International at its 12th annual meeting.

Next year’s meeting will be held in Detroit, September 29—October 3, just prior to the formation of an International Baptist Congress, which is to embrace some 15 conservative bodies.

Kingston, Ontario—The Anglican Church of Canada placed a final seal of approval on its revised Book of Common Prayer in a unanimous vote of the 21st triennial General Synod.

Final draft of the revision of the 1918 version was approved three years ago. Under canon law, however, major revisions in doctrine, worship, or discipline must be approved by two successive General Synods.

Archbishop Howard H. Clark, primate of all Canada, must now select a date on which the book will go into official use in Canadian churches. At present, there are not enough copies to go around.

The synod rejected a proposal to form in Ottawa a primatial see—a kind of Canadian Canterbury—a special diocese whose archbishop would be Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada. It is likely, however, that Clark will name a committee to study the possibility and report to the next synod.

Delegates engaged in a heated debate on a plan to streamline administration of the church. A committee report had urged that the 136-member executive council be abolished and its work given to a central committee of 34 members. The plan was shelved by a vote of 18 to 17 among bishops and by 154 to 101 in the Lower blouse.

In other action, delegates voted to permit Church of South India bishops and episcopally-ordained clergy to celebrate Communion in Anglican churches while visiting Canada.

A proposal to employ a full-time Anglican lobbyist in Ottawa was defeated.

The Impact Of Values

Responsible elements in psychiatry are affirming that a psychiatrist makes moral judgments.

Dr. Orville S. Walters, director of health services and a lecturer in psychiatry at the University of Illinois, told delegates to the 17th annual convention of the American Scientific Affiliation last month that psychiatry is unique among the medical specialties in its philosophical involvement, and that this aspect is becoming widely recognized.

“Healing efforts lead directly into the philosophic dimension,” said Walters, “since psychotherapy implicates the patient’s value system.”

He declared that a psychiatrist must choose his orientation, however, inasmuch as there are a number of sects in the field. He said the Freudian heritage of naturalistic philosophy still stands between psychiatry and religion at a number of points.

Walters, a Free Methodist, noted that psychiatry “has entered in a limited way into dialogue with theology. Theologians believe that psychiatry’s understanding of man needs the mature conclusions of theology.”

This year’s ASA convention, held on the campus of Bethel College, St. Paul, Minnesota, marked the first time that sessions focused upon a single scientific area. The general theme was “Modern Psychology and the Christian.” Next year’s program will revolve around the social sciences.

Tax Decision

Cafeteria, snack room, and parking lots furnished to employees of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Sunday School Board in Nashville are taxable, says the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Judge Sam Felts ruled that such facilities are not for purely religious purposes and said the City of Nashville may assess those parts of the board’s property.

A lower court had sustained the board’s contention that all of the property was used in its religious function of serving Southern Baptist churches.

The board property was taxed for the first time in 1960, with the original assessment by the city amounting to some $5,000,000.

Friendship Evangelism

Some 25,000 more foreign nationals are arriving this month to study in America, according to International Students, Inc., evangelical agency which seeks to befriend visitors from abroad for the Christian cause.

ISI estimates that the new influx will boost the total number of foreign students in the United States and Canada to well over 100,000.

“God has used our system of friendship evangelism,” says ISI President Robert V. Finley, “to bring scores of brilliant overseas students to himself.”

ISI volunteer “missionaries at home” meet the students at travel depots, steer them into Christian homes, and offer help in a variety of ways.

Finley has been accused of minimizing the importance of foreign missions in favor of evangelism among foreign students in America. He denies the charge and claims that his missionary policy coincides with that of key missionary boards.

Churchmen And The Albany Movement

Once a cotton center and recognized as the “nut capital of the world,” Albany, Georgia, has been chosen by American Negroes to be the testing ground for civil rights in the South.

It was a deliberate choice, as many white people in Albany view it. The presence of two military installations—Turner Air Force Base and the Marine Corps Supply Center—and the fact that the Albany school system receives federal aid insured the interest of the U.S. government, if not its pressure.

