Palladium-Item from Richmond, Indiana • Page 6

Religioini Palladium-Item, Richmond, Ind. A6 Saturday, July 23, 1983. A film crew in Muncie NBC to chronicle changes in church liefs; they are seekers who want to know more about Quakerism, he said. He sees those changes as good. "My concern has been to be a Friends church and to emphasize those things." He said his church has a "non-credal point of view," and he characterizes It as "a rainbow with many colors, as a beloved community of friends (lower case intended)." He said Friends Memorial has been "In the forefront" of efforts to improve troubled race relations in Muncie.

"We exchange pulpits with black churches, and we have exchange Bible schools with black children from other churches." STILL ANOTHER change in religion in Muncie involves Protestant-Catholic relations, Newby said. The Lynd study showed that area of religious life wasn't good, but "most people today would say relations (between Protestants and Catholics) aren't bad, because the mainline churches have worked very hard on improving relationships with our Catholic brothers," he said. But he fears the growing fundamentalist movement does harbor anti-Catholic feelings, and the Ku Klux Klan is still a presence in Muncie, though "not as visible as it used to be." Newby said he finds parts of the "growing edge" of the fundamentalist movement dangerous, in that some people "want to be told what to believe, and a charismatic preacher can capture their minds and hearts. In a pluralistic society, no denomination can say, 'We hold all the The NBC crew probably will look at the fundamentalist side of religion in Muncie as well, he added. now seen on Saturday nights, into the same time slot as CBS's "60 Minutes." NEWBY SAID Friends Memorial Church, with over 500 people on its membership roll and over 200 active members, is the largest Quaker congregation in the Indiana Yearly Meeting.

He said he has a perspective which enables him to note changes in the church: he served the Muncie church for nine years, went to Kansas for seven years, then returned to the Muncie church, where he is beginning the ninth year of his second pastorate. "When I first came to this church in '58, it was a large, downtown church, serving people living not too far away. It was a stable, middle-class neighborhood," he said. The church was traditional, he said. In addition to the Sunday school, Sunday morning worship and Sunday night youth group, there were meetings on Wednesday nights.

Newby maintained a study In the church, and people came there occasionally for counseling. At the time Newby went to Kansas, about 1967, the congregation decided not to abandon the downtown area but to stay and build a Christian education addition to the church. Now, Newby said, the church is a downtown mission amid apartment buildings in a "transit-type" community. He said the church is a place for Alcoholics Anonymous meetings it also has served as a Planned Parenthood center and a meeting site for the local Hu-man Rights Commission, of which Newby is chairman. It has housed Head Start facilities.

It is a distribution point for food for the needy a place where By Harold Wiley Palladium-Item Rellgloa Writer When Richard Newby first became pastor of a Quaker church in Muncie, the church was a tradition al one it had worship on Sunday, youth group Sun day night and a midweek service. That was in 1958. Since then, the church has become a downtown mission that helps all kinds of people all week. And the people who attend the services no longer do so just because of happenstance they want to know what the church really stands for. Changes such as those will be chronicled by an NBC television crew on assignment this weekend In Muncie, the "Middletown" of a famous sociological study published in 1929.

The object of NBC's Middletown program, to be broadcast this fall on "Monitor," will be to show what religion is like in a typical American city like Muncie. It also will attempt to show how religious expression has changed since sociologists Robert and Helen Lynd conducted their studies, both the 1929 version, "Middletown a Study in Contemporary American Culture," and a later one, "Middletown in Transition a Study in Cultural Conflicts." published in 1937. One church that will get much of the production crew's attention is Friends Memorial Church at Adams and Cherry streets on the west edge of the Muncie business district. Newby, whose son, James, is director of Yokefellow Academy in Richmond, is pastor of that church. He this week that Ron Bonn, a producer for NBC, told him the crew would be at his church at 10:30 a.m.

Sunday to film the worship service and interview him and some young people in the congregation. He said the program probably will air this fall on a Sunday, because NBC is planning to move "Monitor," "When I first came to this church, it was serving people living not too far a way. It was a stable, middle-class neighborhood. Now it "has become a mission-type church, with more people coming through during the week than on Sunday." Richard Newby people can get food without being asked too many questions. The church often helps stranded travelers who need money for fuel, and it has actively helped migrant workers.

