Evening star., 1950-11-19
THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON D. C..
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1880
Pr0fesfanfs to Unite
Formation of National Council of Churches
OfChrist Great Cooperative Achievement
By Cospor Nonnes

Council OF Church Women, t941,
works through 1.720 State and
local councils and its 10000 World
Day Of Prayer groups on housing,
race relations, world peace and
community betterment problems.
Specialized church agencies, as
Church World Service and the
Protestant Film and Radio Com
missions, will become departments
in the national council.
1t should be emphasized here
that the new council lis not seek
ing to achieve any form of organic
union among sovereign denomina-
t1ons. This is not a proposal for
the merger of denominations but
Tor the merger of existing inter-
denominational agencies, each of
which Is predicated on the exist
ence OF separate denominations"
Largest of the denominations
to join the council is the
Methodist church. with 8,792,56e
members. Smallest is the Evangel-
lcal United of Czech Moravian
Brethren in North America, 5,136
members.
Two large denominations miss
ing are the Southern Baptist
Convention, 6,761,265 members.
and the Lutheran Church-Mis-
souri, Synod. 1859 1854 members.
Both denominations have tradi-
tionally opposed joining similar
councils.
A major departure from the
Lutheran church position is the
decision of the United Lutheran
Church in America, the Angus
tana Lutheran Church and
the Danish Evangelical Lutheran
Church to enter the national
council. Hitherto, Lutheran
church bodies have never gone
further than to work in CO.
operation with special boards or
agencies of an interdenomina-
tional body. The United Lutheran
Church. largest of the denomina-
ton, held a consultative but not
full membership in the Federal
council.
New Venture
The national council will have
four divisions - home missions,
foreign missions, Christian edu-
cation and Christian life and
work. Many functions will be
vested in joint departments and
commissions serving all units.
The Division of Home Missions
Will continue the work of the
Home Missions Council while the
Division of Foreign Missions will
carry on the Foreign Missions Con-
ference program. The interests of
the International Council of Re-
ligious Education and the National
Protestant Council on Higher Edu-
cation will be centered In the Di-
vision Of Christian Education. The
Division of Christian Life and
Work will carry on much of the
work of the Federal council, which
is probably best known among
outsiders because of it's pronounce
ments on social questions.
Where more than one service di-
vision is concerned, joint commits
sions and departments will carry
on the work. For example, the
Stewardship Department, whose
program is now carried out by
the United Stewardship Council,
will be one of these joint depart
ments. A joint commission on
missionary education will continue
the activities of the Missionary
Education of the United States
and Canada.
Two general departments, that
of United Church Women and of
United Church Men, are aimed at
increasing the interest and in
f1uence Of lay men and women in
the church. The former will carry
on for the United Council of
Church Women while the latter is
a completely new venture.
The United Church Men Depart
ment is being organized to cope
with the rapidly increasing de-
nominational laymen's organiza-
ton. It's main job will be to find
tasks in the church suited to the
abilities and skills of laymen.
In addition, the national coun-
Gil will also have central depart
ments geared to serving the en-
tire organization in suchs fields
as finance, research, field admin
istration, publishing and public
relations. For example. the De-
partment of Broadcasting and