In addition, old economic and social patterns were in a state of flux in Albany. The population had more than tripled in less than 20 years. Many newcomers among the city’s 55,000 residents were from outside the South. Others were economically and educationally destitute, sucked into the whirlpool of change from an agricultural to an industrial economy, for Albany now is becoming a center for manufacture of textile products or farm machinery, and for food processing plants.

On the other hand, Negro leaders, who acknowledge that the “Albany Movement” has become the focal point for expression by members of their race throughout the country of suppressed desires to be “first-class citizens,” nevertheless say the struggle began as a determined, but limited and local effort.

No two people, whether white or Negro, seem to agree on just how the whole thing started. But everybody agrees that it was the arrest of a group of “Freedom Riders” last December and the entrance of Dr. Martin Luther King into the situation, which made Albany a symbol of the racial tensions gripping not only the entire United States, but the whole world.

If the churches had not been involved in the problem before that point, the visits to the troubled city by the controversial minister—and later by groups of northern clergymen on “prayer pilgrimages”—would have made Albany a test of the relevancy of the message of Christianity.

Negro churches have been in the fore-front of the Albany Movement. The Rev. Benjamin Gay, pastor of the Bethel A.M.E. Church and president of the Ministerial Alliance (Negro), helped organize the movement. The chairman of the group, Dr. W. G. Anderson, an osteopath, is one of the leading laymen in the Mount Zion Baptist Church. Most of the movement’s strategy has been formulated in the churches, which are the only meeting halls the nearly 20,000 Negroes have.

Still, some white ministers and many laymen “did not regard as a religious problem,” explained the Rev. Archie C. Smith, executive secretary of the Presbytery of Southwest Georgia. “The laity felt it was a social problem with political overtones. And they still do.”

However, the presbytery meeting in Albany last April adopted a resolution expressing deep concern over racial relations, declaring, “We deplore the fact that, on the one hand there are those who take advantage of this situation for political profit and others for material gain.”

The resolution calls for individuals to offer “a personal ministry of good will, patience, and endeavor at understanding” and urged leaders of both races to get together to work out a solution to the problem which had erupted into violence, including Negro church burnings, brought economic hardships, and given the city a black eye for a world-wide radio, television, and newspaper audience.

The strife was big ammunition in this month’s primary election for governor which was won by a moderate. And it has provided plenty of opportunity for James Gray, the editor of the city’s daily newspaper, to display his racist views.

Some white ministers, like the Rev. J. Frederick Wilson, of the large First Methodist Church, did not see the trouble coming. One of the most respected men in the community, inside and outside the church and on either side of the racial barrier, Wilson felt the relationship between the white and the Negroes was good beyond just being cordial. The fact that his own church helped Negro brethren in church building projects, that a biracial hospital chaplains’ group met monthly, and that he personally had friends among the Negro clergymen, left him surprised when the Albany Movement began.

Yet he was one of the leaders in the Ministerial Association’s bid to be a mediating force when trouble broke out. He was the only white clergyman on an ill-fated, six-man biracial committee, hastily appointed by the city commission and quickly disbanded. About the only moderate voice on the commission has been that of Mayor Asa Kelley, a devout Roman Catholic who once aspired to the Methodist ministry.

Wilson has distributed in his church mimeographed copies of “A Prayer for These Troubled Times,” asking God to help the people to be tolerant, empty of hatred, and a good example.

“But I could not get up in my pulpit and say that one group is all right and the other all wrong,” said the soft-spoken minister, voicing objections to the “kneel-ins,” which he said were admittedly carried out “to embarrass” ministers who had not been openly sympathetic to the Negro cause, and to the excesses of some of the other demonstrations.

His congregation includes some of the most rabid segregationists among city officials.

Some white pastors, nevertheless, saw trouble coming. Among them was the Rev. Brooks Ramsey, pastor of the city’s largest church, First Baptist. It was obvious to him that Negro grievances over voting restrictions, bus segregation, and other matters were coming to a head.

Little did he know, however, that he would be catapulted into the hot glare of controversial publicity surrounding the racial struggle. Despite a temperate policy directive from the Board of Deacons of his church, an excited usher called police when three Negroes attempted a “kneel-in” at the church a month ago.