Newby does significantly more counseling than before. Friends Memorial "has become a mission-type church, with more people coming through during the week than on Sunday. That's the difference between 1958 and 1983." And the difference came because the church people decided to keep the church downtown, rather than move to the suburbs. NEWBY SAID ANOTHER important change is that once people came to his church through contacts with friends and neighbors, but now, "they come out of conviction." They embrace Quaker ideals and be for ministry wJ( By the Rev. jf- Clyde Hylton l' 1 -'il Vv Just like good old days Jessie Berry, 4001 Ross at left, and Josephine Smith, 401 U.S.

27 both of Fountain City, dress In the clothes of the type worn 150 years ago. They were celebrating the sesqui-centennlal of the founding of Fountain City Friends Meeting. Co-pastors of the meeting are Linda and David Brlndle. The dress-up was last weekend. Is the response what we expect? "No response to the prayer of confession," read the note to the church organist.

Confession does not automatically represent acceptance. "Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?" Jesus responded, "I tell you plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers." (Matt. Is it possible that the grace of God does not encompass us so completely that all prayers are answered with a positive response? Or perhaps the response is there but not as we desired. "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought to repen-tence, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace." (Heb.

NIVJ The decrees of God are irrevocable and His actions cannot be appealed to a higher authority. During the 40 years of wandering in the desert wilderness, no doubt the adult Hebrews made many prayers of confession, but one by one all died without entering Canaan. Two tears were floating down a river and chanced to meet. One said to the other, "Where did you come from?" It responded, "From a guy who lost his girl to another." Where did you come from?" It responded, "I came from the guy who got her." Tears may flow and confessions be made without the situation being changed once the act is committed. "If a man pays back evil for good, evil will never leave his house." (Prov.

17:13) Never seems like a long time! A freshly dug grave caught my eye. The dirt replaced reminded me of country cemeteries when I was younger. I commented to my friend about it. He responded that he had had the funeral service. The death was a tragedy of teen-age romance.

Greater tragedy was that neither parents nor child had time for God. Confessions and tears by the living seemed to bring no response. Hopelessness was responded to with hopelessness. The silence of God maybe His answer to empty confessions. This week's meditation is written by the Rev.

Clyde E. Hylton, pastor of the Richmond Four Mile Church of the Brethren. Palladium-Item photo by Wade Thrall Protestant backing of bishops letter 'a first' has never happened so widely before. It also has ever since by United Methodist bishops, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ and others. Backing for the bishops letter also came from the National Council of Churches, made up of 32 Eastern Orthodox and Protestant denominations among them various Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed and other bodies totaling 40 million members.

More Protestant endorsements were in prospect. The phenomenon developed as numerous Protestant denominations took their own peace-making stands, with one major denomination, the Lutheran Church in America, engaged in a two-year process of refining its position. By George W. Cornell AP Religion Writer In an extraordinary way, Protestant leaders and assemblies are sounding a swelling "Amen" to U.S. Roman Catholic bishops for their recent pastoral letter condemning nuclear warfare and the arms race.

The explicit nature and scope of the Protestant response to a particular stand of Catholic bishops is considered unprecedented. "There's been nothing quite like it in its extent and breadth," says the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, director of the office of international justice and peace of the U.S. Catholic Conference in Washington, D.C.

While Protestants and Catholics often have shared positions on issues, the unusual aspect in this instance is that a succession of Protestant bodies have expressly endorsed a teaching document of Catholic bishops and commended it to members. That, so far as several church officials could recall, ecumenical overtones reneciing ooistered links and trust between once aloof branches of Christianity. "It's new, a first," says the Rev. John Hotchkin, ecumenical officer for Catholic bishops. "It's a good sign for the possibilities of teaching in a common voice." THAT WON'T KEEP differences from being frankly faced where they exist, he adds, but it indicates people have reached a level of understanding and maturity that they're not afraid to state their agreements." Some officials noted that they knew of no case in which Catholic bishops had specifically and formally endorsed a Protestant declaration by, say, United Methodist bishops.

