United Church of Christ. Arriving in Cincinnati in the wake of a four-day riot, 2,000 delegates and alternates attending the Sixth General Synod of the United Church of Christ found the race issue dominating nearly every action, whether it was electing a top church official or criticizing the hotel in which the convention was held.
The mood was set on the first day (June 22) of the eight-day session by the Rev. Harold L. Hunt, a civil-rights spokesman and pastor of Carmel Presbyterian Church in the predominantly Negro community of Avondale in Cincinnati.
“You will not have law and order until there is justice,” the fiery young minister told the enraptured delegates. Hunt said the week’s violence should be called a rebellion rather than a riot because “a riot is a disorganized situation in which activity goes astray and people fight each other. These people were rebelling against a system that is insensitive to their needs.” (The Ohio National Guard had been called in to quell the racial disturbance, during which $1 million in property was destroyed and more than 250 persons were arrested.)
Believing that justice, like charity, begins at home, the newly formed Ministers for Racial and Social Justice—an inter-racial organization of ministers serving predominantly Negro congregations in the UCC—launched an effective campaign to elect the Rev. Joseph H. Evans, a Negro minister from Chicago’s South Side, as national secretary. The secretary is the second-ranking elected, salaried officer of the two-million-member denomination. The Rev. Robert F. R. Peters, assistant to church President Ben Mohr Herbster since 1962, was the nominating committee candidate.
“We’re in a hell of a bind,” one minister told a reporter before the balloting. “Bob Peters is one of the most capable men in the church but he’s caught in the middle. If we refuse to elect a Negro secretary, all of our pronouncements on racial justice are going to sound awfully hollow.” Evans won, 402 to 292.
MRSJ, which, in contrast to the denomination’s Committee for Racial Justice Now, has no official standing in the church, scored again with a scathing denunciation of the hiring and promotion practices of Cincinnati’s two Hilton hotels—the Netherland, where the convention was held, and the Terrace Hilton, where many other delegates were staying. The ministers charged that only “the totally insensitive” could fail to see that the two hotels were discriminating against Negroes in employment.
In one of the quickest pieces of public relations in hotel history, two Hilton executives flew to Cincinnati to apologize to the delegates.
Vice-president James J. Roche promised that within two days the corporation’s personnel manager would come to Cincinnati to hire more Negroes and to review the personnel records of both hotels with the aim of selecting Negroes presently employed for better jobs. Roche’s public apology won a round of applause from the delegates and headed off a resolution that was to have been introduced on the floor attacking the hotel’s hiring policy.
Truman B. Douglass, executive vice-president of the UCC Board for Homeland Ministries, offered to place the resources of the new Inter-Religious Foundation for Community Organization (see June 9 issue, page 37) behind a church movement in Cincinnati to help Negroes express themselves to the white community. He said he hoped that a broad-based agency such as the Greater Cincinnati Council of Churches would accept the challenge. The offer was ill-timed. During the convention, the Rev. Richard Isler, executive secretary of the local Council of Churches, announced his resignation. The day before, papers had reported that his wife was suing him for divorce.
The highly explosive issue of black power was defused by a parliamentary technicality. The report by a group from the Committee for Racial Justice Now said:
“Power is not evil. It can be used for good or ill. Black is neither good nor bad, but ‘black’ is often used to connote evil. Applied to race, ‘black’ has no moral implications. ‘Black Power’ is really Negro solidarity. The term ‘Black Power’ implies neither violence nor non-violence, neither good nor evil.”
A delegate rushed to a floor microphone to protest. “Why should this synod go on record as defining black power?” he asked. “Stokely Carmichael and his followers, both black and white, already have done that.” Sensing that the issue was divisive, the genial moderator, Dr. Hollis F. Price, told the delegates to “hold on, now” while he had a quick conference with the parliamentarian. Price, president of LeMoyne College in Memphis, later told the delegates that the black-power statement was out of order because it had not been properly cleared through channels as a pronouncement.
“ ‘Black power’ are the two most discussed words in the English language today,” Charles E. Cobb, executive director of the racial-justice committee, said in an interview. “I wanted the delegates to take a look at it—not a position.” He added with a grin. “And they did take a look.”
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One of the synod’s most controversial statements, that on Viet Nam, almost slipped by the tired delegates on the last night. At an open forum earlier, the issue had been hotly debated. But when the statement came on the floor for official action, it passed without a word of debate. Surprised and shocked, President Herbster walked to the stage microphone to ask whether the delegates realized what they had done. Apparently they hadn’t, because they voted to reconsider and brought the issue back on the floor—thereby triggering a floor fight that lasted until nearly midnight.
The big battle centered on this statement in the six-page document: “We urge the cessation of United States air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Viet Nam and the more resolute pursuit of political development, economic justice, and social reconstruction in South Viet Nam.”
