Religion: Mission Boom

The high tide of Protestant missions that once swept across the seas may seem to the unchurched an ebbing effort in a world of Communist persecution and colonial nationalism. But the tide is higher than ever, according to a new report by the Missionary Research Library. There are at least 10,000 more U.S. and Canadian Protestant missionaries at work around the world than there were in 1950, and the total figure of 25,058 is more than four times as large as at the turn of the century, when the ''missionary era" seemed at its height.

The extra missionary stream comes from the...