Church Losses: In the Wake of the Quake

“Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place …” (Isaiah 13:13).

The shaking started at forty-two seconds, after 6 A.M. February 9, and the earth in the greater Los Angeles basin was jolted out of place for nearly a minute. Left in the wake of the devastating earthquake that rocked all southern California were more than sixty dead, 40,000 at least temporarily homeless, and 2,065 heavily damaged and 7,700 moderately damaged buildings. Total damage was estimated by the end of last month to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars; some said the figure would eventually reach $1 billion.

Churches were among the casualties, but structural damage varied widely from total destruction to none at all. Much of the damage appeared to be done by the toppling of heavy, old-fashioned towers, reported Los Angeles Times religion editor Dan Thrapp. Generally, churches with newer, lightweight towers survived with only minor damage.

Church losses, according to reports gathered by CHRISTIANITY TODAY, were especially heavy in the communities of Glendale, Sylmar, Newhall (nearest the quake epicenter), Pasadena, and, to a lesser extent proportionately, the city of Los Angeles.

Hardest hit in Glendale was Glendale Presbyterian Church. The $800,000 structure was considered a total loss. The huge old clock tower, seven stories high, had to be torn down (it buckled in the middle) at a cost of $800 a day. Interestingly, the Sunday after the quake attendance at that church (meeting in a hall at Forest Lawn Memorial Park) was up considerably. “The quake has brought the church together,” said administrator Ainsworth Hastings.

Glendale First Methodist was also badly shaken. The new, ultra-modern sanctuary remained solid, but an old part of the complex was a total loss after toppling towers fell through the roof. Church officers there had voted the night before the quake to modernize the old section but declared God cast a vote the next morning that took precedence.

The all-brick building of Gospel Light Publications in Glendale, built in 1924, had to be torn down, scattering writers and artists to temporary offices in homes.

In nearby Pasadena, some damage was reported at Pasadena Presbyterian and the Episcopal Church of the Angels. Tower minarets at the Presbyterian Church crashed into the balcony of the sanctuary. And the tower of Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church also caused extensive damage when it plunged through the roof.

Churches in Sylmar, in the San Fernando Valley, suffered heavy damage. That community is the location of the Veterans Administration hospital where more than thirty persons died. Only the hospital chapel remained unscathed. One wall of Foothill Baptist Church (General Baptist Conference) gave way, and all its windows were broken. The pastor’s secretary and her husband fled as their house was engulfed in flames moments after the tremors, 6.6 on the Richter scale, rumbled beneath.

European Congress

Planners expect 1,000 participants from twenty-four nations in Europe to attend the European Congress on Evangelism, meeting at the International Congress Centre in Amsterdam August 28 to September 4.

Congress chairman Gilbert Kirby of London Bible College announced that evangelist Billy Graham, the only non-European on the program, will give the keynote address on August 29. Other speakers include: Gerhard Bergmann (Germany), Jose Grau (Spain), and John Stott (England). Twenty different seminars will be featured.

The congress is one in a series of conferences spawned by the World Congress on Evangelism, held in Berlin five years ago. The European Evangelical Alliance is sponsor of the Amsterdam meeting.

The Lutheran Church of the Master (ALC) at Sylmar was damaged, and several parishioners were seriously injured. Christ Lutheran at Newhall remained almost completely isolated for days. The local district of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod reported only slight damage, but Pacoima Memorial Lutheran Hospital, a 200-bed LCA institution, was partially evacuated, reportedly because of damage.

In Los Angeles itself, forty-two-year-old skid row Midnight Mission came tumbling down. One man was killed when the roof of the $130,000 structure collapsed. Grandview (Southern Baptist) Church was hard hit, as was St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church. Towers fell on Holy Cross Catholic Church. About 100,000 volumes were knocked off the shelves of Central Library; most of them, oddly, were from the religion and philosophy sections.

Other Southern Baptist congregations reporting substantial damage included First Baptist, Sylmar (condemned); First Baptist, Newhall (library destroyed); First Baptist, Saugus (beams and a gas main broken); Mountainview Baptist, Sunland (light fixtures, plumbing and gas lines broken); and First Baptist of San Fernando Valley (manse damaged).

