1942: Religion

BAPTIST CHURCHES

Northern Baptist Convention.

This representative body of the Baptist churches met in Cleveland, Ohio, in May and elected Rev. Joseph C. Robbins, D.D., as president for the ensuing year. Reports of activities largely centered upon war emergency tasks including the recruiting of chaplains. An emergency fund of over $600,000 was reported as having been raised during the year. This was administered liberally and included a grant of $26,000 to the Friends Service Commission. The resolution of the convention concerning war declared that the Baptist churches back the country within the limits of the dictates of individual conscience. The current shortage of ministers was deplored as endangering the quality of the ministry. Active service in many parts of the country through the Commission on Camp Communities was reported, with stress on the problem of child welfare during the war. Wartime prohibition was advocated. The enforced evacuation of American-born Japanese was regretted as a violation of citizen rights. An important special study by the Board of Home Missions dealt with the difficulties of urban churches and the opportunities of the growing suburbs.

A proposal of some years' standing for closer relations between the Southern Baptist Convention and the Disciples' churches was again reported but with no suggestion as to implementation. An action was taken authorizing the churches of the District of Columbia to have dual standing in the Northern and Southern Baptist Conventions. In line with decentralizing tendencies, the denominational Council on Finance and Promotion recognized the primary responsibility of the Baptist state bodies and undertook to cooperate with them within their respective boundaries. The organization of an inclusive denominational agency for youth, the Baptist Youth Fellowship, was pushed to a further stage of completion.

Southern Baptist Convention.

This representative national body of the Southern Baptist churches consists of delegates from local congregations. They met to the number of 4,800 delegates in San Antonio, Texas, in May. Pat N. Neff, former governor of Texas, now president of Baylor University, was elected president. The proceedings of the Convention had chiefly to do with the missionary and educational institutions of the churches and was characterized as deficient in commanding ideas. The address of the retiring president extolled the saving of individuals and depreciated efforts to reshape the social order, which was regarded as an apology for Southern Baptists' hesitancy to cooperate in more active world movements of the Protestant churches. No specific theological issue arose, but a committee was appointed to frame a new declaration of faith for the Baptist churches. The convention continued to exhibit special apprehension over relations of Church and State, expressed in a resolution disapproving of social security legislation for lay-employees of the church. Strong efforts to meet the denominational quota for chaplains with the armed forces were reported, as well as aggressive work in war camp communities under the direction of the Baptist state agencies. The statistical report recorded a total of 5,250,000 members in over 25,000 churches.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

In 1942, the Church of Christ, Scientist, or Christian Science denomination, again extended its wartime activities. In particular, this Church or denomination arranged for the appointment of numerous Christian Science Wartime Ministers, having functions different from but somewhat like those of chaplains.

Twelve Christian Science chaplains, who are appointed, instructed, and paid by the United States Government, as are other chaplains, are serving in the armed forces of the United States. Distinct from them, there are over one hundred Christian Science wartime ministers, who are employed, instructed, and paid by the Christian Science Mother Church. They render a service to officers and men in the armed forces of the United States which could be rendered only by a Christian Scientist as a chaplain or a wartime minister duly instructed for the practice of Christian Science.

The Christian Science wartime ministers conduct Christian Science services, respond to calls for Christian Science help or healing, provide Christian Science literature, arrange for Christian Science lectures, and are available for twenty-four hours a day to help the men in service who may wish to call on them, particularly those desiring Christian Science help or healing. They help to provide facilities for the quiet study of Christian Science, and see that all camp libraries are furnished with the Bible, the works of Mary Baker Eddy, and other Christian Science literature.

Current literature is supplied to the men through the camp libraries; the purpose is not primarily to interest strangers in Christian Science, but is to provide up-to-date reading material to those who are already Christian Scientists and depend upon it for spiritual support.

In addition to the literature sent to the armed forces, a considerable number of subscriptions to The Christian Science Monitor and the other Christian Science periodicals, as well as library editions of the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, are supplied to post and service club libraries, company day rooms, station hospitals, and to chaplains and superior officers of the army and navy.

Christian Science Wartime Activities are directed by The Christian Science Board of Directors and are financed through The Mother Church's Wartime Fund, which is maintained by voluntary contributions. This statement applies particularly in the United States, but the situation is becoming similar in other countries, notably in Great Britain, where there are five Christian Science officiating ministers at present. Besides helping the men in the British forces interested in Christian Science, these officiating ministers are allowed to serve any man with the American Expeditionary Forces who, through his regimental chaplain, asks for the services of a Christian Science officiating minister.

