Fraternity-Testvériség, 1962 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1962-09-01 / 9. szám

8

FRATERNITY

education, vacation church schools, recreational activities, and child care and community centers.

In an attempt to meet the social, economic and spiritual needs of the American Indian, the Council carries on a program of Indian work that includes staffing ten U. S. Government boarding schools for Indians with twelve full-time chaplains.

Many of the millions of visitors who annually enjoy the natural wonders of our national parks, and the parks’ 30,000 employees, share in Sunday worship services led by the 156 student ministers of the Council’s Ministry in the National Parks.

On the education front, the N. C. C. gives executive leadership to the United Christian Youth Movement, embracing ten million young people.

Inter-denominational committees of the Council’s Division of Christian Education administer the preparation of Sunday School curriculum outlines used by thousands of church groups. The Division also syndicates Sunday School lessons to newspapers and magazines through “National Council Religious Features”.

Hundreds of religious radio and TV broadcasts reach Americans through the Council’s Broadcasting and Film Commission.

The film, “Split Level Family”, has played to an audience of about two million, while “Off to Adventure”, “Talk Back” and “Man to Man”, a few of the B. F. C.’s TV series, have helped it win the

1960 George Foster Peabody Award for Radio and Television Education. Another current TV favorite from the Council, in cooperation with the United Lutheran Church, is “Davey and Goliath”, viewed by children over 200 stations.

The U. S. Army and Air Force are among the heaviest purchasers

of National Council audio-visual materials ranging in subject matter

from pre-marital counseling to foreign missions, international church relief and the training of youth leaders.

In connection with the churches’ education programs, the Council sponsors Christian Education Week, which begins this year on September 21 under the theme, “The Christian and his Community”.

Also on the Council’s yearly calendar are 20 other religious observances ranging from the Universal Week of Prayer in January to Share Our Surplus Week at Thanksgiving time.

These are but a few of the varied activities of the National Council for the churches of the nation, which also provides staff and facilities for the 12 million women associated with its United Church Women program and for its United Church Men organization.

The first ten years of the Council’s existence have dispelled fears that it would lead to a super-church or that it would exert any kind of control over the churches. The Council’s constitution makes clear it is an agency of the churches, established by them to serve them, and, through its policy-making General Board of member church representatives, to speak to the churches on matters of Christian social concern.