There, the historic San Fernando Mission, built centuries ago by Franciscans, was severely damaged. Tremors fractured the five-foot-thick walls of the chapel, said to be the oldest building in Los Angeles. The statue of its patron saint—Ferdinand—toppled to the floor. The adjoining Convento, opened in 1822, was also damaged when an interior adobe wall split in half, dumping bricks through a fireplace into the library. That room and the kitchen were a shambles—waist-deep in rubble—and adobe dust coated the entire building. Nearby Holy Cross Hospital was severely—possibly irreparably—affected, and an archdiocesan junior seminary in San Fernando also suffered extensive damage.

Other churches reporting moderate to heavy damage included St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, Los Angeles; St. Stephen’s Episcopal, Valencia; and Methodist churches in San Fernando, Northridge, Granada Hills, and Tujunga. A Burbank Methodist retirement home was damaged beyond repair (a loss of $450,000), but the fifty residents escaped without a scratch reported. The auditorium of First Unitarian Church, Los Angeles, lost its ceiling and west wall.

Lives were undoubtedly saved by quick-acting Red Cross, church, and other relief groups. Salvation Army personnel were on the scene aiding victims thirty minutes after the shock waves heaved through the area. The Army disaster teams evacuated two hospitals and fed 400 patients from Olive View Sanitarium in Van Nuys. They also set up a disaster center at San Fernando City Hall and one in downtown Los Angeles. A referral and information center was operated, and activities were offered to help pass the time.

The Church of the Brethren launched a five-point relief program, including clothing and food supply throughout the area. The Brethren also provided money, dishes, and first-aid facilities. Other groups working with the Red Cross were the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Mennonite Central Committee, the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board, the National Catholic Disaster Relief Committee, the Christian Reformed Church, and the Church World Service.

Evangelical Press correspondent Norman Rohrer reported that the government apparently will pay to repair public buildings but not private dwellings. Some persons figure it is cheaper to leave their wrecked homes, abandon them to the loan companies, and start anew, he said. Some are getting tax relief. Others are moving out of the state as quickly as possible.

Were the quake and its aftershocks a sign of the last days? Pastor Guy P. Duffield of famed Angelus Temple was noncommittal: “There are times when God can use earthquakes for his purposes, but not every earthquake should be considered meaningful. We can’t know whether this one means anything biblical.”

The Reverend Francis J. Weber, archivist of the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese and resident of quake-stricken Queen of Angels Seminary in San Fernando, was more outspoken. “The giant temblor,” he said, “was a sobering and possibly very necessary object lesson for a world so proud of its human accomplishments and so unmindful of its spiritual obligations.”

How Young Can You Get?

Church boards throughout the nation are not despising the youthfulness of their newest members. In fact, young age seems to be at a premium as a qualification for governing bodies. Consider these recent announcements:

Twisters Rip Mississippi Delta Lands

As workers cleared away debris in southern California following the disastrous earthquake last month, nature dealt another heavy blow—this time to the Mississippi-Louisiana area. Late Sunday afternoon, February 21, a series of perhaps fifty twisters ripped through the Delta lands.

Three days later, only sketchy reports were available of damage and loss of life. Communications lines were still down in many places. Four Salvation Army canteens were on duty immediately, operating out of Greenwood, Mississippi, in the center of the disaster area. Divisional commander Leslie Hall said the death toll was expected to reach 100, and insured property damage in the two states was predicted to exceed $7.5 million.

Baptist Press reported at least four Southern Baptist churches in Mississippi “destroyed or heavily damaged.” These include First Baptist, Inverness (where the three largest churches in the quiet cotton town reportedly were destroyed), Delta City Baptist, Central Baptist in Little Yazoo, and Tillatoba Baptist in Tillatoba, said to be “heavily damaged.” The homes of the pastors of all four congregations were either damaged or destroyed, according to early reports. A deacon of Central Baptist Church was killed.

The tornado ripped through Tillatoba during the Sunday evening training hour, but the pastor reported that no one was injured. Churches of other denominations, particularly United Methodist, sustained losses.

The tragedy was described as “the worst tornadoes to hit Mississippi in three decades.” On-the-spot newscasters interviewed one woman who said the tornado had caused her to wonder “What have I done wrong?” Another victim, however, said the harrowing experience had increased his faith in God and improved race relations in the small community.

