Calvin Synod Herald, 1974 (74. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1974-12-01 / 12. szám
8 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD RECOLLECTION OF INFLUENCE Unwittingly, I touched upon thy life — Unknowingly, perhaps, thou touched upon mine; And thus from moment to moments benign We all went onward from then ’til now. Unblemished together or sometimes apart, still how Amazingly — wondrously — in such linkage without strife! — Madeline Takacs Barboe HOW TO BE HAPPY Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much, sing often, pray always. Fill your life with love, scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Do as you would be done by. These are the tried links in contentment’s golden chain.-------------<• » »»------------WHO IS A MISSIONARY? According to the Rev. Dr. David M. Stowe of New York City, executive of the United Church of Christ’s overseas mission board, it may be you. The new breed of missionary, Dr. Stowe said here today, might include an Air Force sergeant, an oil company official, a professor of American literature who takes a post in a Japanese university, a surgeon on a six-month “vacation” in a hospital in India or a dentist from Indiana volunteering a week of service in a mountain clinic in Honduras. Reporting to the board of directors of the United Church Board for World Ministries which is holding its winter meeting here, Dr. Stowe said: “We have transposed our whole personnel operation into a new key, and in so doing we have increased our missionary outreach at a time of highly adverse circumstances. “Recognizing the mission of the whole people of God, we have increased our efforts to enable Christians of all sorts and countries to fulfill the international ministry to which they feel called by God.” A major effort, Dr. Stowe said, has gone toward development of “affiliate missionaries” members of churches in the United States who take secular overseas positions and wish to “live their faith wherever they are in the world.” Financing of these new types of missionary is necessarily flexible, Dr. Stowe explained. Some are volunteers paying the full cost of their service while others receive varying degrees of assistance. An “enabling” amount of $40,000 in 1973 provided for 45 persons. “Career missionaries of the classic sort who serve a lifetime or at least long-term appointment in one place are still very valuable” he explained, “but they are increasingly difficult to find and support.” The number of full salaried overseas personnel directly related to the United Church Board for World Ministries has declined in the last five years from 389 to 288. In the same period the number of “new breed” missionaries has more than doubled from 27 to 71. That figure does not include volunteers for periods of less than six months, study and service interns such as medical students and high school groups who spend part of their vacations in service abroad. The total number of United Church people in service overseas increased in the past year from 324 to 327. “We have turned the curve of our missionary outreach up in spite of budget cuts, and the potential has not even been fully explored,” Dr. Stowe said. “The United Church Board for World Ministries,” he told the directors, “is taking the lead in the ecumenical movement toward six-continent sharing of the Christian mission, from all countries to all countries.” The Reformed, participants in the forthcoming dialogue between the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Baptist World Alliance have been named by the WARC Geneva office. They are Dr. K. Blei, pastor of a city congregation in Haarlem, Holland (Netherlands Reformed — Hervormde—Church) ; Prof. Martin Cressey, of Westminster and Cheshunt College, Cambridge (United Reformed Church in England and Wales) ; and Dr. Sándor Czeglédy, a faculty member of the Theological Academy, Debrecen, Hungary (Reformed Church of Hungary). Baptist representatives are the Rev. Penrose St. Amant and Dr. Gunter Wagner, respectively the president and a faculty member of the Baptist Theological Seminary, Riischlikon, Switzerland; and Dr. Rudolf Thaut, president of the Baptist Seminary, Hamburg, Federal Republic of Germany. rps The Rev. John E. Biegert, Chairperson of the UCC Nominating Committee, has asked that ministers and members of the Church provide the Committee with names of possible candidates. At the 1975 General Synod, delegates will elect the Secretary of the Church, Moderator, Assistant Moderators, and members of the Executive Council and Agencies. Besides the name and address of each person, the Committee will need to know age, ecclesiastical status (’ay, ordained, or commissioned worker), local church membership, occupation, denominational and interdenominational service, organizational offices held, and avocational interests. There will be an imperative need for the names of lay men and women, the names of both lay and ordained persons under 39, and the names of persons from minority and special interest groups. The UCC Bylaws require that on each Instrumentality and Commission one-third be ordained ministers or commissioned workers, one-third be laymen, one-third be laywomen, and that 20% be under 30 when their terms commence. Recommendation forms may be obtained from and should he returned to the Nominating Committee, United Church of Christ, 297 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10010, by December 31, 1974. CALVIN SYNOD MEETING April 28-May 1, 1975 Ligonier, Pa.
