News Worth Noting: March 15, 1963

MISPLACED FUNDS—The average American misplaces more money each year than the per-member contributions to a majority of U. S. church denominations, says President Arthur R. McKay of McCormick Theological Seminary. Cash lost averages $75 per person annually, according to McKay, or more than the per-member giving of 15 of the 23 largest communions.

PROTESTANT PANORAMA—Lay evangelist Howard E. Butt, Jr., will be heard during April on “The Baptist Hour,” Southern Baptists’ international radio worship service. Speaker for May will be Director Paul Stevens of Southern Baptist Radio-TV Commission, and for June Dr. Wayne Oates of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Major curriculum revisions will be introduced next fall at San Francisco Theological Seminary. Changes are designed to provide “all of the necessary overall professional skills while making possible an increased depth of study in specific areas which appeal to a student’s own interests, talents, and capabilities.”

President Franklin Clark Fry of the Lutheran World Federation dedicated a new religious radio station at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last month. Engineers say the LWF station will be heard in all of Africa, the Middle East, and through most of southern Asia.

Ten Protestant churches in Spain were reopened recently with permission of Spanish authorities, according to a report by Jose Cardona Gregori, executive secretary of Commission for Protestant Defense. Six others still are closed, Gregori said, and requests to open new churches have been denied.

Nineteen young Protestants, including two clergymen, are said to have been imprisoned in East Germany as part of a Communist anti-religion campaign. Seventeen of the group were sentenced to a total of 52 years in prison. Two others await trial.

Protestant Episcopal Church’s National Council endorsed establishment of a domestic youth conservation corps to help train, educate, and employ “mounting numbers of idle” U. S. teen-agers.

A committee chosen to recommend a headquarters site for the United Church of Christ selected New York City. Final decision will be made by the denomination’s General Council.

MISCELLANY—eports circulating in India claim Great Britain has agreed to Islam’s becoming the state religion of the proposed Federation of Malaysia. The federation would include the present Federation of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, North Borneo, and Brunei, with total population estimated to be about 43 per cent Muslim. All five lands belong to the British Commonwealth.

Seventh-day Adventists have conducted 30 “stop-smoking” clinics across the nation. Seventy per cent of those who have attended the five evening sessions at each clinic are said to have broken the smoking habit.

U. S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, held groundbreaking ceremonies last month for a $423,700 inter-faith chapel center. Completion is expected in June, 1964.

Ontario Premier John Robarts promises more money for the state-aided Roman Catholic elementary school system, but says the province cannot afford to meet the hierarchy’s demand for separate tax-supported secondary schools.

A group of Methodist clergymen, led by the Rev. Leslie Davison, president of Methodist General Conference of Great Britain, met with Pope Pius XXIII, who presented each with a medal commemorating his social encyclical, Mater et Magistra.

A youth from Ghana won to Christ by Southern Baptist missionaries is applying for admission to Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. If the application is approved, he will become the first Negro ever admitted to a Baptist school in Georgia. The Christian Index, Southern Baptist state paper in Georgia, calls for his admission “without any quibbling.”

Evangelist Billy James Hargis, director of the anti-Communist Christian Crusade, is touring the country with former Major General Edwin A. Walker “to alert the American public to the enemy within and without.” The five-week speaking tour, called “Operation: Midnight Ride,” will feature rallies in major cities.

Actor Gregory Peck will accept a citation from National Conference of Christians and Jews in behalf of Universal International Pictures, Inc., producers of the film To Kill A Mockingbird. The film, based on the hest-selling novel by Harper Lee, was cited by NCCJ for an “outstanding contribution to better human relations and the cause of brotherhood.”

A bill designed to permit civil marriage in Maryland was rejected by a committee of the state legislature. Maryland is the only state which bars such a ceremony.

Protestant and Orthodox churches are asked to observe either March 17 or 24 as “Freedom From Hunger Sunday.” The effort is part of an international campaign by the Freedom From Hunger Foundation, recently established by direction of President Kennedy. Protestant appeal was issued by Dr. Henry A. McCanna of the National Council of Churches.

PERSONALIA—Dr. Oswald C. J. Hoffmann resigned as public relations director of Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod to devote full time to being preacher for “The Lutheran Hour,” world’s most widely heard radio program, sponsored by Lutheran Laymen’s League.

Dr. Olin T. Binkley elected president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to succeed Dr. Sydnor L. Stealey, who will retire July 31.

The Rev. Herman J. Ridder elected acting president of Western Theological Seminary.

Dr. William E. Kerstetter, president of Simpson College, elected president of DePauw University.

Dr. Robert McAfee Brown, professor of religion at Stanford University and a key figure in Protestant-Catholic dialogue, named by World Presbyterian Alliance as delegate-observer to second session of the Second Vatican Council. Brown will replace Dr. James H. Nichols of Princeton Theological Seminary, who attended the first session in behalf of the alliance.

The Rev. Oscar A. Anderson elected president of Augsburg College.

Dr. Keith Bridston named professor of systematic theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary.

Gervase Duffield appointed associate secretary of the International Association for Reformed Faith and Action.

Dean L. P. Tapaninen named bishop of the Oulu diocese, largest and most northern sector of the state Lutheran Church in Finland.

WORTH QUOTING—“Almighty God, we who spend $10,000 for a bus so our children will not have to walk, and then budget $100,000 for a gym so they can get exercise, do now seek your guidance in all matters, that your creation might be used with wisdom for the welfare of your people.”—The Rev. William Crews, rector of St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, Santa Fe, New Mexico, in an invocation as chaplain of the state legislature.

“American Christians will continue to identify themselves with their brothers behind the Iron Curtain, but many of us cannot help but wonder if the true church in Russia may not be more accurately represented in the 32 Siberian Christians who appealed in vain for help at the American embassy than by those whom the Communist government is not afraid to trust to participate in exchange visits.”—Dr. Robert A. Cook, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Deaths

DR. S. C. EASTVOLD, 68, retired resident of Pacific Lutheran University who only a few weeks before his death became acting president of California Lutheran College; in Minneapolis.

ZAREH I, 48, Catholicos of Cilicia, of the Armenian Apostolic Church, spiritual leader of 498,000 persons in dioceses in the Middle East, Greece, and North America.

DR. CONSTANTIN METALLINOS, 71, veteran evangelical leader in Greece and minister of the Free Evangelical Church of Athens.

THE REV. PAUL OLAJOS, 100, believed to be the oldest Protestant minister in Eastern Europe; in Torok Miklos, Hungary.

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