Terry Daniels, 17, a senior coed at Minnetonka High in Minneapolis, has been elected an elder at St. Luke Presbyterian Church in Minnetonka, along with James Angrist, 19, a freshman at the University of Minnesota. He also was elected a vice-moderator of the Minneapolis Presbytery (United Presbyterian). Mike Mathes, 16, of Westover Hills Presbyterian Church (U.S.) in Little Rock, Arkansas, is believed to be the youngest deacon in his denomination.

Meanwhile, Barry Gruebbel, 16, is a deacon and head usher at the United Church of Christ’s Church of the Master in Dallas, and sidekick Eddie Cowand, 19, a junior at Dallas Baptist College, is an elder at the same church.

But the “youngest” honors probably belong to a slender slip of a lad named Fred Hartwick, who has been named to the twelve-man vestry of the $75,000-a-year-budget St. Francis Episcopal Church in San Francisco. At 14, he is said to be the youngest church official in the United States. Fred beat out formidable competition: two attorneys, an insurance broker, and a prominent, active laywoman were among twenty candidates.

By contrast, virtually middle-aged Ann Muilenburg at a ripe 19 was elected the youngest elder ever at prestigious La Jolla Presbyterian Church in southern California. The UC, San Diego, sophomore started the “who-is-the-youngest-board-member-of-all” ripple when she was elected to the post without her knowledge and her picture appeared widely in the press.

If this is the wave of the future, will there be deacons in diapers?

Bullet Stops Short

Lay Catholic Joseph Boener of Kansas City told police he was only trying to be a Good Samaritan but “almost got knocked off doing it.”

Boener said he walked into a trap when he responded to cries for help from two women in a parked car. A man with a small caliber pistol in the back seat demanded his money, then fired when Boener balked. A small address book in his breast pocket saved him; the bullet stopped at the page where he had placed a photo of his daughter, a credit card, and a card containing a Bible verse.

“I wouldn’t normally take that book with me,” he said, “but something told me I might need it.”

Boener, a communicant of St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, credits his protection to God. He cannot recall what verse was on the card but says: “I believe God watches over all of us, especially those who trust him.”

JAMES S. TINNEY

Cure Of All Souls

Church of England bishops have decided that four theological colleges should be closed and six others should amalgamate in three new colleges. They consider this drastic action necessary because of the sharp drop in candidates for the ministry. A leading English newspaper attributes this to “the decline in religious conviction.”

Declining also are some of London’s famous “nonconformist” pulpits of yesteryear. The City Temple has a Sunday average of 250 in its 1,300 seats. Westminster Chapel, where Martyn Lloyd-Jones ministered for so long, has seen smaller congregations also since his departure, though not to the same extent. The Methodists’ Kingsway Hall, where not even Lord Donald Soper could muster more than 100 in recent times, has put up shutters and been sold.

Topping the London attendance polls, on the other hand, according to an authoritative source, is All Souls, Langham Place, where rector John Stott has for many years exercised a remarkable ministry to a varied congregation that includes many of Harley Street’s medical specialists. A well-known evangelical who is also a royal chaplain, Stott claims that his is the best church in which to be ill.

J. D. DOUGLAS

A Royal Heretic?

Queen Mother Frederika of Greece, now living in Rome in self-imposed exile, found herself the center of an ecclesiastical earthquake last month. At issue were statements attributed to her by American journalist C. L. Sulzberger in an interview ten years ago.

The queen mother was alleged to have said that the historicity of Jesus Christ was unimportant and that “what counts is the idea Jesus Christ represents.” Sulzberger, in his recent book The Last of the Giants, also quoted her as saying, “All our priests are bad—except our favorite one in the palace.” That one is now Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens.

Publication of the statements prompted another Greek bishop to demand that the queen mother clarify her remarks or face possible excommunication. One of her aides promptly responded with a letter to Greek bishops, who expressed satisfaction and declared the issue closed. The letter said she “had never thought of hurting the feelings of the clergy of the Orthodox Church in Greece.” It also declared that she “most certainly believes in the existence and the Divine Substance of our Lord Jesus Christ and his spiritual teachings, especially those on love and morals.”

