IN THIS ISSUE Let Us Reason Together Quaker Religious
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A Quaker Weekly VOLUME 1 JULY 30, 1955 NUMtli!R 5 IN THIS ISSUE Let Us Reason Together ~ wo,ld'' hi<lory ;, a divine poem of which the . by Victor Paschkis history of every nation is a canto and every man a word. I ts strains have been pealing along down the centuries, Quaker Religious Liberalism and though there have been . by Bliss Forbush ' · mingled the discords of war- , ring cannon and dying men, yet ... there has been a di vine melody running through Celebrating the U.N.'s Tenth Birthday the song which speaks of hope and halcyon days to come. by David C. Elkinton -JAMES A. GARFI ELD Seek and Ye Shall Find-Teachers . by Rachael C. Gross Our London Letter-Letters to the Editor FIFTEEN CENTS A COPY $4.00 A YEAR 66 FRIENDS JOURNAL July 30, 1955 Seek and Y e Shall Find-Teachers FRIENDS JOURNAL "WHAT is the general problem of religious education in the U.S.A. today? What special problems do Friends face in this field?" were the questions with which Chester Reagan, headmaster of Moorestown, N. J., Friends School, opened a thought-provoking discussion at Arch Street Meeting House, Philadelphia, on April 22, 1955. The occa sion was a conference on leadership under the theme "Seek and Ye Shall Find-Teachers." The event had been planned by the teacher training section of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Religious Education Committee to help local Re Published weekly at 1616 Cherry Street, Philadelphia 2, Pennsylvania (Rittenhouse 6-7669) ligious Education Committees enlist the interest and active By Friends Publishing Corporation participation of others in their Meetings. WILLIAM HUBBEN JEANNE CAVIN Editor and lllanaeer Advertisements Under Chester Reagan's questioning, many of the issues MILDRED A. PURNELL LOUISE K. CLEMENT "of religious education were listed, some of them- like the Associate Editor Subscription• teaching of dogma, ritual, the meaning of sacraments, and CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENTS RICHARD R. WOOD, Philadelphia creeds-seeming to have little relationship to the problems Africa .... .... ... ............. Maurice Webb, Durban which are central to Friends. These were: How ought we to England ... ............... Joan Hewitt, London Horace B. Pointing, London think about and use the Bible? How shall we think about Germany ....... ... .. ... .. Wilhelm KlShler, Braunschwe.ig India ........ ... .. .. .. Benjamin Polk, New Delhi God? How shall we think of Jesus? What is sin? How can we Japan ..... ... .. ............. Bruce L. Pearson, Osaka Tataunosuke Ueda, Tokyo be sure our conscience is good? How choose a vocation? Jordan . .. ... .. .. .•... ... .. Graham Leonard, RamaiJah The answer to such questions must be a personal one. Scandinavia .. ......... .. Ole Olden, Stavanger, Norway Switzerland . .. .. .. ........ Robert J. Leach, Geneva Experience is our teacher: "This light must be my light; this Turkey . .............. ........ William L. Nute, Ankara Lake Erie Association .. ... Winthrop M. Leeds, Pittsburgh truth must be my truth; this faith must be my very own." In Midwest (Five Years) .............RusseiJ E. Rees, Chicago New England ... .. .. .. .. ... Thomas R. Bodine, Hartford helping young people, it is essential that the teacher have West Coast .. .. .. .... .. Ferner Nuhn, Claremont, Calif. faced these problems honestly himself and have earned the BOARD OF MANAGERS right to help in difficulties. The most that a teacher can do Carol Paxson Brainerd, Howard H. Brinton, Sarah Pratt Brock, Henry J. Cadbury, Eleanor Stabler Clarke, Barbara is to help one choose for oneself "wisely for worthy ends." L. Curtis, Arthur M. Dewees, Edward W. Evans, Irving HoJiingshead, Emily Cooper Johnson, Lewis H. Kirk, Willis Since Friends have none of the external "props" which H. Satterthwaite, Sarah Field Splint, Anne L. E. Taylor, Lydia Foulke Taylor, Daniel D. Test, Jr., C. Wilbur Ufford, other denominations use in the teaching of the young, they Helen W. Williams. must be alert to provide means for the participation of youth THE JOURNAL ASSOCIATES are Friends who add five dollars or more to their subscriptions annuaiJy to help and actual discharge of responsibility so that young Friends meet the over-all cost of publication. will have the security that comes from belonging to and SUBSCRIPTION RATES: United States and possessions: $4.00 a year, $2.00 for six months. Foreign countries: being responsible for something worthy of their best. $4.60 a year. Single copies: fifteen cents. Checks should be made payable to Friends Publishing Corporation. The great value of work camps to the young participants Sample copies sent on request. is that the work camps harness the essential emotional ele Re-entered as second-class matter July 7, 1966, at the post office at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, under the Act of ment of religion to active service and thus develop a loyalty March 3, 1879. which talking about the ideal cannot match. Young people need and want to be challenged to commit themselves to an ideal. They need to discover a truth worth Contents living for so that they will be willing to sacrifice in order to Page develop spiritual gifts, to study in order to prepare them Seek and Ye Shall Find-Teachers- Rachael selves for leadership and service. But Friends cannot offer this C. Gross 66 challenging experience to their own young people unless Editorial Comments ...... ........ ..... ·.. 67 there are older Friends who are willing to make the sacrifice such leadership entails and dedicate their talents to this pur Let Us Reason Together-Victor Paschkis .. 68 pose. If they have traveled this way, they can point the way, Quaker Religious Liberalism-Bliss Forbush . 69 suggesting that young people read this or that, try this or that experience. Rufus Jones' Faith and Practice of the Beneath All Sounds (poem)-Jon Swan .. .. 70 Quakers and Rethinking Quaker Principles were two books Celebrating the U.N.'s Tenth Birthday- David suggested by Chester Reagan. He ended with a quotation: C. Elkintorz ........... .............. 71 "Guard well thy thoughts Our London Letter- Joan Hewitt . .... .. 72 That o'er thee press and throng; They will condense within thy soul Friends and Their Friends ..... .......... 73 And turn to purpose strong." Letters to the Editor ........... ... .. .... 75 RACHAEL c. GROSS FRIENDS JOURNAL Successor to THE FRIEND (1827-1955) and FRIENDS INTELLIGENCER (1844-1955) ESTABLISHED 1955 PHILADELPHIA, JULY 30, 1955 VoL. 1 No. 5 Editorial Comments The Layman ganized labor. Albert Whitehouse, a director of . the United Steelworkers of America and the first orgamzed N a preview dealing with the World Council's next labor representative to be elected vice president of the five years, The Christian Century makes a strong I National Council of Churches, addressed the annual appeal to all member churches to work for greater and meeting of the Baptist Convention by urging the dele more effective participation by the laity in the affairs gates to "put into practice that glorious Protestant doc of the World Council and the churches in general. In trine of the universal priesthood of all believers." He spite of the presence of a small nonclerical minority, expressed concern over the fact that "the vast ~ajority" the visitor at Evanston was bound to receive the strong of people who join the churches do not re~am mem impression that the Second World Assembly was pri bers. The reason for this deplorable fact 1s that the marily a clergymen's convention. The attempt to elect church "does not show enough concern about their daily a distinguished layman as one of the six presidents was work:" For too many, he asserted, the church is a "set blocked. This incident was most unfortunate, not only of Sunday principles instead of all-life principl~s." because it illustrates the near-monopolistic position A similar voice comes from England. J. B. Pnestley, which the clergy have everywhere in the ministry of the novelist and critic of modern civilization, recently ap local churches but also because it aroused strong doubts pealed to the Christian ministers to become more real concerning the sincerity of the Assembly's final report. istic about the moral and spiritual problems of labor. Section VI of this report spoke rather eloquently about Every Sunday, so he wrote in "Sir Nuclear Fission," t~e the task of the layman in the Christian community. The warnings are heard from tens of thousands of pulpits ministry of the laity is to be made "explicit, visible, and that we must resist the temptation of our senses. Such active in the world. T he real battles of the faith today sermons sound as though our churches were not at are being fought in the factories, shops, offices and farms, tended by tired steel workers and overworked house in political parties and government agencies, in count wives but by pashas from Baghdad who only need to less homes, in the press, radio, television, in the relation snap their fingers in order to start the most i~?rob_able ship of nations." And the report adds the rather .startling orgies with their dancing slaves. We are hvmg m a remark that "the church is already in these spheres in different social climate, and the psychological or emo the person of its laity." The presence of millions of tional deprivations of many people- incidentally, in all sincere Christians in these places is not questioned; but social groups-seem not yet to have come to the notice the reproach has been heard again and again that the of many of our religious leaders. church has suffered too much from being self-centered There are points of contact in such appeals that may especially in Europe- and has been much too adminis eventually bring the working class and our intellectual tration-minded or detached from reality to be an effec leaders together for the quickening of religious concerns tive instrument of the gospel in our political and through a Christian ministry that will serve the spiritual economic life.