More than two dozen important U. S. denominational bodies held general conventions during the month of June. The following reports summarize key developments (see also CHRISTIANITY TODAY for July 4, 1960, and subsequent issues):
At Kansas City, Missouri—More than 16,000 rank-and-file ministers and lay members of the Church of the Nazarene joined 660 official delegates to the 15th quadrennial assembly at the Municipal Auditorium. Together they constituted the largest assembly of Nazarenes in the church’s 52-year history.
For several days prior to the June 19–24 assembly, there were conventions of Nazarene young people, Sunday Schools, and missionary organizations in the city where denominational headquarters are located.
Though most visiting Nazarenes came from the United States, 25 countries were represented.
General Secretary S. T. Ludwig reported that 1,200 new churches had been established during the last decade to bring the total number of local congregations to 4,696 and membership to 311,300. During the quadrennium 1956–60, 119,000 new enrollments were made in Sunday School, bringing the total to 700,500, according to Dr. A. F. Harper, secretary of the Sunday School Department. Treasurer John L. Stockton reported that per capita giving averaged $135 per annum and that total giving for the four year period amounted to $14,648,245. Dr. Remiss Rehfeldt, retiring secretary of the Foreign Missions Department, said there were 50,350 Nazarenes in 42 world areas outside the United States where 489 missionaries are at work. Nearly $2 million was spent for foreign missions in the year 1958–59. New areas entered during the past quadrennium included Formosa, Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia and Brazil.
The Church of the Nazarene was founded at Pilot Point, Texas, on October 13, 1908, with the merger of several independent holiness groups. There were initially 228 churches with 10,414 members. Since then, ten smaller denominations have joined the Nazarenes and growth by individual accessions has been rapid.
The church is governed by general superintendents elected at each quadrennial gathering from among the 660 official delegates from the 76 church districts. The 15th assembly reelected Hugh Benner, Hardy C. Powers, D. I. Vanderpool, G. B. Williamson and Samuel Young, and recognized the growth of the church by electing a sixth, Dr. V. H. Lewis, who has been superintendent of the Department of Evangelism.
Speaking for the superintendents in their annual report, Young said: “We do not claim to be the Church of Christ in any exclusive sense, but we would identify ourselves as a vital part of His great church and face our responsibilities. We are never free to ignore the disciplines of holy living. There is no divine strength without obedience to the divine will.”
Young challenged the church to obtain 800 new local congregations, 70,000 new members, 100 new missionaries, 150,000 new Sunday School pupils and $18,000,000 for missions and general expenses in the next four years.
At Kansas City, Kansas—Some 1,400 delegates to the annual meeting of the American Baptist Association agreed to “use our influence in every way honorably posible” to prevent a Roman Catholic from becoming president.
A unanimously-adopted resolution described the Catholic church as “an international religious-political organization whose religious and political dogmas and concepts are in absolute conflict with our United States constitutional concepts of separation of Church and State and religious freedom.”
The ABA is made up of some 3,000 churches, mainly in the South and Southwest, with a combined membership of 600,000. It is not related to the much larger American Baptist Convention.
ABA President Hoyt Chastain told delegates that “no man can be loyal to the United States and the Vatican at the same time.”
“Baptists have never opposed a man for president because of his religion,” he said. “But Catholicism is more than a religion. The Vatican is a political state.”
At Winona Lake, Indiana—The centenary General Conference of the Free Methodist Church of North America voted to organize overseas counterparts and an international fellowship. Delegates to the 25th quadrennial conference also endorsed the action of the Free Methodist Board of Missions to sever relations with the National Council of Churches’ Division of Foreign Missions and approved the use of service agencies of the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association (a resolution supporting the board’s move cited theological differences and variant social, economic and political views expressed in pronouncements by the NCC and its units not in harmony with the denomination’s views).
In establishing the new international structure, delegates authorized general conferences for Egypt, where there are some 5,000 Free Methodists, and for Japan, where there are about 3,000. Others will be authorized as “maturity requirements” are met. All will be bound together under the newly-organized World Fellowship of Free Methodist Churches.
Some 6,000 delegates and guests witnessed the Winona Lake conference. One of the highlights was an address by Dr. Glenn L. Archer, executive director of Protestants and Other Americans United and a third-generation Free-Methodist. Another was the groundbreaking ceremony for a $150,000 office building for the Free Methodist publishing house.
By a narrow margin, delegates voted down a resolution that would have put the denomination on record as favoring the abolition of capital, punishment. They also defeated (1) a proposal providing that certain general officers be appointed instead of elected and (2) a plan for easing restrictions against divorced persons.
The Free Methodist Church of North America, with a current membership of about 55,000, was officially organized at Pekin, New York, in August, 1860. The founding was commemorated last month with the unveiling of an eight-foot stone shaft bearing a bronze memorial plate and located near the apple orchard where the initial organizational meeting was held.
