The Council built the Protestant-Orthodox Pavilion at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair and sponsored the production of the film "Parable", directed by Rolf Forsberg, which was the principal attraction in the pavilion. The film depicted humanity as a traveling circus and Christ as a clown. The clown was played by Clarence Mitchell, Tom Erhart portrayed Punch, and Madhur Jaffrey played a magician's assistant. Over three million people visited the pavilion. The film was initially criticized as sacrilegious, but it was well received at the fair and in later showings. However, in building and operating the pavilion the Council incurred a debt of more than $400,000, which took five years to repay.