Seward daily gateway., 1925-02-04
Plan To Be Presented
 For National Institution
 For Christian Training


 be presented to the Presbyterian gen. eral council here March 16, for an nterdenominational national insti- ute of religion at Washington which would be a national university for Christian training.
 The project has been under consid- eraton for some time by the Nation al Capital Presbyterian Commission and an outline of the plan as prepar- ed by the Rev. pr. George B. Stew
 art of Auburn, N. Y., president of
 the Auburn Theological Seminary, as chairman of the commission after con-
 sultation with other members of the commission was made public today. The institute as designed by Doc
 tor Stewart, would have departments
 as follows:
 school of theology, correspond
 ing to a theological seminary, but
 with new as well as standard sub-
 jects, to enable the minister of to-
 morrow to meet all the requirements
 of his office
 A school of religious education for
 directors of religious education, pas
 tors assistants, church secretaries, workers among boys, girls and other ! groups.
 A school of missions for mission aries, national and foreign.
 A school of sacred music and ec- clesiastical fine arts, for church en-
 tertainment, directors of choirs, or ganists, church architecture and dec
 oration.
 school of evangelism for evange-
 lists.
 A school of religious drama, for
 visual education in religion, includ-
 ing the technical side of pageantry,
 and the use of the lantern. A school of publicity, for religious promoters.
 |, A correspondence school, for ex- ! tra-mural students.
 So convinced is Dr. Stewart that the time has come when all evange-
 lical denominations should unite in such an enterprise, that he is pre- pared to suggest abandonment of the commissions original functions, that of establishing in Washington some outstanding and adequate Presbyter-
 ian Centre, in favor of merging the
 Presbyterian enterprise with that of
 other denominations for larger idea.
 The National Capital Presbyterian
 Commission was established by the
 Presbyterian General Assembly in the
 fall of 1923 with a view to studying and promoting the religious inter-
 ests of the national capital so far as
 the Presbyterian church might have
 responsibility.
 Dr. Stewart finds it apparent that
 "the call for a great an effective in-
 stitution in the city of Washington
 to teach the religious and theologi-
 cal disciplines and to prepare men
 and women for the man religious vo-
 cations is one that the whole evange-
 lical church should hear and ans wer."
 "Therefore," he adds, If any group of persons identified with the Evan gelical Christian Churches will un- Idertake seriously and energetically to solve the problem which the Pres byterian Commission sees to exist in this field, the Commission would doubtless address the question of it's withdrawal from further separate con sideration of the matter, while at the same time offering such cooperation as might seem to be wise. " Dr. Stewart says his plan is pre- pared in the hope of reaching some adequate solution of the vastly i'm portant problem in religious educa- ton facing the Protestant Christian church."
 He holds that this is the layman's age, that the clergy are no longer the sole authority, and that the church is now seeking to discharge many functions through somewhat exten- sive organization of it's members. Hence, the ministers need training along many new lines, and the church requires large body of trained lay l readers and workers Doubtless, he holds, there are too many theological seminaries for pres ent day conditions. He feels that the need in the field of ministerial training might be met by consolO- dating some of the existing seminar ies in some well-chosen center. He points out the need for a new type of seminary, and holds that Washing a ton seems to meet the conditions. While the church." he says, "has l shown commendable zeal in the train \ ing of her ministry, she has made and is making but halting and pittifully