Tárogató, 1948-1949 (11. évfolyam, 1-8. szám)
1948-07-01 / 1-2. szám
TÁROGATÓ 13 TO-DAY’S CHURCH RELIEF PROGRAM At present The United Church is engaged in two relief efforts. The first is an inter-church clothing drive under the auspices of the Canadian Council of Churches. To this undertaking our communion has contributed to date over $5,000. A large number of congregations have paid shipping charges on their donations of clothing forwarded to clothing depots in Toronto, Regina, Hamilton, Winnipeg, and Montreal. Well over 320,000 pounds of clothing have been collected to date. Three quarters of this amount or 240,000 pounds have been given by United Church congregations. About one-half of this supply of clothing has been baled and shipped. Overseas clothing shipments are allocated as follows: one-third to Britain, one-third to Western Continental European Countries, and one-third to the Far East, chiefly to Japan. The second part of our relief undertaking is the overseas food shipment plan which consists of four or five parts. An increasing number of United Church congregations are “adopting” congregations in Britain and are becoming responsible for regular shipments of food to them and to Church relief agencies in Germany and France. During the Christmas season, and since, approximately 140 congregations forwarded food gifts through the British Ministry of Food to allocation centres in Britain. It is estimated that 42,000 pounds of food have been sent to date under this plan. Again a number of congregations and church organizations are packing and shipping food gifts to individuals in the Old Land, and to selected congregations in Britain, and some church relief headquarters in Europe. It is difficult to estimate the total of these gifts, but from correspondence in the Department of Evangelism and Social Service it is plain that the volume of food thus sent is considerable, probably well over 50,000 pounds. Finally, food shipments are being made through the purchase of packed food parcels from Canadian Departmental Stores, food companies such as Canadian Packers and Canadian Canners, and by bulk shipment. Most shipments in this part of the plan are paid for from contributions received by the Treasurer of The United Church, for the Overseas Relief Fund to date over $25,000. has been contributed for this purpose. Total United Church food shipments to date exceed 120,000 lbs. It is impossible to estimate the cash value of The United Church’s wartime relief gifts. Certainly the total was some millions of dollars in value, probably as high as ten millions. THE WORLD’S BEST SELLER By Eric R. Adams It is an amazing but true fact that the Bible, without high-pressure publicity or advertising stunts, is the world’s bestselling book. Canadians bought three hundred thousand Bibles last year, and it is possible that production may soon fall short of demands. According to accurate estimates, about three-quarters of Canadian homes have a Bible, but the demand remains heavy because old copies are replaced, new families start and new residents come to the country. Although Bibles last most owners a lifetime, ministers and Bible students replace their copies every five years. Printing and distributing the fifteen million Bibles that are sold annually throughout the world is a huge task. In South Africa it is so" popular that there is actually a black market in Bibles. Eager people will pay ten times the fair price to own a Bible, and to stamp out the exploitation of a book that even teaches the evils of such practices the British and Foreign Bible Society is trying to get thousands of extra copies from England. The first Canadian-printed Bibles were made during the war, and the way things are going suggests that Canada and the United States may become Bible-printing centres of the world. The Bibles bought by Canadians last year ranged in price from fifty-five cents to OUR ENGLISH SECTION.
