Evening star., 1948-12-01
s Pct. Of Americans
Are Church Members,
Federal Council Told
By Cospor Nonnes
.Stor Stoff Correspondent

SlNS1lNNA11, OIllU, bcC. /.
Church membership today in the
United States is at an all-time high
with SO per cent of the Nations
population affiliated with some
church, DR.. Jesse Bader, secretary
of the Department of Evangelism
Federal Council of the Churches
of Christ in America, reported to.
day to the biennial meeting of the
Federal Council.
There are '77,3S6,1SS persons
identified with Protestant and non
Protestant churches, DR.. Bader said
This represents net gain from
1916 of 3,713,0O6 members. OF this
number 46.149,676 belong to Prot
estant churches, a little more than
go per cent of the total church
membership.
DR.. Bader reported also that every
Protestant denomination is now in
the MIDST of an evangelistic cam
paign.
The councils Joint Committee on
Religious Liberty reported it was
following two lines of action 10
achieve better observance of human
rights. DR.. o. Frederick Nolde de-
clared efforts to secure adequate
safeguards for human rights, par
ticularly for religious freedom as
the basis of these rights, are under
way.
Churches Give 49 Millions.
Prc ~estant churches throughout
the Nation gave SAC, ,793. 1872 for
relief and reconstruction purposes
In 1916 and 1947. the Rev. Canon
Almon r. Pepper of New York
executive vice president of Church
World Service, announced today.
Church World Service is the agency
formed by the Federal Council, the
Foreign Missions Conference and
the American Committee for the
World Council OF Churches, to CO.
ordinate and administer the over
seas relief and reconstruction pro-
gram of the churches.
OF this amount Church World
Service administered $13,222,917 for
overseas relief and reconstruction
for those years with an additional
$4,000, COO for the first 10 months OF
1948. The balance was administered
directly by each church body. IN
addition, goods valued at $i0,100,O0J
were sent overseas by the cnurcne-
for 1916 and 1947 and for the first
nine months of 1948.
The program included sending
food, clothing, medical supplies and
funds to repair churches, rehabnitate
schools and hospitals, re-establish
seminaries and revive youth work.
Social Action Defended.
The social action program Of the
council was defended today by DR.
Samuel McCrea Cavert, general sec.
retary of the body, as "one effective
long range way of preventing Com.
munism."
Speaking before the opening ses-
sion of the Federal Councils 4Oth
anniversary meeting, DR.. Cavert de-
clared human life is social life and
it Is therefore impossible to escape
the social consequences of the
Gospel"
'The premises Of Christian social
action are very different from those
of proud and confident humanism
and require a firm rootage In the
word of God" he asserted. "The
constant struggle tosmake our So
ciety more Christian by securing
both freedom and justice for all
people is the one effective long
range way of preventing Commun-
ISM"
A large number of Washington
church leaders were present as $50
delegates and nearly $50 lay and
clerical visitors from all parts of the
country opened the three-day meet
ing of the council in the Hotel Glib
son. The council, organized Decem-
ber 2, 1908, in Philadelphia, COM
prises % Protestant churches and
three eastern orthodox bodies hav-
ing membership of nearly 28,0O0,-
600 snd more than $4,000 congre-
cations.
Cites Trend Toward Union.
Noting the present day trend
among Protestant churches toward
union, DR.. Cavert pointed out IA
of the constituent bodies of the
Federal Council have been parties
to successful unions of denomina-
tons during the 40 years of the
councils history" He added that