The queen mother, a German, is said to be a reader of liberal theologian Rudolf Bultmann, which may account for some of the statements attributed to her—if indeed she ever said them. Some observers, however, discount the theological significance of her remarks. They say the uproar may have resulted simply from an attempt to discredit the royal family in the eyes of the Greek people.

Youth Lead (More) Revivals

Enthusiastic young people, youthful evangelists who laid it on the line, and well-planned preparation and follow-up netted record results in two similar but unrelated Southern Baptist Church revivals recently.

In Houston, Texas, 4,011 persons—about 95 per cent of them teenagers—made commitments to Christ over a period of several months during the First Baptist Church crusade; more than 600 were then baptized. And in First Church, Niceville, Florida, more than 1,500 decisions were registered during an eight-day revival sparked by the youth of the 726-member congregation. About 460 professed faith in Christ.

The Houston crusade, led by evangelist Richard Hogue, 24, racked up 2,950 conversions and 604 baptisms during a two-and-one-half week series of nightly services, believed to be a record for faith commitments during an SBC church revival. Called “Spireno” (acronym for “spiritual revolution now”), the campaign involved four phases, according to the Baptist Press. First, Hogue spoke during assemblies at about forty-five junior and senior high schools; this was followed by rallies led by Hogue and his Christian folk group. Phase three was the crusade at First Baptist, featuring beauty, sports, and entertainment stars. Huge turnouts swelled attendance out of the church and into Sam Houston Coliseum the last four nights. On the final night, some 3,000 singing, placard-carrying teens marched from the coliseum to the church for a mass baptism of 145.

“The crusade was characterized by short, difficult to accept, low-key invitations,” said the church’s director of ministries, Harvey Kneisel. Phase four, follow-up, involves ongoing Spireno clubs in the schools, Spireno Bible classes, and special activities for converts. The youth club at the church reportedly has doubled to 400 persons.

Evangelist Hogue moved his headquarters from Oklahoma to Houston for follow-up work. Meanwhile, it was Houston evangelist Freddie Gage who led the Niceville revival. There, services spilled out of the 600-seat church auditorium and into the 1,000-capacity high-school hall.

Youth led an auto cavalcade (billed as an “Inner-Peace Parade”) through the twin cities of Niceville and Valparaiso and played “crash”—a game in which church youth would invite a friend to the revival that night and stay at his house until time for the meeting. Many of the converts were “crashed” young people without prior church affiliation, according to pastor Fred Steelman.

Gage, a former gang tough, spoke to daytime assemblies at local schools, and personal workers from the church are now contacting converts. A committee of 135 youth picked to “pack the pews” at the crusade was scrubbed on the second night when it became obvious Gage was speaking to SRO crowds.

California Capitol: Revolution On The Steps

Sacramento’s stolid, glaring white capitol building held its ground as wave after wave of shouting, sign-bearing demonstrators flowed up its steps. Revolution was their cry—spiritual revolution. More than 5,000 (but far fewer than anticipated) “Jesus people” were on the march, a living stream of colors from all over California and the Pacific Northwest: whites, blacks, Chicanos, Orientals, well-scrubbed teens and bushy street types alike.

The rally was the outcome of action by state senators in a unanimous declaration making February 13 Spiritual Revolution Day in California. The resolution was introduced last summer by state Senator Albert Rodda.

Exit Ramp For Merging Presbyterians

If a proposed merger of the United and Southern wings of the Presbyterian Church goes through, congregations of either branch may keep their local property and stay out of the new denomination, according to the final draft plan of union (still subject to revision).

A joint committee of the United Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church, U. S., completed the document and announced its provisions at St. Petersburg, Florida, last month. General assemblies of both bodies will receive the plan this spring with the recommendation that it be studied at all levels before 1972 assemblies.

Congregations opposed to the proposed Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) would also be permitted to petition synods and presbyteries to divide with them properties on those levels. The higher judicatories would have final authority in deciding such cases, however. No disciplinary action would be taken against congregations or clergymen that decided not to enter the union but instead to seek ties with “others of like mind” before the merger. The United Presbyterian Church has 3.2 million members in fifty states; the Southern Presbyterian has about one million in sixteen.

