Milford chronicle., 1957-12-20
News Of The Meth0dists

are celeDratlng tnelr nrSt Christ
mas with adaptive parents and
many boys and girls are climaxing
happy year although their fami-
lies are broken-all because Metho-
dists in Maryland and Delaware
last year gave an annual Christmas
Offering to child care work.
About $4,000 will be given again
. this year to continue the work of
the Board of Child Care of the
Baltimore and Peninsula Confer
ences, which employs about 30 staff
members and reports monthly
through the Council of Social A
gencies to the Children's Bureau,
in Washington.
: DR.. F. Reid Isaac, minister for
39 years who has specialized in
child care activity for the past 19
/, years. heads the Boards work from
I Offices at Sic North Charles Street,
In Baltimore.
1.-The church is increasingly in
9 terested in social work., DR.. Isaac
observes. But our great problem
Is finding enough Christian case
workers who are professionally
trained and enough house parents
who can live with children and
love them"
Through the Board of Child Care,
experienced, professional case
workers interview children, par
ents, school teachers and house
parents at regular intervals to help
. children progress with as little un-
{ happiness as possible although their
families are broken by death, separ-
alton or divorce.
when a parent feels that chill
dren need more care than one
parent working alone can give
them, the Board of Child Care Of
ten invites the children to stay in
it's two homes-Kelso Home for q
girls in Towson, Md, and Straw
bridge Home for 36 boys in Sykes
vile, Md" DR.. Isaac reports. The
children and their parent visit the
home together before the children
enter IL to stay. Then the parent
visits the home occasionally, and
the children, as much as possible,
spend holidays at home.
Both Kelso and Strawbridge have
spacious lawns, roomy facilities,
numerous activities and an ade-
quate staff of house parents to give
the youngsters a happy, although
substitute, home life. Friendships
develop in the homes and continue
even after the children grow up
and have their own families. DR..
Isaac can tell many success
stories" about the boys and girls.
Another important work sup
ported through the Christmas CIV
ing our adaptive service" DR.. Isaac
explains. The adoption case worker
counsels unmarried mothers and
places newborn babies in foster
home for up to three months while
the babies are given developmental
tests. Then the case workers place
the babies in permanent homes
where both parents are active, par
ticipating members of the Metho-
dist Church In the Baltimore and
Peninsula Conferences.
DIR. Isaac said there are 80
couples on the waiting list to adopt
babies through his agency alone.
He said that nationwide statistics
show that ten couples want to
adopt children for. every baby avail
able for adoption. In his board, the
ratio is about eight to one.
The Atlantic Methodist Church,
In Ocean City, Md, has solved one
longtime problem of churchgoers.
Many husbands are unhappy be-
cause they sit alone in church while
their wives sing in the church
choir. Many wives feel they should
sing in the church choir, but hesi-
tate because they hate to see their
husbands sitting alone in the con-
gregation.
Mr.. and Mrs. Alfred Harmon,
members of Atlantic Church, found
themselves in the same situation.
They put their heads together and
reasoned. Churches used to have
"amen corners" so &.
The situation is more harmoni-
GUS now. Wives sing happily in the.
choir, while their husbands frater-
nally sit together in what is spe-
cially-designated as the bachelors
corner.
Bishop G. Bromley Oman. of
Washington. Methodist bishop who
administers churches in this area,
has been elected vice president in
charge of the Division of Christian
Life and Work of the National
Council of Churches of Christ in the
u. S. A.
The election took place recently
In st. LOUIS at the National Coun-
Gil assembly attended by represen-
tatives of 30 Protestant and ortho-
dox communions with over 81 mill
lion members.
In this three-year position. the
Methodist bishop will oversee
church work In such fields as inter-
national affairs, economics. race
relations. social welfare, worship
and the arts. and religious liberty.
The previous vice presidents in
charge of this department have in
cluded Mrs. Douglas Horton and
DR.. Arthur S. Flemming.
Bishop Oman has long been a
leader I'm National Council work.
He was president of the Federal
Council of Churches from 1944-46.
He is currently on the General
Board of the National Council and
chairman OF the committee on ap-
praisal of program and budget.
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