Magyar Egyház, 1959 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1959-03-01 / 3. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 13 "LIVING GIFT" SET RECORD IN 1958 Arithmetic teachers say you can’t add cows, sheep, pigs and goats. But Heifer Project Inc. does. Together, they represented 38,663 “living gifts” sent to refugees, schools, orphanages, hospitals and rural families around the world in 1958. “A living gift has a unique quality,” Thurl Metzger said in making the agency’s report on the past year’s distribution. “First it has value in itself and then it increases this value through its offspring.” Mr. Metzger directs the Heifer Project office in North Manchester, Indiana. In one shipment alone, he reported, 6 cattle, 16 goats, 35 chickens, 8 sheep, 23 pigs, a horse and 24 rabbits were all successfully loaded into one freighter plane in a “flying ark” bound for Bolivia. In addition, he said, 6 goats are at last a mission hospital in Angola, Africa. “But it took three years,” Mr. Metzger commented, “to find the proper combination of weather, ship, goats and caretaker.” One of the most difficult shipments, he said, was getting 20 calves, 56 sheep and 5 pigs from farms in Ohio to the hills of Katmandu, Nepal. The animals traveled safely 11,000 miles by truck and plane, the longest trip in Heifer Project records. Bees, turkeys, and hatching eggs are included in total Heifer Project shipments which have gone to 54 countries. In addition, 26 cattle and 49 rabbits were given last year to low income farm families in Southern states in this country. “These farmers’ only income was from small cotton farms,” Mr. Metzger said, “and they are now trying to change to general farming.” Heifer Project shipments are the gifts of U.S. farmers, church groups and private sources. Much of the agency’s work is carried on with the cooperation of Church World Service, the relief and rehabilitation agency of the National Council of Churches.--------o-------NATIONAL REFUGEE COMMITTE FORMED (EPS)—A United States Committee for Refugees has been set up, with the Very Rev. Francis B. Sayre Jr., dean of the Washington Cathedral, as chairman. Speaking at the committee’s New York Office, Dean Sayre said the heightened American concern for refugees in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East, had led to the formation of the private committee. He said that the group will “inform the American public on current refugee issues, consult regularly with Administration and Congressional leaders, endeavour to stimulate research on refugee problems and maintain close liaison with American voluntary agencies carrying on refugee activities here and abroad”. The committee is expected to play a leading role in planning US participation in the World Refugee Year, being sponsored by the United Nations. President of the committee .is Mr. Harper Sibley, chairman of Church World Service, relief arm of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. * * * Even when opportunity knocks, a man has to get up off his seat and open the door. Communist Paper Warns Against Church Activity in USSR Communist party members in Soviet Russia have been told that church activity is on the increase and that they must beware of it. An article on “The Relations Between the Communist Party and Religion”, published in the official paper of the Party’s Central Committee, “Partinaja Shisn” (Party Life), attacks indifference to the activity by the churches and says that “neglect of anti-religious propaganda greatly strengthens the Church’s position in evangelizing”. Among efforts made by the churches to adapt to contemporary life in the USSR, the article refers to “great versatility in applying new methods of winning people’s allegiance, especially that of young people and children”. The paper mentions social evenings for youth excursions, meetings, choirs and musical and dramatic clubs. “In addition to the official clergy, a number of active church members are specially trained for evangelism”, the article declares. Describing other progress made by the churches, the Communist publication says that every sermon preached “aims at increasing people’s interest in religion. The clergy seize every opportunity to explain the ‘divine significance’ of the Church’s rites — baptism, marriage, confession”, it is claimed. “The church council is responsible for seeing that special attention is paid to the order of worship and careful preparation for it. More and more frequently the higher-ranking priests visit the dioceses, where they attend services in the local churches. Church choirs are being enlarged and a great deal of money is being spent on renovating church buildings”. The writer takes a serious view of the tolerant attitude of some party members to religion and the Church. It is quite out of place for active Communists to attend religious festivals, warns the paper, or to get married in church or have their children baptised — even if they feel they must show consideration for the religious prejudices of their families and think that an anti-church attitude would involve them in difficulties, especially in country districts. The Communist Party warns its members against keeping ikons in the house or receiving priests in their homes. “There is no room in the party for Communists who fail to break away from their religious prejudices”, the article concludes. * * * IN A DIVORCE CASE which came before the court at Stralsund, in Eastern Germany, the custody of two children was given to the father because the mother had been bringing them up as strict church-goers. The reason given for the decision was that this education “is not in accordance with the spirit of democracy, socialism, patriotism or international friendship”. * * * PATRIARCH GERMANOS of the Serbian Orthodox Church, has urged all Orthodox Christians in Yugoslavia to buy their candles in the churches. He hopes that by selling more candles the church will be able to do without any state subsidies.
