Africa’s Future Traced to U. S. Churches

John B. Conlan Jr., former Army officer and lecturer in international political relations at the University of Maryland, is a young lawyer residing in Evanston, Illinois. Trained at Northwestern University (B. S.) and Harvard University’s Law School (LL. B.), he was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Cologne, Germany. Widely travelled in Europe, Latin America, and the Near East, he has just completed a 20,000-mile, five-month trek through Africa, where he interviewed scores of Christian missionaries and native leaders. Here are his observations:

Toward the end of a beautiful day I strolled along the eastern edge of Africa’s famous Rift Valiey watching a burning sun disappear behind the 9,000-foot White Highlands of Kenya.

My companion, a tall and erect Kikuyu chief, had just shown me the Africa Inland Mission station where during the years of the Mau-Mau insurrection some 60 white missionaries and hundreds of Kikuyu lived behind barbed wire enclosures protected by floodlights and trip-flares. He showed me the scene near Kijabe where 300 of his fellow Kikuyu Christians were slaughtered in a night by other Kikuyus—Mau-Mau intimidators. Then he told of cleavages between pagans and Christians in his own tribe, of his present apprehensions about a resurgence of Mau-Mau and all that is pagan, primitive, and vicious, of local facts behind long-range problems.

Black Africa is in such flux that yesterday’s news is of scant meaning today unless read against long-term problems: 1. the extent of Moslem influence; 2. a growing indication, as recognized by the chief, that the struggle between black and white will be followed by a struggle among blacks—a struggle for reascendancy by pagan elements over westernized and Christian Africans once the restraint of colonial government is withdrawn; 3. the inexperience in government by Africans and the dominating role to be played by the handful of educated ones.

There is little doubt that every territory which is governed by a small official European community will become wholly independent and be governed by nonwhites. It is almost equally certain that this will lead to great upheavals in the territories concerned; and it will be a long time before they are well governed.

After living extensively in the African town locations as well as their shambas and rondavels in the reserves, it appears doubtful to me whether the masses want this. But a handful of political aspirants are bringing it about. Their lack of understanding of economics, government and ordered liberty within a modern society is appalling.

If pagan-oriented elements are able to seize total leadership and liquidate Christian influences, the responsibility for such loss can be traced in large measure to two sources: 1. Colonial Office indifference to and hampering of missionary activity and the propagation of the Gospel—whether by white or black; 2. refusal or failure in the mission schools to educate students intensely enough in biblical concepts of economics, government, and ordered liberty. Africans cry for uhuru (freedom), but missionaries are not teaching the young leaders what true freedom in Christ really means in the total Christian life and society. Consequently, African students thirsting for knowledge and a total philosophy of life that will enable them as present and future leaders of Africa to set the social, economic, political and spiritual goals of their lands in the quest for “democracy’ ” are prone to turn to Godless systems of socio-politico-economic thought.

Though missionaries have in large measure defaulted on this crucial segment of African society, the opportunity has not been lost. It has shifted here to America. The future of Christianity in Africa and, indeed, in many areas of the world, may well turn on what the response of America’s Christians is to the most productive mission field in the world: the thousands of foreign students within our borders. Every African wants to study in America; and every African who has studied here can name his own price and position on return home.

Dr. Billy Graham has effectively demonstrated the value of mass evangelism in Africa. Will the student-leaders hold open their homeland gates to further evangelization and Christian growth against surges of ignorant and educated pagans? From my conversations with them I believe they will, if Christian laymen and pastors actively seek out these foreign students within our shores, teach them of our church life, our private businesses and economic life, our local government, and, above all, the love of Christ as demonstrated in daily living in our homes. It is here in America that Christ can be brought to the hearts of Africa’s leading minds, and the mission field into the churches and homes.

Foreign Students

There are currently some 50,000 foreign students in the United States, according to the lnstitute of lnternational Education.

In addition, many thousands of foreign citizens are temporarily located in America for other reasons.

All represent what is described in the accompanying article on this page as “the mast productive mission field in the world.”

Here are some key concentrations of foreign students (figures approximate the number at each school):

Dramatizing Missions

What is a “Missionary Conference”?

For an increasing number of evangelical churches in North America, the annual missionary conference is a means of stimulating and creating vital new interest in the witness of the Gospel abroad Missionaries on furlough find such conferences strategic opportunities to share both their victories and their problems with fellow believers at home. The local congregation, in turn, gets a first-hand foreign-field report which lends itself to keener appreciation of the missionary enterprise and to more dedicated financial and prayer support.

Missionary conference programs usually van’ in scope according to the size of the church. Some conferences consist merely of inviting a single missionary for a pair of evening services. Others feature all-day services for a week or more with dozens of guest missionary speakers. Many include costumed marches, appeals for funds, and invitations for dedication of life.

