Religion: Words & Works

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¶ In a special issue of its fortnightly Presbyterian Life, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (Northern) celebrated its 250th anniversary with an examination of one of its most phenomenal decades. From 1946 to 1956 the denomination has increased its membership 23% (to 2,736,241), increased its contributions 171% (total: $180,802,586) and built 550 new churches.

¶The doctor's waiting room in rural England is taking the place once occupied by the vicarage, says British Journalist Ronald Duncan in Punch. "As any doctor will now confirm, at least 20% of his patients are not suffering from any physical ailment whatever. These people go regularly to the doctor on any excuse, but the reason for their attendance in the congregation within the waiting room is that they are seeking from the doctor the sort of spiritual comfort and personal guidance which, a few generations ago, they used to obtain from the priest."

¶ "Going steady" is an "occasion of sin," and students who persist in doing so will be barred from "any position of leadership or honor," the principal warned students at St. Mary's Roman Catholic coeducational high school in Lynn, Mass. "The only serious reason which would justify going steady is the hope of marriage in the near future. This reason should be absolutely nonexistent for any high-school student." Said The Pilot, organ of the archdiocese of Boston: "A forthright and, we may hope, decisive treatment."

¶Church integration won a victory in Oklahoma City, where the Rev. Robert H. Alexander, pastor of Avery Chapel, was unanimously elected the first Negro president of the Oklahoma City Council of Churches. His is one of six Negro congregations among the council's 55 churches. Integration suffered a setback in Philadelphia, where the Rev. David E. Gregory. 40, resigned as pastor of the New Berean Baptist Church when his congregation refused to admit Negroes to membership.