The National Council of Churches in Action

As Ministers of the gospel of Christ one of our vital needs is to keep our­selves abreast of the times. Especially is this true of our understanding of modern de­velopments in the field of religion. Signifi­cant events are occurring in our day. Many of them have strange new aspects. With un­prejudiced minds we should view the re­ligious happenings of these tremendous times. We must not wrest them out of their setting, but we must realize that there are many movements afoot that represent both great opportunities and great perils to the people of God.

The growing significance of the ecumen­ical trend was much in evidence at the fourth triennial General Assembly of the National Council of Churches, which Council now represents thirty-four mem­ber denominations with a combined mem­bership exceeding 37.5 million.

The Council convened in the Kiel Audi­torium, St. Louis, Missouri, Sunday eve­ning, December 1, with a colorful proces­sion of eight hundred marching robed church leaders. The varied university hoods, and the gold-and-white banners be­hind which representatives of the member denominations marched, added color to the scene.

Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, in his presi­dential keynote address, declared that of "all the failures and weaknesses of the Christian Church, there is none today more costly to our cause than lack of faith in one another," and asserted that "so long as a church is a church and not a sect, there will be room in it for a wide variety of con­viction and practice."

In his Monday morning address on "Some Reflections in the State of the Na­tional Council," President Blake called on all Protestant church groups to join with the many communions now cooperating through the National Council, asserting that fears of complications arising from "ecclesiastical organization" were un­founded.

He cited as one proof of the Council's achievement the fact that the National Council "took on Senator McCarthy and McCarthyism at a time when most of Capi­tol Hill was either afraid, confused, or both." He hailed the exchange visits be­tween United States and Russian church­men in 1956 as a fruitful international church witness and indicated the Council plans a similar interchange with the Protes­tant churches of China.

On the second day of the Council the 675 voting delegates re-elected the distin­guished clergyman, Dr. Roy G. Ross, of New York, to serve another three-year term as its general secretary, and selected a prominent layman, Dr. R. H. Espy, to serve in the post of associate general secretary.

Dr. Ross, in his report on the facts of interchurch cooperation, indicated that the "growing strength and effectiveness" of State and city councils of churches, which are in reality "the cutting edge of the ecu­menical movement," is most heartening.

In his report on "The State of the Churches," Dr. Roswell P. Barnes, associate general secretary of the Council for the past triennium, reminded the delegates that "the almost frenzied popular reaction to the possible technical superiority of a challenging power has revealed a danger­ous lack of spiritual understanding that our ultimate destiny is in the hands of God and that we are not the helpless children of historical circumstance." He felt that the church should correct the "complacency, frenzy, and fatalism" apparent in secular culture "with the eschatological factor of their faith."

The Criterion of True Christian Leadership

He asked, "Are our churches looking for leadership to saints and thinkers or to or­ganizers?" and bemoaned the fact that "many a church is concerned more about whether its minister is a good administrator and promoter than about whether he is a loyal and humble disciple of Jesus Christ, a thinker, and a fearless prophet of the sovereign and redeeming Lord of our des­tiny." The church must not be more con­cerned with the "attractiveness of the package and the effectiveness of the market­ing techniques than for the quality of the product." The church is to be more con­cerned with the question, "What is the Word of God which we must proclaim?" and less concerned with the query, "What does the popular will expect of us?"

"Salesmanship has its place, . . . but it becomes a liability when it leads people to put more reliance on 'know-how' than on 'know what,' and—in the case of evan­gelism—on 'know who.'

"When the leaders in the church become so absorbed in their own special technology of evangelism that they neglect theology, they have turned things upside down. The meaning of the gospel should be their voca­tional major and method their vocational minor."

In his address on "Christian Responsibil­ity in a Divided World," Attorney Charles Parlin, of New York, wisely stated that "the church must never identify itself with any social or political order."

Council Theme and Influence

The central theme of the General As­sembly was "Oneness in Christ," across the nations, across races,, and across denomina­tions. The Council is dedicated to the con­cepts of the church universal, to a kingdom of love that knows no difference of color or race, and to the objective of uniting the diverse families of the church into one united witness for the Lord.

Protestant and Orthodox churches having membership in the Council have estab­lished some 950 or more local and State councils of churches. In addition there are some 2,000 ministerial alliances and more than 2,200 interdenominational lay organi­zations that operate on a local or State level. This means that the National Coun­cil is actually represented by more than 5,000 organized units throughout the coun­try.

The Council maintains seventy-five year-round programs in various fields of Chris­tian endeavor. A new nineteen-story Inter­national Church Center now under con­struction in New York City will, when com­pleted in 1960, house the National Council offices as well as boards and agencies of member denominations.

The Council is public relations con­scious. Under the able direction of Donald C. Bolles adequate press releases were pro­vided the one hundred representatives of the secular and religious press in attend­ance. A room containing seventy-five type­writers and provided with special West­ern Union service was made available to the press correspondents.

Special recommendations of the Council released to the press included "A Message From the Fourth General Assembly," sepa­rate statements on "Freedom of Associa­tion," "International Aid and Trade," "Concerning Refugees," "Alien Proper­ties," "Some Hopes and Concerns of the Church in the Nuclear-Space Age," and a special release *on "The Moral Crisis in the Labor Movement and in Labor-Manage­ment Practices." A telegram was sent to George Meany, president of the AFL-CIO, to encourage him in ridding the labor movement of racketeers.

