Religion: Noble Gesture

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Last week Premier Calinescu of Rumania received a heart-warming telegram, praising him for a "noble gesture." What Premier Calinescu had done was to lift a ban on a Rumanian religious minority —250,000 Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses and others. Rumanian Baptists sent the telegram of gratitude to Premier Calinescu, promptly resumed worship in their 1,500 little chapels and meeting houses.

Last year Rumania's State church, the Greek Orthodox, had temporal power with a vengeance: its Patriarch Miron Cristea was King Carol's puppet Premier. Patriarch Cristea did not resist an impulse to crack down on Protestant sects. His device was simple. He had his Minister of Cults decree that no congregation could hold public services unless at least 100 heads of families belonged to it.

Baptists throughout the world, apprised of the plight of their Rumanian coreligionists, raised a mighty squawk. Dr. James Henry Rushbrooke, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, went to Bucharest to see King Carol. When the King visited London last November, British Baptists and other Protestants sat on his doorstep until they were permitted to tell their story to the Rumanian Foreign Minister. Last February, Baptists devoted a "Day of Prayer" throughout the world to the Rumanian situation. Patriarch Cristea, fairly promptly, died (TIME, March 13).