When he learned what had happened, Ramsey publicly stated his regrets and added, “This is Christ’s church and I can’t build any walls around it that Christ did not build, and Christ did not build any racial walls.… The church doctrine of love to all men transcends any racial consideration. We need to respect people for being the children of God, regardless of race.”

There was an uproar in some quarters over the statement and pressure was brought to bear—mostly from outside the 2,700-member church—although included among the leadership of the congregation are men who have attended Ku Klux Klan meetings. But the church has twice voted its confidence in its aggressive young pastor, an Ivy-League dresser from Memphis, who does not approve of all the message the city’s Negroes have used in their struggle.

His stand has warmed the Negro community whose clergymen have been greatly heartened by the vote of the members of First Baptist Church. “It’s one of the greatest moves in the right direction so far,” commented the Rev. E. James Grant, of Mount Zion Church. “If others do the same, we can get this thing settled.”

Perhaps more laymen would be behind such a stand than many white ministers seem to think. Horace Caldwell, a leading businessman who is an Episcopal layman, said, “The churches missed their chance 15 or 20 years ago. This problem could have been met with a gradual education program and if Negroes came to worship today, they would be accepted.”

But nearly everybody is agreed that the big test lies with the resumption of Federal Court hearings on an omnibus case involving all that the Negroes are pressing for.

A. T.

State Welfare A Blessing?

Growth of government care is a “resounding victory for the churches,” according to the Rev. Sheldon Rahn, executive director of the National Council of Churches’ Department of Social Welfare.

At a Washington banquet sponsored by Methodist social welfare administrators this month, Rahn said that tax funds now make up a record 65 per cent of all money spent for health and welfare services in the United States.

“There are people who worry about this dramatic growth in the assumption of responsibility by government for meeting the health, education, and welfare needs of the nation’s families,” he declared. “I would prefer, however, to look upon it as a resounding victory for the churches and for the spirit of concern and compassion which was in Jesus Christ, was before him proclaimed by the Old Testament prophets, and is finally finding its way into public policy.”

He said he considers the present proportion of giving from the church to social welfare to be “about right.”

Rahn cited transfer of personal income from the affluent “to those not as fortunate” and observed that “the distribution of this growing abundance will be achieved in several ways, including increases in statutory minimum wage, negotiated wage increases, the operation of market forces in resisting inflation and in holding prices down, the extension of public and private insurance payments, and finally the appropriation of tax funds for the direct care of those dependent upon public assistance and home relief checks.”

He gave 1975 as a target date for the reduction or elimination of “a significant portion” of grief and human distress.

Bishop John Wesley Lord, who presided at the banquet, implicitly endorsed Rahn’s principles and went on to suggest possible implementation through a “national domestic Peace Corps.”

Religion And Radicalism

Why does aversion to church attendance seem to go hand in hand with radical political attitudes?

The answer may be hard to pin down, but a California sociologist took a bold stab at it this month.

Armed with data from a British poll taken in 1957, Dr. Rodney W. Stark rejected theories that the middle class tends to “do” more about religious expression while members of the less-educated lower classes simply “feel” their religion. Stark, associated with the University of California’s Survey Research Center, cited his own studies which show that a person’s feelings toward various religious concepts and his rate of church attendance bear a close correlation.

He suggested that perhaps political radicalism offers an individual a more attractive outlet for his frustrations or his idealism than does organized religion.

Stark’s theory was advanced in an address delivered at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Washington, D.C. He did not entertain the possibility that a lower-class standing might result from lack of a Christian orientation.

“The church, basically, can offer relief to those near the bottom of the social hierarchy by emphasizing the relative unimportance of the material world,” Stark observed, “and by promising surcease in the world to come ‘where the first shall be last and the last first.’

“The church cannot usually offer any changes here and now and, in fact, generally lends legitimacy and sanction to existing status arrangements.

“Leftist parties on the other hand offer change here and now and challenge the legitimacy of the status quo,” he noted.

Stark said that among members of the Conservative party in England 62 per cent attend church “now and again” while only 36 per cent of Labor party members do. Among those who support the liberal party or who classify themselves as independent, 50 per cent attend church at least on occasion.

