Magyar Egyház, 1966 (45. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1966-11-01 / 11-12. szám

10

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

H. Mueller, president for the 1963-66 triennium, delivered an impassioned plea for Christian unity. “When Christians have been strong in their sense of fellowship with each other in Christ, they have usually been effective in their mission to the world.” In his final report, Bishop Mueller said that “In this age of ever more rapidly increasing scientific and technological means to enhance human wellbeing as well as to destroy life, men and women are driven as never before to ask questions concerning the basic meaning and purpose of life.”

How to find this meaning and how to fulfill this purpose in the various areas of our present world and society as well as in the approaching 21st century was the heart of the Assembly’s work. The participants, assigned into seven study sections meeting for two hours daily examined urban problems, science, sex and marriage, civil rights, international affairs, and the rich-poor gap at home and abroad.

Just before the Assembly convened, the General Board, the Council’s interim policy-making body, officially recognized the Roman Catholic Church as “in agreement” with the NCC constitution’s preamble, a measure which makes possible a greater number of official working relationships. NCC general secretary Dr. R. H. Edwin Espy told the Assembly in his triennial report that the increasing of such NCC-Roman Catholic working relationships has been the most dramatic event of the past triennium.

In the course of its action-filled business sessions the Assembly adopted a 3,600 word statement on Vietnam which urged the U.S. Government to place the conflict on the UN agenda and asked for greater candor on the part of those who make Vietnam policy; approved priorities for a massive new peace program to be launched by the churches with emphasis on world poverty, economic development and justice, the role of the U.S. in the community of nations and race relations on the world scene with special reference to Southern Africa; urged the President and Congress to give “highest priority” to programs designed to provide full equality of opportunity. In a number of short resolutions the assembly — among others — encouraged planned parenthood, requested the President and the Congress to “exercise extreme caution before involving the country in any unilateral war,” and urged the inclusion of non-Christians in ecumenical dialogue.

A highlight of the week-long Assembly was Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey’s appearance at a special public session. The Vice President called for “a partnership in which our public and private institutions, working together, can meet public and private need without any one institution becoming a dominant monolith.” At a press conference he suggested that the churches can function more effectively as “peace makers” by planning for peace than protesting against war.

For the new, 1966-69 triennium, the Assembly elected Dr. Arthur S. Flemming as the Council’s president. Dr. Flemming, a Methodist layman, is president of the University of Oregon and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare in the Eisenhower administration. In his inaugural address Dr. Flemming declared that he will use his new office to “help apply Christian principles to domestic and international issues.” He also said that the churches and their National Council have an opportunity to mount a significant campaign against “religious illiteracy,” especially among young people. Dr. Flemming concluded his address with a plea that the Council “chart new paths” that would lead eventually to “open communion at the Lord’s table.”

Message to the Churches

from

The seventh GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES

We greet you who are fellow believers in Jesus Christ.

We, the delegates from the member communions, have been studying the Bible, praying together, listening to reports and taking action upon issues. Our focus has been upon the theme “That the World May Know.”

We speak in this message of basic convictions which we hold in common. These underlie the actions which the Assembly takes upon specific issues.

This should be an exciting and challenging time for human beings to be alive. This is an Age of Promise. It can be an Age of Disaster. Advance in industry and communications is making it technically possible that all hungry people may be fed, that many suffering people may be healed and that mankind may achieve unity as never before in history. Yet the same technical advance threatens mankind. In such a technical society depersonalization may well increase not only for people employed, but for the unemployed. New tools may help or harm. We now have the capacity to bless or bum the world. We Christians bear, along with others, responsibility for these dangers and for the sufferings men inflict on one another. In spite of the gift of God’s grace we are selfish and insensitive. The shocking inhumanity of war shouts at us from every newspaper, magazine and T.V. screen. In a world technically united we continue to strain after narrowly national goals. We denounce racial discrimination, but panic over minority neighbors and continue segregation in our churches.

In the United States we live in an economy that gives the average American an ANNUAL INCREASE in income that is greater than the total ANNUAL INCOME of the average human being in Asia. Africa, or Latin America. The gulf between rich and poor, even at home deepens and is more disturbingly apparent. Yet we show little sign of being really disturbed to the point of action, and continue to center on individual material accumulation even after we have far more than we need. God calls us instead to a true demonstration of compassionate social concern, the responsible use and sharing of God’s abundance, in the name of Christ.

This should be an exciting and challenging time for Christians to be alive. We know this world is both the arena of God’s activity and the object of His Love. We are part of the household of God in Christ which is of every race and nation and of every Christian community; Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant in all their diversities. We are grateful we can now share our understanding of what God is saying to us through all His people. We see opportunity as never before to join hands with all men in the struggle for sustenance, justice and peace. We are challenged to demonstrate the Christian faith in fresh ways. The world is largely indifferent to pat religious answers. Yet the people of this same world grope for meaning in