At Boston—Conservative Baptists, meeting in historic Boston’s Statler-Hilton Hotel for their 17th annual fellowship, found the finest spirit of unanimity and harmony since the movement’s founding. Unity has always been found in the raison d’etre of the Conservative Baptist Association, viz. world missions. Interest in the structure of the fellowship has been minimal, while attention is focussed upon reaching the world with the Gospel, and upon the building of new churches.
In thankful restrospect, the Foreign Mission Society reported a total income of more than $2 million in the past fiscal year. It required just seven years to double receipts from the $ 1 million mark. On the field and under appointment are 395 missionaries, and a new station in Borneo is soon to be opened. The Home Mission Society celebrated its 10th anniversary with a pictorial report of its 18 fields on the North American continent and surrounding islands, staffed by 92 missionaries. The Home Mission budget for 1960 exceeds $550,000.
The Conservative Baptist Association of America accepted 81 churches applying for affiliation, including 52 newly-organized churches. In the past 10 years the CBA has seen 690 new churches organized. The total Conservative Baptist constituency now stands at 1,321 churches with 300,000 members, and with a Sunday School constituency exceeding 325,000.
Dr. Clyde W. Taylor, public affairs secretary of the National Association of Evangelicals, keynoted the fellowship with a message on “Historic Evangelical Christianity Confronting Roman Catholicism.” Awareness of the contemporary issues prompted a resolution concerning the separation of Church and State. Cherishing their “inalienable right to a conscience absolutely uncoerced,” the Conservative Baptists affirmed their “unalterable devotion” to this principle. Noting that the separation of Church and State is “repudiated and rejected by the official doctrine and teaching of the Roman Catholic Church,” and that there could be “no assurance that a faithful Roman Catholic who became president of our nation could impartially defend these basic freedoms of the United States while remaining true to his religion,” the resolution urged the “American political parties not to nominate … any candidate for President or Vice-President of our country whose religious affiliation … conflicts with the separation of Church and State.” Copies of the resolution were sent to the national chairmen of both Democratic and Republican parties.
The increasing intensity of the subversive strategy of world communism was reflected in other resolutions adopted. Delegates unanimously resolved to “commend our Congressional committees, especially the House Committee on Un-American Activities, for their watchfulness over our national security and their dedication to a thankless but positively necessary task.” The conclave assured committee members of their prayers. It was further resolved to express “distress at the infiltration of communistic ideology in the National Council of Churches and in the World Council of Churches.”
Other social issues resulted in resolutions (1) encouraging the support of a bill (H.R. 11454) sponsored by Representative James Oliver to establish a Commission on Noxious Printed and Pictured Material and (2) declaring approval of Senator J. Strom Thurmond’s bill (S. 1432) to prohibit consumption of alcoholic beverages aboard commercial planes.
Dr. Vernon C. Grounds, president of the Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary in Denver, defended the fellowship against charges of “splinter movement.” Grounds emphasized the divisive character of Jesus. He indicated that it would be impossible never to be divisive, if one desired to remain wholeheartedly loyal to Christ. Later, he warned the Conservative Baptists against veering sharply to the right into an unbiblical exclusivism in areas of eschatology, evangelism, and other associations.
An eschatological debate, however, did wander through the woods of parliamentary briars and tangles. Inclusion of the word “pre-millennial” into the statements of faith of both foreign and home mission societies failed, inasmuch as a unanimous vote was necessary to alter the doctrinal statements. Many delegates felt that fellowship ought not to be denied to those outside the scope of pre-millennialism, although the present constituency is almost totally pre-millennial. Later, legal technicalities served to allow the word “pre-millennial” to be inserted into the statement of purpose of the foreign society, so that only pre-millennial missionaries may be appointed under that board.
At Chicago—Plans for a “Decade of Dedication” were endorsed by delegates to the 75th annual meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church of America. Part of the program calls for a unified budget to inspire “greater devotion to the cause of Christ through a stewardship of means, witnessing, and service.” Another phase includes a goal of $5,000,000 or more for an investment fund for new churches and other denominational construction projects.
The Covenant church owns and operates 10 homes for the aged, two hospitals, two children’s homes and two homes for sailors. North American membership now totals nearly 60,000 in 536 churches.
President Clarence A. Nelson was presented with Sweden’s Royal Order of the North Star, Knights Commander degree for “official services as well as scientific, literary, learned and useful work.” Representing King Gustaf VI Adolf was the Rev. Gösta Nicklasson, president of the Swedish Covenant Church.
The Evangelical Covenant Church of America perpetuates a free church movement within the Swedish state Lutheran church. In early years the group was known as the Swedish Evangelical Mission Covenant church and later as the Evangelical Mission Covenant Church of America.
