Evening star., 1955-05-21
BY CASPAR NAMES
ReliEious News Editor OF The Star

MIAMI, Fla, May 21.-Wher-
ever Southern Baptists hold
their annual convention. that
place is bound to be over
whelmed with visitors.
Miami today is no exception.
Baptists came here by the train
load. plane load and boatload.
But they mainly came by the
carload.
Families pile into the waiting
auto, and of they go. Evidence
of that is on every side here.
License plates from States as
far west as California and as
far east as Maryland, as well as
from every State in between
appear as the cars move bumper
to bumper along streets leading
to the Dinner Key Auditorium,
The tremendous spread Of the
denomination, now well over the
8-million mark, also appears in
the diversity of accents over
heard. Where at one time prob
ably the so-called Southern ac-
cent was in an overwhelming
majority, today its dominance
is less apparent. This indicates,
as possibly other tests might not,
the emergence of Southern
Baptists as something more
than a sectional group
Washington area Baptists are
here in great numbers, and for
mer District residents in equally
large representation.
Two of the former were en-
countered by this reporter at
breakfast on the train to Miami.
They were DR.. M. Chandler
Stith, executive secretary of the
District Baptist Convention, and
the Rev. J. Ray Garrett, pastor
of Second Baptist Church.
The two men looked particu-
larly fit and sun-tanned, an obvi-
Gus result of three-day fishing
holiday off St. Augustine.
They were quite willing to
explain in detail their luck at
fishing, which apparently was
prodigious. OF course there was
the inevitable big one that got
away, and from the glamorous
account of the battle it would not
be surprising if the fish was
waiting outside Biscayne Bay
here with baleful eyes for an
other crack at his would-be
captors.
The Rev. Michael War;, former
pastor at Luther Rice Memorial
Baptist Church in Washington,
stopped by and joined us in the
lounge car.
Mr.. War;, looking as youthful
as when he first came to Wash
ington as associate minister at
Metropolitan Baptist Church in
l947, recalled with affection his
years, 1949-53, at Luther Rice
Church.
1T was one of the most pleas
ant pastorates I ever had" the
clergyman said.
Now pastor of the College Ave-
nue. Baptist Church, Fort Worth.
Tex, Mr.. War; will be in Wash
ington this summer to visit his
mother. Mrs Dorothy War;, a
Government employe.
Miami had a long dry spell
before the Baptists came to town
this week. AS soon as they
started to arrive, the heavens
opened up and the rains came.
It has rained on and off since
then, to the great relief Of the
city. But non-Baptist friends
have been kidding them about
the coincidence.
Ilp Dllllltl CCS 61uu1VOI Auiii,
where the convention is being
held, had an unusual location.
Eight miles from the center of
Miami. the auditorium is on
small peninsula surrounded on
three sides by Biscayne Bay.
The structure is an old air.
plane hangar that has been
converted into a huge meeting
place. 1t seats about 5000 per-
sons, with temporary red-colored
seats on the spacious floor and
temporary bleachers in the rear
and on the sides.
Gold and light blue drapes,
EpISFnpAI