Methodists will erect a new church in the heart of an eighty-acre shopping center neat Phoenix, Arizona. Developer John B. Kilroy sees the church as a return toward making a religious center the focal point of a community. The Rev. James R. McCormick, 27, of Jackson, Mississippi, appointed to lead the congregation, says it will “open a lot of doors for a kind of ministry where there’s no precedent.”
Protestant Panorama
Statisticians for the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) say they erred in reporting a membership loss of nearly 56,000 for 1962. The decrease was only 14,989. They hope to reduce the chance for errors next year by feeding data into IBM machines.
Southern Baptists now have churches in all fifty states. The last state without Southern Baptist representation was Vermont. The first congregation was established there several weeks ago in the town of South Burlington.
American Baptist-related Chung Chi College of Hong Kong is one of three schools which will form a new degree-granting university. The colony has only one other university.
A joint committee of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church is drafting a plan of union for the two denominations. Work on the detailed plan of union follows two years of exploratory negotiations.
Lutheran Church of Sweden’s $100,000 memorial library in honor of the late U. N. Secretary Dag Hammarskjold was dedicated near Kitwe, Northern Rhodesia. The library is located at the Mindolo Ecumenical Center, an hour’s drive from the site where Hammarskjold was killed in a 1961 plane crash.
Miscellany
A lecture series on the four Gospels will be televised in September under auspices of the National Council of Churches’ Broadcasting and Film Commission. The weekly half-hour telecasts will be part of the NBC-TV regular Sunday program, “Frontiers of Faith.” Speaker for the September series will be Dean Robert C. Campbell of California Baptist Theological Seminary.
Congress approved a joint resolution accepting a gift by the state of South Dakota of a statue of the Rev. Joseph Ward, pioneer Congregational missionary and educator of the nineteenth century.
A 1,000-year-old church in Payerne, Switzerland, was rededicated for continued worship. The church had not been used since the Reformation.
Southern Baptist Annuity Board, which currently leases office space to a federal government agency in Dallas, says it will not bid on a new lease agreement which would make the property owner comply with yet-to-be-written equal employment opportunity regulations.
Rock River Methodist Conference will establish a chair of religion at Northwestern University in honor of its episcopal leader, Bishop Charles W. Brashares of Chicago.
Roberts Wesleyan College won accreditation from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.
The Cuban government expelled two Southern Baptist missionaries last month following two days of house arrest. Dr. Lucille Kerrigan and Miss Ruby Miller said that authorities would give no reason for the expulsion. Four Southern Baptist missionaries still remain in Cuba.
A statement signed by all heads of major denominations in Great Britain last month called for a Christian day of prayer in view of recent “repressive legislation” in South Africa. The statement also called for financial support for legal actions against the legislation and for “those left in hardship or even destitution because their wage-earners are removed.”
Hebrew Christian Alliance of America appealed to “the people and the government of Israel to grant recognition as ‘Jews’ to all people of Jewish birth regardless of their religious belief.”
Personalia
Dr. Sanford S. Atwood chosen president of Methodist-related Emory University.
Dr. Sidney A. Rand elected president of St. Olaf College.
Dr. Stewart L. Boehmer appointed president and chief executive officer of the Toronto Bible College.
The Rev. Franklin Chestnut elected moderator of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Dr. Iain Wilson elected first incumbent of the newly endowed William Oliver Campbell Chair of Homiletics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
The Rev. G. N. M. Collins appointed professor of church history at Free Church College, Edinburgh.
The Rev. Thorvald Kallstad named dean of the Union Methodist Theological Seminary at Gothenburg, Sweden.
The Rev. M. A. Thomas named first director of the new Ecumenical Study Center and Lay Training Institute near Bangalore, India.
The Rev. Dudley J. Stroup chosen as rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church of St. James the Less of Scarsdale, New York. The church has been involved in a controversy with a nearby country club over alleged racial bars.
Worth Quoting
“Some of our clerical visitors from Communist Europe, I am certain, are men of God who are trying their best to keep religion alive under very trying circumstances.… [But] it can be taken for granted that at least a small quota of our visitors have been Communist secret police agents in clerical garb.”—Senator Thomas J. Dodd.
“They felt it was a poor investment for the church if I continued at my weight.”—Ministerial candidate Michael Hughes, suspended for a year by St. Paul’s College but promised readmission if he can lose about 200 of his 419 pounds.
DEATHS
DR. ALFRED JAMES GAILEY, 67, clerk of the General Assembly and secretary of the Irish Presbyterian Church; in Belfast.
EDGAR T. WELCH, 82, first president of the Methodist General Board of Lay Activities; at Westfield, New York.
MRS. INA DAVIS FULTON, 89, former treasurer of the Methodist Woman’s Division of Christian Service; in Nashville.
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