At Grand Rapids, Michigan—Matters of world concern occupied the interest of delegates to the annual Synod of the Christian Reformed Church. The body addressed itself to questions of missions, racial tensions, world-wide disaster relief, and the church’s attitude toward war. For the rest, it was a quiet session compared to last year’s gathering, which was stirred by sharp differences on theological and doctrinal questions.
Sensitivity to South African apartheid reflected itself in a communication addressed to Reformed sister church bodies there. The message called to mind and reaffirmed decisions of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod of 1958, held in South Africa, which stressed the church’s duty to avoid attitudes leading to estrangement of races and asserted the essential unity of believers in Christ, as well as the need for public enlightenment through teaching and preaching, and a church alert to biblical evaluation of government policy. The action indicated that Christian Reformed mission efforts were being hampered by identification in the public mind with Reformed churches and the segregation policies in South Africa.
The synod moved to establish a world-wide service committee to administer relief funds in disaster and distress areas. Heretofore, relief funds for flood, earthquake and refugee situations have been collected and distributed by special deacons’ committees, but the synod felt that the time had come for an official committee to give world-wide witness to the church’s expression of Christian mercy.
A study committee to re-evaluate the church position on modern warfare will undertake to examine previous synodical statements on the Christian attitude toward war in the light of a set of resolutions adopted by the Reformed Ecumenical Synod of 1958. The church’s 1939 statement endorsed a “witness against pacifism”; the 1958 resolution, not endorsed, called for an “international judicial system.”
A denominational budget of $3,640,000 was approved, of which $1,798,000 was earmarked for foreign missions. Ten new home mission fields were approved. A Calvin Institute of Missions will expedite missionary training extension at Calvin College. A cultural anthropologist and a missionary linguist will be added to the college staff.
A plan for regional synods, under discussion for some years, was shelved again because of insufficient demonstration of necessity. The church now has 31 classes, or districts, scattered over the United States and Canada, embracing its half-million over-all membership.
Delegates witnessed the laying of the cornerstone for the new Calvin Seminary building, to be ready for the fall semester. The half-million-dollar structure is the first on the new Knollcrest campus of Calvin College and Seminary.
On the ecumenical front, the denominational committee is studying anew the church’s relationship to several interchurch bodies, including the National Association of Evangelicals. A committee was appointed to continue discussions with a faction of the Protestant Reformed Church looking toward reunification with the Christian Reformed denomination.
At Nashville, Tennessee—Commissioners (delegates) to the 130th General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church asked Bethel College trustees to admit qualified Negro ministerial students “as soon as feasible.” The request contradicted a report from the Cumberland Presbyterian school in McKenzie, Tennessee, which recommended that no integration of the races be attempted until sometime in the future.
Cumberland Presbyterians, who now number some 88,000, are marking their 150th anniversary. Highlight of this year’s seven-day assembly was a mass pilgrimage to a state park near Dickson, Tennessee, where a pageant was staged in honor of the anniversary. The site marked the place where three clergymen—Samuel McAdow, Samuel King, and Finis Ewing—prominent in the historic revival of 1800 knelt for a night of prayer and subsequently organized the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. A chapel and a replica of McAdow’s log cabin were dedicated on the site.
At Green Lake, Wisconsin—Delegates to the 76th annual sessions of the Evangelical Free Church approved relocation of Trinity College from the northwest side of Chicago to a 79-acre site near Deerfield, Illinois. Also endorsed was the establishment of a “national church” in the Washington, D. C., area. Officials are advancing $44,000 toward its erection on a three-acre plot in suburban Annandale, Virginia. Spearheading the work is the Rev. Olai Urang, district superintendent who was honored at the conference as Trinity’s “Alumnus of the Year.” The Rev. Turner Tallekson has accepted an invitation to become the church’s first pastor.
‘The Story of Ruth’
Yet another in the burgeoning succession of Hollywood films treating biblical stories has appeared: ‘The Story of Ruth.” With a qualified sense of relief, one may report an upgrading in taste and restraint in handling of the biblical materials.
Indeed, by Hollywood standards the film is exceedingly chaste, so much so that some say it is dull. Missing are the usual sex orgies related to Eastern fertility cults.
And it was not as if opportunities for such were lacking. For Ruth is portrayed as a priestess of the Moabite god Chemosh, worshiped like Molech through sacrificing children by fire. Won romantically and religiously by Naomi’s son, Mahlon, Ruth marries him as he is dying, then faithfully cleaves to Naomi as they make their way to Judea, a journey which becomes a military pursuit of Ruth for disloyalty to king and Chemosh.
