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New Hicks Portrait at Swarthmore A Quaker Weekly VOLUME 5 MAY 16, 1959 NUMBER 20 IN THIS ISSUE This Treasure in Earthen V esseIs ~possess o ,ingle in­ fallible guide, the Universal . by Richard R. Wood Spirit that lives in men as a whole, and in each one of us, which makes us aspire to Some Problems of Religious Liberty in what we should aspire; it is the Spirit that commands the Pennsylvania tree to grow toward the sun, the flower to throw off its . by Spencer Coxe, Jr. seed in autumn, us to reach out towards God, and by so doing become united to each Letter from London other. - LEo ToLSTOI . by Horace B. Pointing New Hicks Portrait at Swarthmore FIFTEEN CENTS A COPY Ecumenical Perplexities, Editorial Comments $5.00 A YEAR 310 FRIENDS JOURNAL May 16, 1959 Letter from London FRIENDS JOURNAL E have here an annual institution inflicted on W us by the Boy Scouts, for which I am not sure if there is an American parallel. It is the "bob a job week," and during this time the boys bring round cards on which we are supposed to register the shillings we give for any job they do for us. Many of the jobs done are well worth the money, and if the others can be re­ garded as a mild form of blackmail, we still part with the shillings readily because of the worth of the objec­ Published weekly, but biweekly from June 18 to September 19 and December 19 to J•nuary 2, at 1616 Cherry Street, tive. When the boy who called on me asked what he Philadelphia 2, Pennsylvania (Rittenhouse 6-7669) By Friends Publlshin~r Corporation could do, I told him the whole outside of the house WILLIAM HUBBEN :MILDRED A. PURNELL wanted painting, but I gathered he was looking for a Editor and :Mana~rer Assistant Editor :MYRTLE :M. WALLEN FREID A L. SINGLETON small job, not for a lifework. Eventually we compromised Advertisements Subscriptions on the bicycle, which he cleaned up, and for this work CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENTS I parted with three shillings. RICHARD R. WOOD, Philadelphia He did not appear to me to be quite as lively as Africa .... ..•..................... :Maurice Webb, Durban En~rland ..............•.......Horace B. Pointln~r, London he sometimes is, and then I found the reason. On the Joan Hewitt, London Germany ......... ..... .......... Lottelore Rolot!, Berlin previous day he had been sharing in the nuclear protest India .. ... ............... ..... Benjamin Polk, Calcutta Japan .............................. Hilary Conroy, Tokyo march from Aldermaston. This Aldermaston is an atomic L•ke Erie Aaaoeiation .. ..... ..... Kenneth Ives, Detroit Lebanon ........ Calvin W. and Gwendolyn Schwabe, Beirut weapons establishment, an enormous area, fenced and Scandinavia ......... ...... Ole Olden, Stavan~rer, Norway Switzerland ........ ............. Robert J. Leach, Geneva guarded. He and his father had been away all day, Turkey .............. ...... William L. Nute, Jr., Ankara Midwest (Five Years) ........... Russell E. Reea, Richmond tramping steadily through the drenching rain, and when New En~rland ................. Thomas R. Bodine, Hartford West Coast ................ Ferner Nuhn, Claremont, Calif. they arrived home they were like drowned rats. Yet it BOARD OF MANAGERS had been a wonderful experience which they would not 1966-1969: Howard H. Brinton, Sarah P. Broek, Ruth 0. have missed for anything. And, in reading the news­ Maris, Margaret L. Matthews, Lawrence JileK. llllller, Jr. 1967-1960: lllary R. Calhoun, Eleanor S. Clarke, Barbara paper accounts afterwards, I could see that they had L. Curtis, Arthur Ill. Dewees, Irving Hollingshead, Emily C. Johnson, Elizabeth H. Kirk. 1968-1961: J. C. Clement been taking part in what is generally agreed to have Alexandre, Carol P. Brainerd, Daniel D. Teat, Jr.. Anne Wood, lllildred B. Young. been an extraordinary event. THE JOURNAL ASSOCIATES are friends who add five dollars or more to their subscriptions annually to help The Aldermaston march was arranged by the people meet the over-all coat of publication. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States, possessions, Can­ here who are running the campaign for nuclear disarma· ada, and lllexlco: $6.00 a year, $2.75 for alx montba. Foreign countries: $6.60 a year. Sln~rle copies: fifteen ment. This body wants to stop the testing and use of cents. Checks should be made payable to Friends Journal. Sample coplea sent on request. nuclear arms and urges Brii:ain to take this step, unilat­ Second Class Postage Paid at Philadelphia, Pa. erally if need be. The first march was at Easter, 1958, and even that created much interest, though also a good deal of opposition. This year's march brought out vastly larger numbers, and so far from opposition was the gen­ eral attitude of the onlookers that clapping and cheer­ ing occurred all along the route. Many of the people on the sidewalks joined the procession as it passed. On the last of the three days it was miles long, and it ended Contents Page in a demonstration in Trafalgar Square, where, accord­ Letter from London-Horace B. Pointing ........ 