A MOISTURE PROBLEM—Like most new buildings, the $3,500,000 Air Force Academy chapel has been having troubles—the roof leaks. Water has been seeping through joints between the 150-foot high aluminum spires and the stained glass windows that connect them. To stop the flow, storm windows must be placed over the stained glass, gutters must be placed along the length of the spires, and the joints must be covered with aluminum stripping.
PROTESTANT PANORAMA—A plan to unite all Congregational churches in South Africa was approved in principle at an assembly of the Congregational Union of South Africa.
A new Lutheran denomination made up of Lutheran Free Church congregations opposed to merger with the American Lutheran Church was organized at Thief River Falls, Minnesota. On hand for the proceedings were 278 persons from 76 congregations in seven states and Canada.
The “Sermons from Science” pavilion at the Seattle World’s Fair will be transported to an Air Force installation near Everett, Washington, for use as a chapel.
Philadelphia College of Bible is sponsoring an essay contest for high school students. Topic: “New Frontiers for Youth in Christian Service.” Winner gets a year’s tuition paid.
Peoples Church of Toronto, founded by Dr. Oswald J. Smith, dedicated a new building with a sanctuary accommodating nearly 2,500.
Refugees from mainland China reportedly told Assemblies of God missionaries in Hong Kong that only Pentecostal churches are allowed to remain open in the Communist controlled land.
A rally at Glen Ellyn, Illinois, will mark the 25th anniversary of Christian Service Brigade, an association of boys clubs with 40,000 members in 1,100 churches in 43 states and 7 Canadian provinces.
Congo Protestant Relief Agency expects to distribute 50,000 chicks by next June 30. Officials say there is a great demand for chicks to build up poultry stocks with selective breeding.
CHURCH AND STATE—Tensions in Athens increased in the wake of the Greek Orthodox Church’s condemnation of a Greek government proposal that, in raising the salaries of priests, would have merged two church agencies into a state-controlled administrative body. The church’s Holy Synod unanimously opposed the plan.
The Indian government banned the book entitled The Upsurge of China, written by Dr. Hewlett Johnson, the “Red Dean” of Canterbury. The book contains two maps which show practically the whole of the northeast frontier of India as part of China. This, the Indian government said, was most offensive.
Guatemalan President Ydigoras inaugurated an evangelistic crusade at the Olympic gymnasium in Guatemala City. The crusade was part of the evangelism-in-depth campaign sponsored by the Latin America Mission.
MISCELLANY—For the first time in 13 years, the number of juvenile offenders appearing on delinquency charges before juvenile courts showed a drop in 1961. The decrease amounted to one per cent, according to Mrs. Katherine B. Oettinger, director of the Children’s Bureau of the U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Four students described as fundamentalists withdrew from a geology course at San Francisco State College on grounds that the contents of the course conflicted with their religious beliefs. The students were not identified. In quitting the class, they protested against the instructor’s teaching that the earth could never have been covered completely with waters as the Bible story of Noah relates.
The National Council of Churches unveiled a new specialized publication, World Community, published by its Department of International Affairs in cooperation with United Church Women. The eight-page monthly, with “news and views of Christian concern,” will be circulated free among “key communicators.”
Church World Service is seeking $1,009,110 from American Protestant and Eastern Orthodox church members in a special Thanksgiving appeal to finance its 1963 Share Our Surplus program.
PERSONALIA—Dr. William C. Latta, pastor of First United Presbyterian Church, Oakmont, Pennsylvania, elected president of the United Presbyterian Board of National Missions. Latta has served as acting president since May.
Dr. Theodore P. Fricke elected executive director of the Division of World Missions of the American Lutheran Church. Fricke, until now an associate director, succeeds Dr. Rolf A. Syrdal, who will become a professor at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa.
Dr. James S. Stewart nominated as moderator of the Church of Scotland for 1963–64.
Dr. Glenn L. McConagha was inaugurated fourteenth president of Muskingum College (United Presbyterian).
Dr. Harold N. Englund, who resigned as president of Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, last spring, will become pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, California.
The Rev. Harold Hindry elected president of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Canada.
Methodist Bishop Herbert Welch was honored on his one hundredth birthday with a dinner ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.
Dr. Stuart H. Merriam, ousted minister of Broadway Presbyterian Church, New York, embarked on a five-month world tour which will keep him removed from the scene of the controversy until his appeal is heard by the General Assembly in May.
General Do Young Chang, first head of the 1961 coup that overturned Korea’s Second Republic and a devout Presbyterian lay leader, arrived in the United States for study following his release from a death sentence.
Jack Hayford, youth worker for the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, won a gospel hymn composition contest sponsored by the National Church Music Fellowship and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Hayford’s hymn is entitled “We Lift Our Voice Rejoicing.”
VATICAN COUNCIL—From the Vatican Council press office came a warning against “religious individuals” who have turned up in Rome and given the impression of being official observers. “In view of declarations made by certain non-Catholic individuals now present in Rome,” says the announcement, “the Secretariat for Christian Unity wishes to emphasize that the titles of ‘observer-delegate’ and ‘guest of the secretariat’ pertain exclusively to those who have received a formal invitation.” The warning coincided with newspaper reports of the arrival in Rome of ecclesiastical extremist Bishop Homer Tomlinson, “overseer” of the Church of God with international headquarters in Queens Village, New York. Several Italian papers carried stories saying that he claimed to be a council observer and that his wife, Marie, was the only woman observer. He said he was presenting his multi-colored “peace banner” to Pope John.
WORTH QUOTING—“If it is wise to pay farmers for not planting wheat, it is even wiser to pay Hollywood for not making movies.”—Methodist Bishop Richard C. Raines.
“My idea of the duties of a bishop differ from those of Bishop Reeves, whose footsteps I have no intention of following. I also feel unhappy about South Africa’s racial policy, but feel it’s too late to change it.”—Dr. Leslie Edward Stradling, successor as Bishop of Johannesburg to Dr. Richard Ambrose Reeves, who was forced out of the country because of his outspoken opposition to apartheid.