It becomes evident that what is not recounted in the biblical narrative—such as Ruth’s background—is about as valuable for the moviemakers as what is. For the silences leave so much room for improvisation that relatively little contradiction of Scripture is required by the plot. While filial devotion is not wholly lacking in the twentieth century—“Dear Abby” revelations notwithstanding—it can hardly be expected to shoulder two hours of Cinema Scope-DeLux color. And the prefatory note emphasizes that many legends have grown up about Ruth. As if in quasi vindication, however, they are all said to have originated in Judea.
So the result is considerably beyond the findings of even the imaginative sort of pulpiteer. Boaz turns out to be a rather impulsive young hothead harboring a fair share of national prejudice before Ruth comes into his life. This contributes to a rather stormy romance, updated to meet twentieth century specifications and replete with a triangle involving the “nearer kinsman.” But after a sleepness night over the prospect of a loveless marriage, Ruth is snatched from the altar by Boaz, whom she marries immediately, a frugal move which takes advantage of the other kinsman’s wedding preparations.
Ruth is played by Elana Eden (an Israeli), Naomi by Peggy Wood, and Boaz by Stuart Whitman.
Care is taken not to offend Jewish sensitivities. Example: a prophecy concerning Ruth’s lineage refers to Christ not as Messiah but as a great king “whom many will worship as the Messiah.”
Much of the beauty of the book of Ruth is in its simplicity and natural grace. The widescreen treatment had to be incongruous.
F.F.
‘Africa on the Bridge’
The production of quality Christian films passes another milestone with the release of “Africa on the Bridge,” 80-minute color documentary of the 1960 Billy Graham Africa crusade. Dick Ross and his cameramen have caught Africa in transition, with its television towers and its primitivism, its gleaming apartment houses and its famed wild beasts.
Speaking through two interpreters in many cases, Graham found Africans to be profoundly moved by the Gospel message, and their response is a thrilling thing to watch. The facial studies of men, women and children from Liberia to Egypt are outstanding, and Victoria Falls lives up to its name.
S.E.W.
Crusade Totals
Evangelist Billy Graham’s Washington crusade drew a total attendance of 139,000 for eight services. Inquirers numbered 4,971 (a youth night service drew the largest response, 1,051, most of them teen-agers).
Orthodox Cooperation
Orthodox churches in the United States hope to achieve closer fellowship and better cooperation through a newly-created episcopal conference.
Formation of the conference was unanimously approved at a meeting last month in New York attended by representatives from 11 Orthodox groups.
The conference will normally meet twice a year. The office of presiding hierarch will be rotated annually among ruling bishops of the canonical jurisdictions. Archbishop Iakovos presided over the formative meeting.
Correction
In the June 20, 1960 issue of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, Richard Cardinal Cushing is quoted as having said that Knights of Columbus advertisements attracted 3,660,182 inquiries during the first third of 1960.
The statement was incorrect. The figure actually represented the total number of inquiries received since the advertising program was begun in 1948.
The Knights of Columbus reports that inquiries between January 1 and June 17, 1960, totaled 284,387.
People Words And Events
Deaths: Retired Free Methodist Bishop Mark D. Ormston; at Spring Arbor, Michigan … Dr. Dumont Clarke, 75, founder of the Lord’s Acre method of tithing; at Manchester, Vermont … Dean Denier, 32, Navigators evangelist; in Hong Kong.
Elections: As bishops of The Methodist Church (South Central Jurisdiction), Dr. Aubrey G. Walton, pastor of the First Methodist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas; Dr. Paul V. Galloway, pastor of the Boston Avenue church in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Dr. Kenneth W. Copeland, pastor of Travis Park church in San Antonio, Texas; Dr. William Kenneth Pope, pastor of the First church in Houston, Texas; and Dr. Oliver Eugene Slater, pastor of the Polk Street church in Amarillo, Texas … as moderator of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod of Ireland, the Rev. R. J. Mcllmoyle (he had been elected to the same post 50 years ago) … as president of the Conservative Baptist Association of America, the Rev. James Stuart; as president of the Foreign Missions Society, Dr. Lester Thompson; as president of the Home Mission Society, Dr. Charles W. Anderson … as president of the Association of Council Secretaries, Dr. G. Merril Lenox … as president of the National Conference of the Methodist Student movement, Kaneaster Hodges.
Appointments: As dean of Alderson-Broaddus College, Dr. Wilfred T. Packer … as publicity director of the United Church of Canada in its Board of Information and Stewardship, Norman K. Vale … as general manager of the publications division of the Board of Christian Education in the Presbyterian Church in the U. S., Martin E. Brachter … as secretary of literature and evangelism of the Mennonite Board of Missions and Charities, Urie A. Bender.
Resignation: As general secretary of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, Dr. C. Stacey Woods.
Retirement: As professor of New Testament and Greek at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Julius R. Mantey.