Four new denominations were voted into Council membership: Diocese of the Arme­nian Apostolic Church of North America (103,000); Polish National Catholic Church of America (266,000); Free Mag­yar Reformed Church in America (9,000); Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese for the United States of America and Canada (100,­000).

Some Impressions From the Council's General Assembly

In analyzing the significance of the Na­tional Council of Churches, we should keep in mind these words from the report of its general secretary, Roy G. Ross, who pointed out that "the significance of our National Council of Churches was derived partially from the fact that we are a part of a great ecumenical movement, which has many manifestations throughout the world, through which the churches are drawing closer to each other."

It is this ecumenicity that is the promi­nent feature of this interchurch organiza­tion. Its great words are "oneness," "co­operation," "fellowship," by which the member churches by virtue of their merged strength shall become "an increasing source of spiritual power in the nation."

The essential worth-whileness and neces­sity of "oneness in Christ" is not to be gainsaid. It must be pointed out, however, that this is not achieved by either mere interchurch cooperation or even church federation. That oneness is not one of ec­clesiastical organization but rather of the Spirit of Christ in the hearts of men.

Many of the excellent Christian prin­ciples set forth in the Council were most commendable. Men of deep vision and con­secration bore positive testimony to the challenging need of a deeper Christian wit­ness in the world of today.

One factor, however, that was distinctly lacking was that of any clear-cut conviction as to just what was the message of God to this modern world. Generalized terms of interchurch fellowship, and the moral and social and political impact of organized Christian influence are not enough. Mod­ern man needs to hear a positive, clear-cut message from God. The world awaits the dynamic power of a "Thus saith the Lord." Synthetic theological concepts hammered out on the anvil of merging creeds can never be an adequate answer to the cosmic questions of a dying civilization.

Dr. Edwin T. Dahlberg, in his first press interview after his election to the presidency of the Council for the next triennium, stated that the Council would seek to render a new world service during his term of office by giving attention to the theological field. He did not say what would be the criterion by which acceptable theol­ogy would be formulated.

If the achievement of this objective should in the end be merely the result of compromised doctrinal differences estab­lished by majority vote, it would certainly leave much to be desired. Christian union on the basis of the teachings and doctrines of Christ, and the personal redemptive ex­perience of His saving grace, would be a wonderful thing, but Christian unity on any lesser basis would remain a stark trag­edy. It would leave a great ecclesiastical body without the spiritual oxygen of the Author of life.

In discussing the matter of the "coopera­tive witness to our oneness in Christ," Dr. Truman B. Douglass came to grips with the matter of the relationship of the respective member denominations to the National Council body. He said, "It ought to be evident that the ecumenical movement, of which the conciliar movement is a part, has outgrown its historical origins and its struc­tural arrangements. From one viewpoint the councils are the creatures of the denom­inations; but there is another important sense in which the councils are called to be judges of the denominations and are con­tinually bringing their member commun­ions to a severe and disturbing judgment. This is a fact which the officers of councils of churches cannot for obvious reasons press home, and which the representatives of the churches are reluctant to admit. It is nevertheless a fact." (Italics supplied.)

It is in this matter of a council sitting in judgment upon member churches that the ecumenical peril is present. While the Council may feel that no single Christian body today constitutes the true church of Christ, on what grounds is it to assume that the mere unification of such bodies will constitute the true church of Christ in the world today?

Mr. Douglass queried, "To what extent has our reluctance to entrust some of the major functions of the church to our coun­cils been responsible for making these councils symbols of religious and ethical triviality?"

Rajah B. Manikam, Bishop of Tranque­bar, India, left no question but that he felt that ultimate organic union should be the final achievement of the ecumenical move­ment, which he said "is largely the out­growth of the missionary movement." The need to present a united Christian front in mission lands has emphasized the weaken­ing spectacle of a divided Christendom_ Manikam cited the steps toward Christian unity as (1) consultations, (2) comity, (3) cooperation, (4) federation of churches, (5) organic Christian church unity.

He cited the church of India as an ex­ample of the organic union of the Angli­cans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Con­gregationalists, a union which he says has been acclaimed "the greatest experiment in church union since the days of the Ref­ormation." Other great church unions re­ferred to included the Church of Christ in Thailand and a United Church of Christ in the Philippines, and also the Kyodan (the Church of Christ in japan—a union of eight main denominations), which in­cludes about 70 per cent of Protestant Chris­tians in Japan. It should be noted that after the war the Lutherans and Anglicans sep­arated from this group.

Our Attitude

Seventh-day Adventists, while deeply de­sirous that the spirit of brotherly love and oneness in Christ shall motivate their life and service to man, nevertheless adhere to a faith that includes certain Biblical and apostolic teachings no longer accepted as important in modern church-unity move­ments. They are, therefore, in the peculiar position of encouraging fellowship with their fellow Christians in these ecumenical movements without becoming a member of their corporate body.

There has never yet been an ecumenical movement in history that did not sooner or later arrive at a synthetic religion, which amounted to the surrender of at least a portion of vital truth in the pooling of ec­clesiastical resources to strengthen the in­fluence of ecclesiastical power.

In an outstanding address Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill called for (1) "a sterner and more exacting devotion to truth," (2) "a greatly deepened sense of humility," (3) and a demonstration in human relation--ships of "the quality of Christian love."

In his presidential address on the "Task Before Us," Dr. Dahlberg called for "mas­sive reconciliation." This emphasis he said must begin "with the reconciliation of the soul of man to God"; it must include "mas­sive reconciliation among the nations"; and, said he, "This is the Great Reconcilia­tion, the reconciliation of the church in the interest of a united world."

J. A. B.