Britons who were asked in which class they considered that they belonged socially, showed that 73 percent of those in the “upper class” attend church and 71 per cent of those in the “upper middle,” while only 56 per cent of those in the “middle” class and 52 per cent in the “lower middle” attend church and only 39 per cent who identify themselves as members of the “working class.”

Among Conservatives who classified themselves in the upper middle class, 74 per cent attend church at least occasionally, but only 32 per cent of Labor party members in this class do so.

In the middle class the survey showed 62 per cent of the Conservatives and 40 per cent of the Laborites attend church. In the lower middle class there was only a small difference—56 per cent of Conservatives and 47 per cent of Labor supporters. But in the working class 54 per cent of those who vote Conservative attend church and only 33 per cent of those who support Labor.

Equally revealing was the response to a question of which was more important in bettering man: religion or politics. Among Conservatives 75 per cent of middle class voters and 63 per cent of those in the working class said religion was more important, while in the same social classes only 62 per cent and 55 per cent respectively of Labor adherents thought religion more important.

Stark suggested that more research be done on what he termed the “extraordinary correlation” between political attitudes and church attendance and religious values. He observed that a “long tradition exists in Western thought of viewing religion as a haven for the dispossessed.” He noted “the particular salience of the Christian faith for those disappointed and frustrated.”

Another Phoney Barrier

“As artificial as the Berlin wall” is how priest-astronomer Patrick Trainer describes the purported barrier between science and religion. The religious background of a scientist, he suggests, is often confined to a schoolboy acquaintance with a few Bible stories.

Added Trainer, who works out of the Vatican Observatory: An immature knowledge of this kind “in a man whose professional standards and critical ability have become highly developed, dissolves rapidly into a caricature of religion, which intellectual honesty obliges him to reject or at least to lock away in a dusty corner of the memory with the dates of the Wars of the Roses and the Greek irregular verbs.”

In these circumstances, he went on, it is not surprising that many scientists shut their eyes to such things as the ultimate purpose of life and their responsibility to God and man, and devote themselves instead to the next examination, the next patient, or the next problem.

Trainer spoke at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Manchester.

J. D. D.

Youth And The Left

From London’s secondary grammar schools came some 700 teen-agers for a meeting organized by the Inter-School Christian Fellowship to discuss Christian-Communist coexistence. The fact that they met during school hours—and wore school uniforms—indicates that British education authorities are increasingly welcoming the work of ISCF, which is part of the Scripture Union movement in Great Britain.

Rarely does any evangelical youth gathering in England attract so many non-Christians. About one-third of the questions put to the speakers were overtly hostile. More than one asked, “Why isn’t there a Communist speaker on the platform?” Another questioner drew applause when he suggested that it had been an “afternoon of Christian anti-Communist indoctrination.” A number of the youth wore badges which identified them as associated with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Mr. Geoffrey Bull, author of When Iron Gates Yield, left a deep impression on the assembly in telling how his faith in Christ had been tested by three years as a prisoner of the Communists in Red China.

Said the Rev. C. H. D. Cullingford, chaplain of St. John’s School, Leather-head: “Communism appeals to what is best in man and perverts it … we have something better … but are we wholehearted enough to commend it?”

J. D. D.

Latter Day Scots

“What has pleased me immensely is the changed attitude of the Scots,” said Mormon president David O. McKay, in Glasgow for a weekend to preside at the formation of Scotland’s first “stake” of ten churches.

“Sixty years ago, when I was a young missionary here,” Mr. McKay recalled, “I used to be told: ‘Awa ye go hame. Ye canna get our lassies.’ But now the Scots seem to understand we are only trying to make a better world.”

Then, remembering a national characteristic, he added slyly, “And paying our own expenses, too.”

Mormon missionaries plan an intensive five-year campaign in Scotland, and are prepared to spend millions of dollars to achieve their aim of establishing 100 chapels throughout the country which now has some 11,000 Latter Day Saints. On ecumenical trends Mr. McKay nailed his colors to the mast—“I’m all for unity,” he said, “provided everyone joins the Mormon Church.”

J. D. D.

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