Speakers included leaders in the California street Christian scene: flamboyant Arthur Blessitt, hip minister of Sunset Strip; Al Hopson, no-jive black drug addict turned preacher; Jack Sparks, former Penn State professor now leader of Berkeley’s Christian World Liberation Front; Duane Pederson, editor of the Hollywood Free Paper; Larry Norman, rock gospel singer; and Richard Weaver, suave middleman and organizer of the happening. Norman and two rock groups entertained.

Weaver, president of the three-year-old Students for a Spiritual Revolution group, summed up the demonstration’s two-fold purpose: to radicalize Christians into giving visibility to their faith, and to dramatize at the seat of government its inadequacy in handling today’s problems and thus its need to turn to God. Unlike other demonstrations on the capitol steps, this one neither denounced nor supported government leaders—but advocated prayers for them.

The Jesus people had met at a ball park and marched eight abreast in a mile-long file to the capitol. They waved colorful placards and banners (such as, “Uncle Sam: Jesus Wants You,” “You have a lot to live—Jesus has a lot to give,” and “You can take Jesus out of the loving, but you can’t take the loving out of Jesus”) and sang until they reached Capitol Mall, where they burst into loud chants of “One Way!” with index fingers raised.

Why had they become involved in such a demonstration? Explained long-haired, soft-spoken Mary Martini of Santa Monica shyly: “I came because it’s inside and I want people outside to know about it.”

The mood was festive and triumphant, but the speakers’ words were far from soft. Hopson cited instances of racial hatred and declared: “The Jesus we are serving has a lot of sorrow in his heart.… I’m afraid of people turning Jesus into just another thing, like the ecology thing.… God is calling for discipleship, baby!”

Blessitt injected a light note in encouraging Christians to witness everywhere, to the point where gas-station attendants would ask, “Do you want your tank full or your heart full?” He envisioned an angry victim of a flat tire removing the hub cap and finding, “Smile, God loves you” stickers and tracts put there by a Christian garageman.

State Assemblyman Newton Russell, a member of Hollywood Presbyterian Church, also addressed the crowd. He carefully documented the state’s ills, such as budget deficits, welfare and Medi-Cal problems, and pollution. The crowd, at first wary (“I thought he’d come on with the standard glad-to-have-you-in-our-capital line”), warmed to him as he repeatedly called out, “What’s the answer?” and they roared back, “Jesus!” After expounding the solution he called for revival. “Hallelujah!” cheered the listeners.

Sparks presented a twelve-point proclamation from the demonstrators. It included a call for Christians to organize revolutionary marches and rallies, and asked the United States to demand the release of Christians tortured for their faith in Communist countries.

Weaver led the crowd in a voice vote declaring July 3 as Spiritual Revolution Day in the nation to be observed with a march and rally in Washington, D. C.

ANNE EGGEBROTEN

Jesus Freaks Move Right On

A hundred “Jesus freaks” of the Christian World Liberation Front crashed the liberal-oriented annual Earl Lectures sponsored by the Pacific School of Religion last month in Berkeley.

Following a one-hour address by Christian Century associate editor Martin Marty to the hundreds of ministers and Graduate Theological Union seminarians jammed into First Congregational Church, the CWLFers, who described Marty’s speech as “out of it,” took over the microphone. Five new converts gave testimonies, and CWLF leader Pat Matrisciana preached.

Surprisingly, the audience responded with a standing ovation, and several seminarians said later they had accepted Christ. When the CWLFers left, Marty was reportedly still defending his viewpoint to dissenting students.

Also surprisingly, First Congregational’s pastor—noted liberal leader Browne Barr—invited the CWLF to take over a Sunday-morning service. Matrisciana says that CWLFers are planning gospel confrontations at “big liberal churches all over America,” and that in May they will visit the United Presbyterian General Assembly in Rochester, New York, with “certain demands.” CWLFers also plan to press leading seminaries to schedule “Primitive Street Christianity” courses—taught by leaders of the movement. Currently, the CWLF holds several rallies a week on Sproul steps of the UC Berkeley campus, and baptizes new converts in the nearby fountain.

Last month CWLF founder Jack Sparks, a former Penn State professor, announced the formation of “Jesus News Service International” to link together the nation’s upsurging Christian underground-type newspapers. Three West Coast papers already have circulations greater than their radical underground counterparts. The news service will be manned by Jewish evangelist Martin Rosen at Box 4309 in Berkeley.

