Reformátusok Lapja, 1969 (69. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1969-11-01 / 11. szám
REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA 13 NEWS UPUSA Assembly Voles $50 Million “Poor Fund” The General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. meeting in San Antoni, authorized plans for a $50 million fund-raising campaign for the poor. Set to be launched next year, it would provide funds for both black and Spanish-American disadvantaged persons in the nation. The 840 voting ministers and elders also approved giving a total of $150,000 from the church monies now to aid depressed minorities. Under the plan, $100,000 would go to IFCO, the interfaith economic development organization. Also, church-owned lands in New Mexico will be given to Spanish-speaking groups along with $50,000 to help them press their land claims in Congress. An Assembly committee was directed to work out the fund-raising plan in time to present it to the 1970 General Assembly in Chicago next May. Control over the disbursement of the monies would remain with the United Presbyterian Church. —The Religious Newsweekly ★ Three agencies of the United Church of Christ recently deposited $40,000 in a black-controlled savings and loan association which finances new housing for the black community of Queens. The New York State Conference and New York City Metropolitan Association of the two-million-member denomination each deposited $15,000 with the Allied Federal Savings and Loan Association of New York, 115-02 Merrick Blvd., Jamaica, N. Y. The national Office of Communication of the United Church deposited $10,000. Jed Alfred Hyde, treasurer for the conference and association, said Allied Federal had been selected first, because it is making housing loans available for members of the black community; second, because it needs deposits more than larger black-controlled institutions. Its total assets in the neighborhood of $5.3 million. The fact that Queens, with a growing black population, has received less assistance from government, and church and other voluntary agencies than Manhattan or Brooklyn also affected the decision of the United Church agencies. —ucc - oc Little Hope For Christians In Israel Huntingdon, U.S.A. — The Christian population in Israel, and in Israel-occupied areas of Jordan can expect increasing difficulties, said Dr. Alford Carlton, Executive Vice President of the Board for World Ministries of the United Church of Christ. “The Christians in Israel are in an unfavourable position”, said Dr. Carlton, “and their future is more than uncertain”. Dr. Carlton pointed out that, since the foundation of the State of Israel, members of Christian congregations had, relatively, been forced to flee more often than members of the Mohammedan sector of the population. In Nazareth and Bethlehem, according to Dr. Carlton, only those Christians remain whose livelihood depends on tourism related to the sacred places. The town of Emmaus is reported to have been razed to the ground for strategic reasons. RPPS Younger Clergy At Dutch Synod Utrecht — The average age of ministers appointed as members of this year’s General Synod of the Refromed Churches in the Netherlands is just over 51 years. At last year’s synod, when this figure stood at 58, there were only two ministers younger than 59 and 25 over 50. Now there are 11 ministers under, and 15 over 50 years of age. RPPS ITEMS Youth Delegates Pose Problem This will be the first General Synod in UCC history with conference delegates specifically elected for their youth. We hope they don’t all have the experience of Wisconsin delegate Sydney McQuoid, a pretty high school girl who was assigned to the Pension Boards report committee. Sydney, a member of First Church, Watertown, Wis., has been reassigned to the committee on the Council for Christian Social Action. —Keeping You Posted Minaret In Manhattan A minaret will soon be added to the New York City skyline. It will be part of a mosque being built to serve the spiritual needs of the city’s Muslims and to provide a “two- way bridge to . . . better understanding with Americans of all persuasions.” Pakistan’s U.S. Ambassador Agha Shabi said: “This project is being built when the importance of ecumenical understanding and international good will are clearer than ever before . . . Let us pray that, when completed, the Islamic Center will play its modest part in building human relations ..—Keeping You Posted With Trumpets A Gabriel Award for outstanding religious programming was awarded to Eugene A. Schneider, pastor of St. Paul’s UCC, Menomonee Falls, Wis., by the Catholic Broadcasters Association for “The Church for Others,” a documentary radio program on the Uppsala Assembly of the World Council of Churches. He attended the Assembly last summer as a reporter for station WHMJ and the Milwaukee Journal. Mr. Schneider joins the staff of the Office of Communication in New York City this month as an associate director. —Keeping You Posted U Thant And The City Of Calvin Geneva — On the occasion of the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the League of Nations here, U Thant, General Secretary of the United Nations Organization, recalled how the first Assembly of the League had taken place in the Salle de la Réformation, and how the choice of Geneva as headquarters had been arrived at. “The choice of Geneva was not a decision which was taken lightly”, said U Thant, — “the cradle of Calvinism and the Reformation was indeed thought to be a fitting place for the political reformers of the 20th century, but other cities had also pressed their claims.” “The chief anxiety of the founders of the League was to ensure that the task of building a peaceful world should take place in a setting which was not associated with bitter memories and national tensions, and which would be more likely to promote goodwill than to poison international relations”. “While any part of Switzerland would have satisfied these conditions, Geneva seemed especially suitable because of its historic, intellectual and humanitarian past”, commented the U.N.O. General Secretary. —RPPS ★ GEORGE W. WEBER, founder of ast Harlem Protestant Parish and former director of New York’s MUST (Metropolitan Urban Training Service), has been named president of New York Theological Seminary. The UCC minister expects to give the institution a “pioneering role in theological education.”