The editors of The Christian Science Monitor, an international daily newspaper issued by The Christian Science Publishing Society, were among the first publicists to discern and proclaim that the winning of the peace after World War II is almost as important as victory in that war. To this end, this newspaper established, early in 1942, a Peace Department, and provided a Peace Aims Editor who continues to feature effective measures to help attain unity and wisdom when victory has made possible the adoption of a lasting and practical peace.

The importance and prominence of the part played by the Monitor in international affairs has been attested by the award of a Maria Moors Cabot Plaque, by the Trustees of Columbia University, for promoting understanding and friendship in the Western Hemisphere. This award for recognition of services in behalf of inter-American understanding has not previously been bestowed on any other North American newspaper.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND

The Church of England, which is one of the two established churches in Great Britain, consists of the two ecclesiastical provinces of Canterbury and York. The name is sometimes made to cover other churches of the Anglican communion within the British empire, such as the Church of England in Australia; but those churches are churches in communion with the Church of England rather than integral parts thereof. Within the British Isles there are three such churches: the disestablished Church of Ireland, the Scottish Episcopal Church, and the Church in Wales. The Church of England claims historic continuity with the pre-Reformation church which throughout the Middle Ages was a part of the Roman commonwealth of churches. In this respect, as in doctrine, discipline, and worship, it differs from the established Church of Scotland, which is Calvinistic in doctrine and Presbyterian in polity. The Church of England while not state-supported is state-controlled. The royal supremacy was of cardinal importance in the Elizabethan religious settlement; today, when the powers of the Crown are in effect powers of the Crown in Parliament, this means that the Church of England is under parliamentary control. All bishops are designated by the Prime Minister, so are all deans of cathedral churches, many canons and prebendaries, and the holders of many benefices. This does not apply to other churches of the Anglican communion within the empire.

In organization the church is hierarchical, with the ancient threefold ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons. The province of Canterbury is made up of thirty dioceses, the province of York of thirteen; and there are forty-one diocesan bishops (besides the two archbishops) and thirty-four suffragan bishops. Of approximately 18,000 clergy about 13,000 are incumbents of parishes or holders of other benefices. The number of lay communicants is in the neighborhood of 2,500,000 only, a figure that is considerably smaller than the number who profess and call themselves Anglicans.

It is still too early to estimate the effects of the war on the Church of England. The material damage to buildings has been great. No complete figures have been released, but when on Nov. 15, 1942, the church bells were rung for the first time since mid-June 1940, the bells of some 1,200 parish churches were silent because they could not be rung without danger to the weakened structures. The greater part of such damage was done before the year 1942, yet the so-called 'Baedeker raids' of this past year included savage attacks from the air on famous cathedrals and inflicted grievous damage. There are indications that the eventual effects of the war on the Church of England will depend very largely on whether or not the church takes the lead in dealing with the problems of postwar reconstruction.

In January the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Lang, announced that he was resigning as of the end of March. He was the third archbishop to resign his see since the Reformation. Curiously the other two were Archbishop Maclagan whom he succeeded at York in 1908, and Archbishop Davidson whom he followed in 1928 at Canterbury. His successor is Dr. William Temple, formerly Archbishop of York, whose translation to the primacy is proving of far greater significance than is the usual designation or promotion of a prelate.

He is gifted with an exceptionally powerful and disciplined mind and with unusual qualities of leadership. In June the archbishop together with Cardinal Hinsley of the Roman Catholic Church and with representatives of the Free Churches agreed to set up a joint standing committee to work out plans for common action in the social regeneration of England, coordinating the activities of the (Roman Catholic) Sword of the Spirit and the (Anglican and Free Church) Religion and Life Movement. Late in September there was formed a Council of Christians and Jews, under the leadership of Archbishop Temple, Cardinal Hinsley, Chief Rabbi Hertz, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, and the Moderator of the Free Church Council. At about the same time the British Council of Churches, with 112 members, was formed as an 'official representative organization for common planning and action' regarding war and postwar problems. If in such cooperative work and in his advanced social views Archbishop Temple does not speak for all Anglicans, he is by no means alone in following the line laid down by the Malvern Conference of 1941. In so far as its leaders are concerned the Church of England in the year 1942 worked hard toward finding a solution to the most acute problems of this generation.

JEWS

Of greatest importance for world Jewry during the year 1942 were the reconquest of Algeria and French Morocco and of a large part of Tunisia by the British forces and by the American forces under Lieut. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in November; the release of the latest figures of Jewish population in the various Nazi-dominated or occupied countries of Europe; and the world-wide day of fasting and mourning observed by Jews on December 2 for the 1,500,000 or more Polish and other Jews slaughtered by the German Nazis from the beginning of the year 1940.

Reports on Numbers of Jews Killed.