An amendment was introduced to delete the reference to halting the bombing and substitute a “most serious reappraisal” of the bombing policy.
The Rev. David Colwell, gruff-voiced minister of the First Congregational Church in Washington, D. C., and national chairman of the Consultation on Church Union (COCU), protested the amendment and the philosophy of those who argued that the delegates had no expertise in military matters and should not try to dictate strategy.
“Those who say this is not the proper role of the church misunderstand the dynamics of power,” he said. “This is a proper concern of the church. We need to register ourselves on this.” His brother, Robert Colwell, a Denver high-school principal, told the weary delegates that he personally favored the stronger, original statement but would support the amendment “in a spirit of reconciliation.” It was approved.
COCU Chairman Colwell fared better with his report on Christian unity. The synod directed its COCU delegates to “further the search for a United Church.”
The delegates were warned by the Rev. Nathanael Guptill, minister of the UCC Connecticut Conference, that a deepening split between “swingers” and “squares” threatens the future of the UCC. He said the middle of the road is really where the action is.
“If the United Church of Christ is to stay in one piece some swingers and squares must sit near enough the center so that they can hear what is being said on the other side of the aisle,” he said.
In other action, the delegates accepted an updating of the Lord’s Prayer,The modern version, included in a new order of worship recommended to local churches: “Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored. Your kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need; and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have wronged us. Keep us clear of temptation, and save us from evil. For the kingdom and power and the glory are yours forever. Amen.” adopted a $10.6 million budget for 1968, recognized the right of an individual to object to serving in a particular war on the grounds of conscience, supported a bill now before Congress that would include clergymen in the nation’s social security system, and authorized a $250,000 fund-raising campaign to aid Arab refugees.
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JAMES L. ADAMS
Christian Reformed Church. For the first time, the 272,000-member denomination defined its position on affiliation with the World Council of Churches. The extensive, spirited debate was occasioned by a request from the Gereformeerde Kerken of the Netherlands for advice and counsel. The 800,000-member Dutch church had earlier gone on record as seeing “no decisive impediment” to WCC membership.
Last month’s CRC synod in Grand Rapids rejected the idea that it is not permissible for “a Reformed Church” to join the WCC. Instead, the synod declared “with regret that it is not permissible” to join “because of the present inadequate basis, the maintaining and functioning of that basis, the socio-political activities and declarations, and the implications of membership in the Council.” But the church decided to send two observers to next year’s WCC assembly. A month after that, the church will meet officially with the Reformed Ecumenical Synod.
An invitation from the National Association of Evangelicals to resume affiliation was referred to the inter-church relations committee.
The 136 delegates from the United States and Canada met for the first time on the new Knollcrest campus of Calvin College and Seminary, and authorized $8.5 million for more college buildings.
In a surprise decision, the synod reversed a 1966 call for a study of theistic evolution. Since there was no actual case requiring judgment, delegates left the matter to those competent to make such a study.
What many considered the biggest item on the agenda turned out to be too big for the ten-day session. The committee on doctrine wrestled with an issue summarized by synod President William Haverkamp as “the doctrine of the love of God and the extent of the atonement—whether universal or for a limited number.” Majority and minority reports went to the floor late in the second week. After a full day of heady, solid theological debate, all was not light under the 1,000 soft spotlights of the new Fine Arts Center.
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In an unprecedented action, the delegates decided to reconvene August 29 to resolve the issue. Church journals have been requested to refrain from discussion during the interim.
JAMES DAANE
Church of the Brethren. America’s largest pacifist denomination urged the U. S. government to stop bombing North Viet Nam, suspend troop movements to Viet Nam, reconvene the Geneva conference, and get the Saigon government to negotiate with the National Liberation Front.
The Brethren lamented that the United States “has risked so much in its attempt to win a military victory while risking so little in attempting to exricate itself from a long, hard war.” I. W. Moomaw, retired director of Agricultural Missions, Inc., said in a convention speech that the United States has intervened in what was a revolt of common people against feudal, irresponsible government, and that the United States-backed regime is unpopular with a vast majority of the population. On the other hand, he criticized Ho Chi Minh for “trying to push all Viet Nam over to Communism.”
The denomination also approved a policy statement on church-state relations. It supported “disobedience to the state” when it cuts across religious convictions but said this “drastic step” should come only after prayer, careful thought, and consultation with others.
The 190,000-member church, which last year voted against joining the Consultation on Church Union, is exploring union possibilities with the American Baptist Convention, the Churches of God (Harrisburg), and the Evangelical Covenant Church. The convention voted to eliminate the traditional office of elder because of broader-based lay participation in church work.
Baptist General Conference. A record number of delegates assembled in Duluth, Minnesota, faced directly the federal-aid issue tabled at two previous meetings, and voted nearly two-to-one against aid.