310 ing to estimates, 20,000 people were gathered, one of the Editorial Comments . 311 largest demonstrations in living memory. In the march­ This Treasure in Earthen Vessels-Richard R. Wood 312 ing crowds were religious leaders and thousands of fol­ Solfle Problems of Religious Liberty in Pennsylvania- lowers, but there were also many who had no religious Spencer Coxe, Jr. .... .. ...................... 314 affiliation. Youth was prominent; the universities were New Hicks Portrait at Swarthmore ..... ......... 316 well represented; groups had come specially from the Revive Local Option in Pennsylvania ..... ...... 317 Continent. Friends and Their Friends ....................... 317 All this is evidence that a new spirit is rising up, Letters to the Editor . .. ....................... 319 (Continued on page 316) FRIENDS JOURNAL Successor to THE FRIEND (1827-1955) and FRIENDS INTELLIGENCER (1844-1955) ESTABLISHED 1955 PHILADELPHIA, MAY 16, 1959 VoL. 5 -No. 20 Editorial Comments Ecumenical Perplexities Committee of the World Council. This is all the more N April a conference of Asian and United States perplexing, as the 171 member churches all over the I leaders of the World Council of Churches met at world rely on their women members not only for the Buck Hill Falls, Pa., to discuss some ecumenical ques­ specific and loyal devotion for which they are known tions with unusual candor. The present popularity of but also for a great many continuous acts of practical religion disturbs not only American churchmen but also assistance without which no church could exist (educa­ Christian leaders in Asia. Dr. Bryan de Kretser of Cey­ tion, relief work, etc.). The percentage of women on the lon, where the next assembly of the World Council is senior staff in the Geneva headquarters of the World scheduled to meet, criticized especially those Asian Council is just as low. Obviously, some grossly super­ leaders who "vie with each other in practicing their stitious remnants about the absence of religious genius religious devotions in the market place where they will in women is still circulating in some modern religious be seen of men." His prognosis of Christianity's future organizations. They now have to ask themselves why in Asia was far from optimistic. Past missions have in­ neither our young people nor the educated "natives" evitably linked Christianity with colonialism, the two in Asia and Africa feel a strong attraction to Christian forces which Asians have resented most. Now Marxism faith and practice. appears like a judgment on this long phase of our West­ ern civilization. Ten years of it have already changed Speaking Plainly the face of China. Dr. de Kretser stressed how difficult The May issue of Harper's Magazine contains a it is for Asia to accept the claims of Western Christians spirited article entitled "I Call Myself a Protestant,'' that they are against materialism, when ten per cent written by William Warren Bartley. The author, a for- , of the world's population controls 72 per cent of its mer Episcopalian, describes his road to Quakerism in wealth. terms of a rather extraordinary theological and philo­ sophical pilgrimage. His outspoken criticism of Tillich, The Lost, Angry, or "Beat'' Generation Niebuhr, Barth, and also of modern neo-orthodoxy will It is no secret that the "ecumenical honeymoon" is please a good many Friends, although hardly all. Wil­ over, as Mr. Keith R. Bridston termed our recent past. liam W. Bartley characterizes the theological and psy­ As World Council Secretary for Faith and Order, he chological situation of most churches as brimming with spoke of the cynicism of some of the younger genera­ contradictions, tensions, and undesirable ambiguities tion, who think that the Council's promoters come to­ concerning their theism. Their "pretenses" and the gether to enjoy their fellowship in "harmless unanimity" psychological conflicts, especially of the younger clergy, rather than face the issues that divide us. Too many lead to a vague escape into noncommittal commonplaces of these young men and women graduate from the adult that are no honest solution. William Bartley has some church at confirmation time. They see local churches encouraging and some critical things to say about living and thriving in isolation, and perpetuating in the Friends. They are often "silly and naive." But their minds of their members caricatures and stereotypes freedom to remain seekers unshackled by creeds or about each other. Fortunately, a methodical effort is orthodox and symbolical formulations attracted him to under way to train a new generation of ecumenical Quakerism. youth. This article concludes a series of essays by represen­ Few Women in the Council tatives of various religious trends. Bartley's paper seems Since the assembled Council members at Buck Hill to illustrate one strand in Quakerism which we recently Falls were familiar with the history of the Christian have mentioned several times.
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