Evening star., 1948-12-02

time when a materialistic philosophy
is widespread. I warmly welcome
the invaluable. contributions which
the churches d the Federal Council
are making to the faith Of our
people, to social welfare, to inter-
racial cooperation and to inter-
national order.
Il hope the coming years will
bring still greater unity or purpose
and effort among the religious
forces Of America"
Budget Action Due Today.
The policy Of the church in de-
veloping a program to meet the
questions raised in the fields of
human rights, juvenile delinquency,
overseas aid and the immigration
of displaced persons will be discussed
today by the meeting. Action on
the 1949 budget is also expected to
be taken today by the gathering,
which represents az Protestant and
three Eastern Orthodox bodies hav-
ling approximately 28,000,000 men,
bers. Two more church bodies, the
Religious Society of Friends of Phil
adelphia and Vicinity and the Ro-
manian Orthodox Church in Amer
lea, are expected to be admitted to
the Federal Council before the
three-day meeting closes tomorrow.
A long step forward toward for
nation of a national council of
churches, an interdenominational
organization that would merge eight
Protestant agencies, was taken yes
terday when the council passed a
recommendation urging constituent
members to speed action on the
plan.
The proposed national council
would include the Federal Council
of Churches, the Foreign Missions
conference, the Home Missions
Council, the International Council
of Religious Education, the Mission
ary Education Movement, the Ma
tional Protestant Council on Higher
Education, the United Council of
Church Women and the United
Stewardship council.
Is Bodies Favor Merger.
To date Is of the councils con-
stituent bodies have voted in favor
of the merger, two are considering
the question and six have taken no
action. Churches favoring the for
nation of a national council have
25, ,057 1876 members while the others
have 2,949, 1886 members.
The biennial meeting, in an effort
to speed up action, voted yesterday
to empower the councils Executive
Committee to set a time limit at
which the action for a merger may
be considered as final. The recon-
mendation allows the committee the
right to decide the number of favor
able votes from members groups
necessary to make the merger action
effective.
Dean Luther A. Weigle of the Yale
University Divinity School said the
councils action yesterday made 1t
probable that "the constituting con-
vention (of the National CounciD
can be held at least by 1850. While
there are still numerous problems
to be studied the Planning Commit
tee is making very real progress
toward the proposed merger"
Methodist Bishop G. Bromley Ok
nam of New York last night told the
dinner meeting that the Federal
Council had played a fundamental
role in underguiding the formation
of the World Council Of Churches,
which held it's first meeting this
summer in Amsterdam, Holland. He
also declared the Federal Council,
by mobilizing the Christian forces
Of the Nation, had played decisive
role in seeing that the preamble OF
the Charter of the United Nations
was written in the liberal terms it
now contains.
The Rev. Stephen Gill Spotswood,
pastor of the John Wesley A. M. E.
Zion church, 1918 Fourteenth street
NV, is the A. M. E. Zion church
delegate here from Washington. The
list of delegates compiled by the
Federal Council enormously listed
the Rev. w. w. Matthews as the
delegate. The listing was copied
from the biennial of 1946, 1t was