Permission for federal grants had been sought by the denomination’s Bethel College of St. Paul, Minnesota, and the conference Board of Education. Despite the loss of millions in federal aid, the Baptists determined to relocate Bethel by 1971 as planned, with an initial expense of $11 million.
The 95,000-member conference also voted to make a detailed study of merger possibilities with the smaller North American Baptist General Conference. Delegates voted against joining the North American Baptist Fellowship of the Baptist World Alliance “at this time,” but they decided to cooperate in a Fellowship-backed project, the inter-Baptist Crusade of the Americas evangelism drive scheduled for 1969.
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Evangelical Free Church of America. Delegates voted unanimously against federal or state grants to church-related institutions “at this time.” On a nearunanimous vote, they also rejected government research grants. The matter of loans was referred to a study committee.
EFCA membership is over 50,000 for the first time, and in the past year the denomination added a new congregation every fourteen days. Arnold T. Olson, elected to a sixth three-year term as president, said those who oppose new Bible translations are selfish. “As a church we today must accept some responsibility for the prevailing opinion that the Bible’s message is no longer relevant and that Christianity is out of step with our day.”
Professor Robert Culver of the denomination’s Trinity Evangelical Divinity School pointed out two barriers in using a common Bible with Roman Catholics: the Catholic use of fourteen documents that Protestants do not consider inspired Scripture, and Catholic insistence on notes to accompany the text.
American Baptist Association. President Vernon E. Lierly, Little Rock pastor, proposed these platform planks to representatives of the ABA’s 725,000 members meeting in Mobile, Alabama:
National security: “Seek righteousness.” Human rights: “Every man has the right to hear the Gospel.” Foreign aid: “Missions.” Space: Congregations should have “a good space program” to fill up their “unused space.” Farm program: “If we sow in tears we will reap in joy.” Labor: “The cry of the world is, ‘We need more jobs.’ The cry of the Master is, ‘We need more laborers.’ ” Cooperation: “Today we need the help of all to carry the Gospel. Let us work together.…”
Conservative Baptist Association. Hit by schism to the right two decades after it left the American Baptist Convention, the CBA noted that some “question our present theological and ideological position.” So it reaffirmed the fundamentalist doctrinal stand in its constitution and repeated its opposition to the National and World Councils of Churches. The convention, meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, also came out against gambling in any form, including state lotteries. Lester Thompson of Prescott, Arizona, was elected to one year as president.
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Kirchentag: Left To The Left
Every other year German Protestants conduct a gigantic “Church Day” congress that draws thousands of lay people from all over Europe. There are dozens of lectures about all kinds of complex theological and ecclesiastical questions. Although the conclave is sometimes called a Christian fair, it generally assumes a high intellectual tone. It is easily the biggest regularly scheduled Protestant event in the world.
The 1967 meeting, or Kirchentag in German, was held last month in Hanover. And in spite of a boycott by the conservative confessional “No Other Gospel” movement (see March 31 issue, p. 43); an increase in attendance was recorded. There were evidences that a number of young people turned up to protest against the protest. Half the participants were under thirty-five.
The Hanover theme was “Peace Is Under Us.” Each morning thousands thronged into four huge halls to listen to long speeches about the search for peace in “Bible and congregation,” in “politics,” in “relations of Jews and Christians” and in “restructuring the church.”
Some had expected that the boycott would result in totally new interests. But as before, the biggest crowds went to the theological working group in a hall far too small, though it had 7,000 seats. Also, there was significant interest in the working group on politics. Yet at five in the afternoon, after five hours of heavy speeches, more than 5,500 were on hand for Bible study hours with Helmut Thielicke. Every afternon the doors had to be closed and hundreds sent away.
The boycott by the confessional movement seemed to be more effective among pastors and theologians, who refused to share a platform with modern theologians who reject biblical truth. The result was that theologically speaking the 1967 Kirchentag was a rather left-wing affair. Professor Ernst Käsemann refused to discuss the fact of the “empty tomb” of Christ as being necessary for faith. And Professor Hans-Georg Geyer warned against “definitions and truths” about the resurrection through which the Christian isn’t able to experience the resurrection in his personal daily life.
During afternoon discussion periods, it was evident that the modern theologians didn’t have the sympathy of the majority of the listeners. Geyer was attacked because of his abstract approach, and Käsemann was asked repeatedly to say clearly whether the tomb of Christ was empty. He kept refusing to answer.
Given the modern theological orientation of the Kirchentag, the 700 journalists covering the event wondered why people show up in such great numbers. Do they really come for the long-winded speeches? Do they really understand them (some theologians were honest enough to say that the lay people really didn’t)? Or do they come from their empty churches to be once again among the Christian crowd, to feel that the church isn’t dead?