The most ambitious of missionary conferences are those conducted annually by Peoples Church of Toronto and Park Street Church of Boston. Both climaxed their 1960 conferences this month with the prospect of adding, between them, more than a half-million dollars to foreign missionary work.

The four-week conference of the independent Peoples Church virtually assured a total missionary offering approaching $300,000 for the next 12 months (some 340 missionaries draw support from this total). As it has been for 31 years, the conference began under the personal leadership of Dr. Oswald J. Smith, founder and now pastor emeritus. On the third day, Smith was taken seriously ill and underwent emergency surgery. By mid-May he was reported to be off the “critical” list and associates said they were encouraged by his rate of recovery.

Meanwhile in Boston, the Park Street (Congregational) Church ran up total pledges payable within a year of more than $262,000. This was the 21st yearly missionary conference for the historic church located by Boston Common. Nearly $3,000,000 has been invested in the missionary enterprise during these years. The 2,200-member church grants support to 116 missionaries in 50 countries.

More than 50 missionaries participated in this year’s conference at the Park Street Church.

Manifest Unity

It is not enough that the ecumenical movement represents inter-church cooperation, according to Dr. W. A. Visser ’t Hooft, general secretary of the World Council of Churches.

Visser ’t Hooft told the WCC’s U. S. Conference last month that the council “can by its nature not be satisfied when the churches work together and maintain fraternal contacts.”

“For the question remains,” he said, “and it comes to us in the first place from the Lord Himself and the second place from the world: why are you not fully united in faith and order?”

The WCC leader asserted that the issue is not whether “we can agree about specific doctrinal consensus and the form of order which are required for full unity but whether manifest unity means visible, corporate, local unity.” This must be discussed, he added, so that no church may feel “forced.”

On hand for the three-day, annual meeting at Buck Hill Falls, Pennsylvania, were some 200 delegates from 30 U. S. church groups which are WCC members.

The delegates voiced gratitude to Episcopal Bishop Henry Knox Sherill, chairman of the conference, for his leadership of a committee which has raised some $2,000,000 toward a proposed new $2,500,000 WCC headquarters building in Geneva.

Welcoming Salvationists

A reception for its newest member, the 250,000-member Salvation Army of the United States, highlighted the 93rd annual convention of the National Holiness Association in Asheville, North Carolina, last month. More than 2,000 delegates and visitors were on hand. The association, a coordinating agency for Wesleyan-Arminian groups, now has a constituency of some 2,000,000.

In an economy move, delegates voted to dissolve temporarily the office of executive director. Duties will be shared by six elected officers.

Headquarters for the association, formerly in Minneapolis and more recently located in Marion, Indiana, was to be moved late this month to permanent offices in Elkhart, Indiana, in a building belonging to the United Missionary Church, a member organization of the association.

Reporter’s Reward

The Religious Newswriters’ Association bestowed its James O. Supple: Memorial Award for 1960 upon David A. Runge, religion editor of the Milwaukee Journal. The award was presented last month during the RNA’s 12th annual meeting in Denver.

RNA, a fellowship of newspaper religion reporters, grants the award in recognition of outstanding religious reporting, perpetuating the memory of James O. Supple, one of its founders. Supple, former religion editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, was killed while on an overseas assignment during the Korean conflict.

Runge, 48, has been religion editor of the Journal for six years and has been on the newspaper’s staff since 1949. Previously for 20 years he served with the Daily Northwestern of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. For three of those years he was city editor.

Methodist Sidelights

In the course of some 74 hours of oratory, the Methodists heard these items:

• Possible drafting of a plan of merger with the Evangelical United Brethren Church within two years.

• Arrival at a state of quiescence in merger talks with Episcopalians, one delegate speaking out against union on grounds of opposing views on temperance.

• Presentation of a revised book of worship for trial until 1964 when final adoption will be voted on. The trend of the revision is toward more formal and liturgical pattern of worship.

• Citation of retiring Bishop Arthur J. Moore, of Atlanta, Georgia, as “Methodist of the Year” by World Outlook, national Methodist magazine of missions. Moore has been president of the Methodist Board of Missions since its organization in 1940, and a biography of him has just been published.

• Proposal of the Methodist Television, Radio and Film Commission, located in Nashville, Tennessee, to open a branch office in Los Angeles to exert a “constructive influence on mass entertainment.”

Note of Gratification

The Military Chaplains Association is asking U. S. communities to follow the example of the armed forces in achieving peaceful racial integration.

In a resolution adopted at its 35th annual convention last month, the Protestant-Catholic-Jewish chaplains’ fellowship expressed “gratification at the degree of peaceful integration already achieved in the armed forces of our nation.”