EDWARD E. PLOWMAN

Africa: Independent Churches Thrive But Face Hurdles

Africa’s independent churches—at first referred to as separatist movements or “schismaniacs,” then as breakaway sects, and nowadays commonly known as “renewal” movements—are growing in importance and respectability in politically independent Africa.

With this confidence and opportunity, the churches are thriving. Their membership is increasing at a rate that puts to shame the evangelistic efforts of the old churches, and they are giving Christianity a truly African flavor. This may have far-reaching consequences for the Church in this continent.

There are, of course, many independent religious movements in Africa. Professor David B. Barrett, the foremost student of church independence in Africa, in 1967 analyzed 6,000 of them and by no means are all of them Christian. A significant number, however, not only have their roots in the recognized Christian denominations from America and Europe but also subscribe to the basic Christian beliefs, practice the sacraments, and uphold admirable codes of ethics for members.

Scholars have assumed that in the days before political independence, “colonial” politics was a key factor in church independence. Yet in politically independent countries, many churches still separate from the old ones. Politics becomes a factor of independence only when the old churches become so submerged in a political situation that they fail to see evil in it. This is a problem for a vast number of churches where political leaders appear to some church leaders to have more authority in human affairs than the Lord Jesus Christ.

Economics, too, becomes a factor, not only at the national level but (more commonly) at the local level, when churches refuse to participate and operate within the poverty of Africa. The missionary or the national church executive, paid from abroad, running a big car, and living in a luxurious house, cannot demand sacrificial living and giving from his flock without planting seeds of schism.

There are also cultural factors, ranging from painful decisions churches must make over customary practices, to tensions, suspicions, and problems within the new society. This is going to create even more trouble because, while Africa is becoming more interested in its cultural heritage, the old churches are hardly stirring to find a new approach to traditional Africa.

There also are factors of religious expression involved in church independence. The new religion, coming from the West, stressed meditation, quietness, individuality; traditionally, Africa’s religious expressions were loud, emotional, communal.

Perhaps the most common of all causes of schism in Africa is human folly and arrogance—men’s desire for power and prestige, and lack of patience and tolerance. Interestingly, unlike American and European church quarrels leading to schism, African schism has been relatively free of theological debates. But once there is division, the historical and cultural circumstances surrounding the new churches force them into new theological formulations and religious expressions.

For example, the new independent churches naturally adopted an African world-view, in which all human events are seen to be controlled by spiritual powers. Birth, health, harvest, road accidents, and thunderstorms are not mere physico-natural phenomena but purposive acts of spiritual powers, evil or benevolent. This accounts for the very central place that prayer, prophecy, spiritual healing, dreams, and visions play in the life of these churches.

Another characteristic of these churches is their vigorous community life. In some cases identification becomes so strong that members wear uniforms. In the face of general breakdown of the family system in Africa, the new churches have become, for their members, the new social units where the individual can find his roots. The new churches are also giving key leadership positions to women.

All the churches are ready for worship at any time, wherever a congregation can be gathered. The services are lively and are accompanied by instrumental music, and the congregation is encouraged to participate fully. The new churches are, on the whole, devoted to Bible reading and Bible study; translations into local languages and dialects help give the Bible its immense prestige as the Word of God for anyone, everywhere. Moreover, members of these churches see in the Bible a world-view not much different from their own, and in the biblical characters faith in its simplest form.

Nevertheless, the churches have some grave problems. One is the apparent lack of control of excessive emotions. Another is a certain “holy exclusiveness” that prevents effective fellowship with other churches. The new churches lack long-range planning. They have no programs for nurture, no facilities for leadership training, and no tools for evangelism and teaching other than personal witnessing. Most are yet to develop clear, written constitutions and statements of faith; in the highly emotional atmosphere, this is dangerous.

Another problem: the national Christian councils and the old churches do not seem willing or able to share their experiences and facilities with these new churches. Little is being done to establish bridges of understanding and reconciliation. Without this cooperation, it is difficult to see how the new churches will manage to stabilize their theologies, standardize their structures, and slough off some of their extreme practices and beliefs.