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The most conservative of the Kirchentag speakers was perhaps Thielicke, known to many in North America through his writings. He attacked both modern theologians (for not saying enough) and orthodox Christians (for saying more than they will be able to answer for in the final judgment). Unfortunately, Thielicke seemed to exert little influence in discussion groups.
At a huge closing meeting, with some 75,000 present, World Council of Churches General Secretary Eugene Carson Blake said, “You cannot hear the Word without your brethren.” His speech, a call for ecumenical togetherness, was an unwitting criticism of the Kirchentag leadership, which presented no balance of conservative views.
The big word at the meeting was “solidarity,” and even Thielicke took up the theme. He told Christian young people to be a beatnik for the beatniks, about 100 of whom were dragged into the hall to hear Thielicke. One told Thielicke, “We would like it better if anyone would become a Christian to us beatniks. When you talk to us, hold on to what you are, and don’t try to be one of us.”
JAN J. VAN CAPELLEVEEN
General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. Meeting in Seattle, 910 delegates issued a “call for victory over Communism in Viet Nam and throughout the world as it seeks global enslavement either by overt action or by subtle infiltration.” They also opposed aid to Communists in any form, including President Johnson’s bid for more trade with Eastern Europe. The fundamentalist group, which has 155,000 members, also protested “the use of tax money to promote religious interests of any kind,” such as religious instruction in public schools.
Church of God (Anderson, Indiana). The 143,000-member denomination acted to merge the National Association of the Church of God, a small Negro missionary board, into its main missionary board. The Negro group began after World War I and existed informally without full-time staff. Support was raised at an annual camp meeting. The denomination’s central board also has appointed Negroes. The Negro group’s four missionaries were among twenty-six missionaries commissioned for home and foreign service at the convention.
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National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. In advance of this year’s meeting in Racine, Wisconsin, public relations chairman John Nickelsen promised to avoid the flood of press releases sent to reporters from most church conventions. The reason: “There is no legitimate way a team of skilled publicity people can convey the spirit of Congregationalism.”
Nickelsen describes the group of 110,000 that stayed outside the United Church of Christ merger as representing “a wide spectrum of theological and Christological persuasions.… Congregationalists are not bound to one another in terms of dogmas, doctrines, creeds, or confessions.” The unifying element is “a passionate love of freedom.”
In his address to the meeting, retiring Moderator Howard J. Conn of Minneapolis warned that “a clergy zealous for power insists on directing Christendom toward a more centralized organization” and is “seeking to dominate society by imposing their answers through the claim of supernatural authority.”
North American Christian Convention. This conservative meeting of Disciples of Christ drew 11,000 persons to Tampa, Florida. President L. Palmer Young of South Louisville Christian Church said, “Everyone seems to have a vision these days. The ecumenical church sets forth a vision. New Testament Christians have another vision. Society has a vision. The people of God have a different vision. Communism has a vision. Democracy has a different vision. Our vision may be heavenly, earthly, or selfish.”
Young also complained about ministers who are preoccupied with budgets, promotion, and personal conflicts to such an extent that in worship “the congregation receives a half-prepared sermonette from a tired, discouraged preacherette.”
In a speech days before the Disciples’ official restructure commission was to meet in St. Louis, George H. McLain said that although the centralization plan has “some worthy goals,” it “not only ignores the Scriptures but actually violates them.”
He said thousands of Disciples “cannot conscientiously support” the proposed restructure. McLain, now a New York industrial counselor, resigned as pastor of Central Christian Church in Des Moines because the congregation wanted to appoint elders and deacons who had not been immersed.
Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The 78,917-member denomination, meeting in Paducah, Kentucky, decided to send observers to the next meeting of the Consultation on Church Union, which seeks merger of ten major denominations.
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But ecumenism lagged at the concurrent Paducah session of the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church, a Negro body with 30,000 members. It failed to approve a proposal for merger from the larger, predominantly white Cumberland body. Another try for the necessary assent from twelve of sixteen presbyteries will be made next year.
California Eases Abortion Law
California, following Colorado, is the second state to liberalize its abortion law. The century-old law was changed after heated testimony from clergymen, physicians, and lawyers. Several have charged that the nation’s most populous state will become an “abortion mill.”
Most Roman Catholics and a few Protestants had urged defeat of the bill. The California Council of Churches, the board of the state bar, and the California Medical Association supported it.
After weeks of indecision, Governor Ronald Reagan signed the bill, one of the most controversial and hotly debated ever to come before the legislature. It permits abortions if pregnancy is caused by rape or incest or if a birth would cause serious damage to the mental or physical health of the mother. In cases of statutory rape, abortions will be legal if the girl is 14 or younger. Hospital physicians will rule on each case.
Under previous law, abortions were permitted only to save the life of the mother. One provision of the bill written by Los Angeles County’s Senator Anthony C. Beilenson, was amended out: authorization of abortion upon medical evidence that the child would be deformed.
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