“We express the hope,” the resolution adds, “that our American communities will follow the splendid example set by our armed forces.”

This year’s MCA convention was held at the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.

Such Is the Kingdom

The meeting place may be a fashionable split-level in Skokie or a noisy fair booth in Phoenix. It may even be in the open fresh air of an Iowa farm or in the dust of a Harlem playground. In such environs and others, Bible-carrying teachers of Child Evangelism Fellowship provided Christian instruction for more than 1,000,000 U. S. youngsters last year.

This month Child Evangelism Fellowship took a new look at its own scope as 400 delegates, including 30 missionaries from 15 countries, assembled in Memphis for their 13th biennial international conference.

Officials reported that the interdenominational CEF now has some 700 full-time children’s workers from coast to coast, plus some 35,000 volunteers. Much of their witness lies in the more than 18,000 “Good News Clubs,” neighborhood organizations which sponsor well-adapted weekly Bible classes for unchurched children. Abroad, support is provided 146 missionaries and 150 full-time national workers in 60 countries.

Featured at the Memphis conference were the finals of a national Bible knowledge competition among youngsters aged nine to thirteen. Three girls and a boy from Tyrone, Pennsylvania, took top honors.

Endeavor Awards

Top prizes in Christian Endeavor’s 1960 citizenship contest will go to Gloria I. McDonald, 16-year-old high school junior from Texas, and David M. Olson, 19, Christian education major at Wheaton (Illinois) College.

A newly-inaugurated society prize was won by the High School Youth Vespers Group of Trinity Evangelical Congregational Church in Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Individual winners were selected on the basis of an essay on “Christian Citizenship—Unlimited!” as well as by a review of the contestant’s citizenship activities. The Pennsylvania society was cited for a project which stressed the citizenship topic in store window displays, newspaper essays, and interviews with civic leaders.

All winners will be publicly honored at a mass “citizenship rally” scheduled in Ottawa July 2.

Chemist in the Pulpit

The American Chemical Society presented a citation last month to one of its most faithful members, a 75-year-old Ohio resident whose career has included 30 years as a chemist and 20 as a minister.

The Rev. Roysel J. Cowan was given a certificate of appreciation for 50 years of continuous membership in the society.

During his career as a chemist in Toledo, Ohio, Cowan also served as a Sunday School superintendent. At 55, he forsook the laboratory for the pulpit. Now, though ostensibly retired, Cowan still conducts two services each Sunday at a Free Methodist church in Bowling Green, Ohio, and tends to other needs of the parish during the week.

He asserts that there are fundamental relationships between physical laws and spiritual laws and that arguments arise only because the contenders know too little about each other’s fields. He has emphasized that there is a need “for the scientific viewpoint in helping the working man to understand religion.”

Birth Control Code

A Protestant-Jewish clergy committee came up with a birth control code last month. Those who drafted the plan say it is aimed at lessening religious controversy over birth control.

All public programs of birth control information service and research should exempt from participation anyone with ethical objections, said a statement released by the clergymen’s national advisory committee of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Conversely, the group said, “The objections of some must not be permitted to deprive others of contraceptive assistance which is scientifically authoritative, and which may be required of them when in conscience they believe birth control fulfills the will of God.”

The committee, formed last fall under chairmanship of Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike, urged government support for “research to develop improved childspacing methods, including techniques acceptable to those who object to some current methods.”

Inter-faith Safety

Protestant and Catholic clergymen in Youngstown, Ohio, cooperating in a campaign for traffic safety, plan to stress drivers’ moral responsibilities in sermons and literature during the summer months.

A similar “Christian road safety campaign” is under way throughout England with the endorsement of most church groups as well as the British government.

People: Words And Events

Deaths:Dr. J. Warren Hastings, 62, minister of the National City Christian Church in Washington, D. C.… Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, 90, noted religious writer.

Retirement: As senior professor and vice president of Union Theological Seminary, Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr.

Election: As president of the National Holiness Association, the Rev. Kenneth E. Geiger.

Appointments: As treasurer of the United Church of Christ, Charles H. Lockyear … as president of the Alaska Methodist University, the Rev. Fred P. McGinnis … as professor of sociology of religion at the National Methodist Theological Seminary, Dr. Lawrence Hepple … as managing editor of the Christian Advocate, the Rev. James M. Wall … as director of religious activities of the National Safety Council, Harold J. Holmes.

Resignations: As president of Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Charles W. Koller … as professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Dr. Lars Granberg, to assume a professorship in psychology at Hope College … as professor of church history at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Dr. Imri Murden Blackburn, to accept a post as chairman of the Department of Ecclesiastical History at Nashota (Wisconsin) House.

Ordination: As minister of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Rev. Armand Tagoona, first Eskimo ever to be ordained by the denomination.

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