ODHIAMBO OKITE

Lateran Leverage

The Vatican may soon be forced to acknowledge that one of St. Peter’s keys is rusting away. The forty-second anniversary of the Lateran Pact between Italy and the Vatican was noted in the circles that count last month, and 1971 may well be the last year the Holy See enjoys its place of privilege gained when it concluded a concordat with Mussolini on February 11, 1929.

The Vatican is smarting from two recent defeats handed it by the Italian Parliament: A 30 per cent tax on dividends, retroactive to 1963, was levied on all Vatican investments in Italian business, and a bill legalizing divorce on a limited scale passed Parliament last December.

Luther, Brotherhood Stamps

West Germany will issue a commemorative postage stamp March 18 marking the 450th anniversary of the convening of the Imperial Diet of Worms. The momentous parliamentary meeting in 1521 considered the reforms demanded by Martin Luther and his supporters.

The reformer refused to retract his criticisms of the Roman church and uttered his famous words: “Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.” The stamp, bearing the inscription “450 Jahre Wormser Reichstag,” depicts Luther appearing before Karl V and church dignitaries, surrounded by copies of his writings, during the Diet. Thirty million copies of the stamp will be printed.

Meanwhile in Vatican City last month the Vatican Post Office issued four stamps. Two are the work of Italian sculptor Corrado Ruffini and bear the inscription “Every Man Is My Brother.” One shows a black angel, symbolizing racial equality before God; the other shows a crucifix surrounded by flying doves.

Now waning temporal power seems likely to meet with even further travail on the Vatican’s very doorstep. In a conference, Leopoldo Elia, professor of constitutional law and intimate legal counselor to the Italian minister of foreign affairs, urged the Christian Democrats, the political arm of the church, to hurry preparation of a diplomatic confrontation with the Holy See. Elia proposed a “total revision of the church-state relationships, a renewal that will end in a very simple concordat text, one that is devoid of all the trappings that were once necessary in order to satisfy a totalitarian state and a preconciliar church.”

Elia’s rapport with Minister of Foreign Affairs Aldo Moro cannot be overlooked; Moro’s affinity with the Vatican is also well known. Moro is a front-running contender for the presidency of Italy in next year’s elections and a major power in the church’s political party. His view of the concordat is imposing, and in recent years his views have often reflected—far in advance—a more liberal turn in Vatican policy.

For Italy’s Protestant minority, revision of the Lateran Treaty could very possibly mean that the Roman church’s stranglehold on religious education in the public schools will be broken. Recognition of the clergy may pass from state authority to the churches involved, thus enlarging the opportunity to conduct state-recognized marriages (under the present concordat only Catholic clergy are automatically granted this right). Another outcome could be that Protestants would no longer risk fines or jail for publicly offending the official state religion (because of suggested changes in the official status of the church). And expriests, many of whom are members of Protestant churches, might no longer be denied employment that brings them in contact with the public.

In any case, the Vatican is being forced to reinforce its spiritual influence over the Roman flock if it hopes to exert future political influence.

ROYAL L. PECK

Personalia

Veteran Missionary Aviation Fellowship pilot Paul Weir and passengers James G. Johnson, a MAF board member, and Honduran evangelistic singer Dennis Mata were killed last month when their single-engine Cessna crashed on a ridge in Honduras.

Dr. Robert W. Lazear, previously a veteran missionary to Colombia, South America, and until last month associate pastor of the Bel Air (southern California) Presbyterian Church, has become pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Bogota; he is one of the few American ministers to be called to a Latin American church without an affiliation to an American mission board.

Dr. John W. Snyder, 46, president of Westmont (California) College since July, 1969, resigned last month to be vice-chancellor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The Lutheran seminary graduate and Presbyterian layman, who came to Westmont after a short stint as chancellor of the main Bloomington campus of Indiana University, said he feels unsuited for the “rigorous task of fund raising so essential for colleges today.”

The Reverend Norman Pell, director of the Leighton Ford Crusades for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, has resigned to become general superintendent of the Baptist Union of Victoria, Australia.

Washington, D.C. police chief Jerry V. Wilson became the first U. S. police official last month to receive the National Brotherhood Citation of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Wilson, 43, has been hailed for recruiting more blacks to augment the city’s police force.

