Calvin Synod Herald, 1976 (76. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1976-11-01 / 11-12. szám

6

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

He was the author of three books, “The Life of Paul,” “We Believe,” and “As Paul Sees Christ,” and of articles for magazines and professional journals.

Dr. Moss is survived by his wife, the former Junia Evelyn Keppel, a public school teacher in Bloomfield, NJ.; his parents, Constance M. and Robert V. Moss, Sr., a brother, Charles, all of Hickory, N.C.; two sisters, Mrs. Margaret Hodnett, Summit, N.J., and Mrs. Sarah Clark, Wilson, N.C. and three sons, Robert V., Ill, Charlotte, N.C., John K., San Francisco and Timothy I., Montclair, N.J. Dr. & Mrs. Moss resided in Upper Montclair, N.J.

Memorial services were held on Thursday, October 28 at 2 p.m. in First Congregational Church, 40 S. Fullerton Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey. The Rev. James O. Gilliom, Dr. Moss’ pastor and minister of Union Congregational Church, Montclair officiated.

Off. of Comm. UCC

DR. EVANS - UCC NEW PRESIDENT

The Rev. Dr. Joseph H. Evans, New York, was elected president of the United Church of Christ by the denomination’s Executive Council. He has been secretary of the Church since 1967.

Dr. Evans has assumed the office left vacant by the death on October 25 of Rev. Dr. Robert V. Moss.

Dr. Evans is the third president of the 1.8 million member denomination and the first black in the post. His term will run until September 30, 1977.

Long active in ecumenical affairs, Dr. Evans was chosen president in part to continue the leading role the United Church has taken in the National and World Councils of Churches and in fostering church union. He is a member of the executive committee of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

From 1953 to 1967 he was minister of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Chicago. He was minister of Mt. Zion Congregational Church, Cleveland, Ohio (1948-1953); associate general secretary of the Connecticut Council of Churches (1946-1947), and minister of Grace Congregational Church, New York City (1942-1946).

Born in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Aug. 15, 1915, Dr. Evans was graduated from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1939 (A.B.) and from Yale University Divinity School, New Haven, Conn., in 1942 (B.D.).

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, U.C.C

The Executive Council, UCC the chief policy-making unit of the denomination, meeting in Baltimore, voted to foster Protestant Church union by endorsing formal talks on uniting with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

The Council will recommend to the denomination’s General Synod next July that talks begin in 1977. Previously a joint committee of the two churches suggested that a decision on whether or not to draw up a formal plan of union should be made by 1983.

Rev. and Mrs. Zoltán Szabó (center) are presented with a gift by Chief Elder Andrew Kurimai and Mrs. Margaret Csóványos, chairman of a committee arranging a reception for the clergyman and family, held recently at the Hungarian Reformed Church of South Norwalk at Dokus Memorial Hall. The congregation presented the pastor with a desk pen set and accessories. Speakers were Mayor Jennie F. Cave, Dr. George Krajcsik, president of the Hungarian Committee of Norwalk and vicinity, Mr. Kurimai. Rev. and Mrs. Szabó are parents of five children.

—• Hour photo, Bramac Studio

The Council also approved:

* A 1977 support fund of $9,300,000 for the national agencies of the Church, up $400,000 from 1976.

* $70,000 to be spent for legal fees for the Wilmington, Tenn., nine young black men and a white woman imprisoned in North Carolina on charges growing out of 1971 racial disturbance in Wilmington, $400,000 for their possible release on bail and $130,000 for a national mobilization and education program in behalf of the Ten;

° $57,850 in grants for 20 domestic and international hunger-related projects;

° $100,000 in contributions to be made in 1977 to such ecumenical bodies as the National Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, the W orld Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Consultation on Church Union;

° A feasibility study of whether or not to change from biennial meetings of the General Synod (the Church’s representative policy-making body) to triennial meetings, and

0 $14,900 for the administrative costs of the denomination’s Asian caucus.

Union talks between the Congregationalists and the Disciples began in 1911. and have been held intermittently since. They were renewed this year at the initiative of the late President Moss, having been dropped when the Consultation on Church Union was formed in 1961. The renewal of the discussions does not evidence diminished enthusiasm for COCU by the two churches. Dr. Moss said early this year.

The appropriation for legal fees and bail represent an affirmation of the UCC’s concern for court and penal reform, as well as for the welfare of the Wilmington Ten, according to the Rev. Dr. Charles E. Cobb, director of the UCC Commission for Racial Justice.

The Rev. Benjamin Chavis, one of the Ten, was in the employ of the Commission at the time of his arrest and continues as director of the agency’s Washington, D.C. field office even while he is serving his prison term in McCain Correctional Unit, N.C. In 1971, he was aiding high school youth to resist alleged discrimination against them in the newly integrated Wilmington High School.

Off. of Comm., UCC