But the sequence of Protestant endorsements of the Catholic bishops' letter, issued in May, has grown My answer SUSSE CHALET MOTOR LODGES INNS Church briefs The United Church of Christ of Campbellstown, Ohio, will have an ice cream social from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The menu will include hot chicken sandwiches, ham sandwiches, hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, pie, cake, soft drinks and four flavors of homemade ice cream. The Rev. Gene Spicer will preach at 11 a.m.

Sunday at the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, 1810 S. St. $11 70 II FORI SWIMMING POOL, TELEVISION, AND AIR CONDITIONING MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED FOR TOLL-FREE RESERVATIONS AT OVER 30 LOCATIONS, CALL 1-800-258-1980 By Billy Graham DEAR DR. GRAHAM I always had very romantic ideas about marriage, but they have surely been shattered. We had a child in our first year of marriage, and my husband not only works fulltime, but goes to school fulltime.

It just seems like a rat race and sometimes I feel like just throwing up my hands and walking away. What's so great about marriage anyway? MRS. G.B.W. DEAR MRS. G.B.W.: Yes, I'm afraid many young people today have very romantic ideas about marriageideas that do not necessarily reflect the truth.

That is not to say that romance is wrong not at all. But romantic feelings alone are not enough when the problems and strains come as they inevitably do. Let me first of all encourage you by telling you that hopefully your situation will not last forever. I would hope that you and your husband have talked honestly (and not bitterly) about this, and that the time will come when his schooling will be over and the pressures can ease. The only danger, however, is that you both allow this period of time to become a permanent lattern, so that once school is over your husband al-ows something else to take its place and you both drift farther and farther apart.

But don't wait until some distant time to deal with this problem. You and your husband need to face honestly the pressures upon each of you. He needs to understand the pressures you face and you need to see the ones he faces. You both made a vow to each other a vow not only before other people but before God. Marriage is a big responsibility, and you need to pray that God will give you strength and wisdom to fulfill your responsibilities right now.

Tha Tribune Co. Syndicate Dick Watson, Richmond gospel singer, will present a "Tribute to God" at 6:30 a.m. (Ohio time) Sunday, July 31, on Channel 2 in Dayton. The 30-minute program, including a performance by Rosunde Stripling of Dayton, was recorded at the Trinity Broadcasting Network station in Richmond, Ind. The Rev.

Herb C. and Betty Wilson, evangelists from Middletown, Ohio, will lead a crusade at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 29 and 30, and at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, July 31, at the National Guard Armory, 1200 W. Main Richmond.

Dr. David Zimmerman will speak during a worship service at 9:30 a.m. Sunday at Historic Hopewell Church on Camden-College Corner Road near College Corner, Ohio. Clive Anderson will speak during a worship service at 10: 15 a.m. Sunday at Interfaith North Apartments.

The Rev. W.F. Badgett will lead Bible study from 9 30 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday. Bishop Ruby Daniels and members of the congregation of the Original Church of God in Dayton, Ohio, will be guests of the Original Church of God, 1126 S.

12th Richmond, at 3:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Norris and Peggy Greer of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry of West Collingswood, N.J., will present "The Passover Lamb," a program of Bible recitation and singing, at 10 a.m. 7 p.m. Sunday at Liberty Baptist Church, 414 E.

South Liberty. No altar girls? No boys either By Gannett News Service A Roman Catholic Church, barred from using altar girls, will not use altar boys either because it can't discriminate," a priest said. St. Clement Church in Chicago is one of several affected by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's recent request that parishes abide by Vatican guidelines that prohibit girls as altar servers. The Rev.

John F. Fahey said neither boys nor girls will assist the priests at Mass. Fahey said he urged his parish to "be patient as we try to figure out ways that are fair," and that In the meantime the church will continue to include girls and boys in lesser roles. RICHMOND 317-966-7511 5501 NATIONAL ROAD EAST I-70 AT JCT. U.S.

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