William J. Krutza, managing editor of Power for Living magazine since 1964, has been named director of publications for the Christian Business Men’s Committee International.

Dr. William H. Kadel, head of the Southern Presbyterian Board of Christian Education since 1968, has been named president of Pittsburgh Seminary.… The Reverend Vincent E. Taber has been appointed president of Berkshire Christian College in Lenox, Massachusetts.

CHRISTIANITY TODAY correspondent Leslie K. Tarr of Toronto has been named contributing editor of the Enquirer, a tabloid newsmonthly slated for 17,000 national circulation next month. Most evangelical ministers in Canada will receive it.

In an emotion-charged decision, the highest court of the United Church of Canada this month voted to reinstate the Reverend Russell D. Horsburgh in the church from which he voluntarily resigned in 1964 after conviction on a charge of contributing to juvenile delinquency while he was pastor of Park Street United Church in Chatham, Ontario. Horsburgh served 107 days of a one-year jail term, but the Canadian Supreme Court ruled a mistrial had occurred. The new hearing acquitted him.

Religion In Transit

A ten-part ABC television series called Religion in America Today began on successive Sundays February 28. Featuring religious spirit at the grass-roots level, the network production is touted as “the most comprehensive study of its kind ever.…”

Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, now boasts the world’s first hanging pipe organ. Most of the 4,019 pipes, weighing about fifteen tons, hang from the roof of the $600,000 building in two sections thirty feet above the pews. The organ cost about $150,000.

A new graduate program in religious studies, the only one in the nation to focus entirely on American culture, will begin at Pennsylvania State University this fall. The master of arts and doctor of philosophy degrees will be offered.

Abilene (Texas) Christian College will merge with Christian College of the Southwest in Dallas and Fort Worth Christian College this fall. A major result will be the full accreditation of the Dallas and Fort Worth centers.

Deaths

ROBERT E. BURNS, 61, president of the United Methodist-related University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, since 1946, and originator of the “cluster college” concept in the 1960s at this first-chartered campus in the state; in Stockton, after a brief illness.

NELSON GLUECK, 70, famed biblical archaeologist and president of Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, who discovered the site of King Solomon’s mines in 1934; in Cincinnati.

RONALD MACLEOD, 93, a leading figure in the 1925 formation of the United Church of Canada, and the first minister in Canada to broadcast radio church services; in Toronto.

JAMES CASH PENNEY, 95, noted Christian layman who founded the department store chain; said to have “touched as many lives with his simple Christian faith as any layman of the twentieth century”; in New York.

Alarmed by the 2 million cases of gonorrhea and more than 75,000 of syphillis diagnosed in the United States last year, assistant secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Roger O. Egeberg has appointed a National Commission on Venereal Disease.

Merger of the Brazos Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church, U.S., with the Gulf Coast Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church failed last month when Brazos delegates fell thirteen short of the two-thirds majority vote needed to combine the overlapping east Texas regional units.

The Sunday-school Board of the Southern Baptist Convention has adopted guidelines for church-literature writers acknowledging the “possibility of more than one interpretation of certain Scripture … theological doctrines, and current issues.”

World Scene

Toronto’s People’s Church plans to launch a full elementary and secondary school program this fall to accommodate 300 students. The step is being taken, according to pastor Paul Smith, because of “agnostic and atheistic” teaching in public schools. The church, with 3,500 members, is said to be the largest Protestant congregation in Canada.

The Vatican announced last month that the term “heresy” will no longer be applied to “doctrinal errors” by Roman Catholic teachers and theologians. In a related development, the Conference of German Bishops declared that the position of rebel theologian Dr. Hans Kung (who maintains in a recent book that only God—not the Pope—can be infallible) is outside the conference’s competence. Thus excommunication of Catholic scholars on doctrinal grounds now seems virtually impossible.

An examination of ruins found in the heart of Nazareth recently by Franciscan archaeologists indicates that the biblical town was settled about 1,000 B.C.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is threatened with bankruptcy and the prospect of curtailing severely or shutting down operations by this September.

The Polish government, in an apparent concession to the Roman Catholic Church, has acted to give title to church lands in territory won from Germany after World War II. The lands formerly belonged to the German Catholic Church but were only leased to the Polish Church after they passed to Polish control.

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