The Express from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania • Page 4

Page rriday, July 14, 1967-The Express, Lock Haven, Pa. Religious Census Is Taken in Bald Eagle 2,099 on Howard, BC, Blanchard Church Rolls HOWARD A religious census showed that 2,099 persons claimed membership in Protestant churches of Bald Eagle Valley between the Howard and Beech Creek areas. There were 318 more who said they are members of Protestant churches outside the area, according to the Howard-Beech Creek-Blanchard Ministerial Association. In addition there were 61 Catholics and 133 who had no religious preference. Membership in the Church of Christ totaled 447; Methodist, 342, and American Baptist, 294.

The three leading denominations totalled 1,083. More than 100 persons conducted the survey which was under the sponsorship of the Ministerial Association with the cooperation of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches' Department of Missions. There were 894 calls made to complete the census which was started back in April. There was considerable time spent in gathering and totaling the information from the many cooperating laymen. The census area covered the three towns, Howard, Beech Creek and Blanchard, and the territory surrounding them.

The boundaries were the whole valley from the State Roadside Rest west of Howard to a point a mile east of Beech Creek, the association reported. Methodist Students in Soviet for Study NASHVILLE (AP) Thirty- one Methodists, most of them college students, left June 29 for two months in the Soviet Union as participants in a study- travel seminary sponsored by the church's Division of Higher Education and American University in Washington. i Lutheran Relationships Considered by Mo. Synod By GEORGE W. CORNELL NEW YORK (AP) The conservative branch of American Lutheranism, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, today neared a decision on whether to approve inter-communion with a sister denomination.

It would be the first such step for the 2.8-million-member church in 87 years. Before its biennial governing convention was a proposal to authorize "altar and pulpit fel lowship" with the 2.6-million- member American Lutheran Church. Not since 1880 has the doctrinally cautious Missouri Synoc allowed joint participation in the Lord's Supper or pastora exchange with other major Lu. theran never with non-Lutherans. The church maintains full ae cord on beliefs is essential for such close mutual association Talks with the American Lu iheran Church led representa tives to conclude the harmony exists, and to recommend inter, communion.

The new approach also was reflected in other steps, includ ing endorsement of interdenominational meetings to promote Christian unity, and in proposals to review policies regarding the Lutheran World Federatior and 'the World Council of Churches. The Missouri Synod is not a member of either. It and the Southern Baptist Convention are the only major American Protestant bodies not belonging to the World Council, a cooperative organization of most Protestant and Orthdox churches. The synod which traditionally has refrained from criticizing government policy says that a 'divergence of opinion" exists about the Vietnam war and members should speak out about it. flc recommendations for settling the conflict, the synod said Christians are obligated "to relate moral considerations to political concerns." The action by the church's biennial governing convention was described as a decisive shift from its customary stance.

Although avoiding any speci- Selenite, a desimentary rock, common in many parts of North America, is so named from Selene, Greek goddess of the moon as it reflects moonlight quite noticeably. REV. PHILIP R. JONES, of Milton, will be the main speaker at the 14th annual Lycoming County Inter- Faith Vesper Service at Hughesville, Sunday, July 30 at 7:30 p.m. Four other clergymen will participate in the event, to which are invited all the congregation of churches of all faiths.

Lutherans Worry about Finances By GEORGE W. CORNELL AP Religion Writer NEW YORK (AP) Money blues were troubling Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, particularly the sluggish response to a special fund drive, but church representatives prayed, pleaded and scolded to try to put more pep in it. "I know of people that are literally going to hell because of our lack of funds," said the Rev. Arnold Ahlman, of Denver, one of a succession of delegates voicing their concern Monday at the church's biennial convention. "We can all alibi," he added.

"But, fellows, we've got to work harder at doing something about this." At one point, the 1,700 Lutherans got on their knees in the grand ballroom of the Religions Move into Racial Equality with New Project By GEORGE W. CORNELL AP Religion Writer NEW YORK (AP) Amid some dissent, a spreading interfaith network is using its purchasing power today to spur equal job opportunities for Negroes among American business companies. And a growing number of companies have pledged than 15,000 of them so far. "It's the largest program of its kind apart from efforts of the federal government," says its prime organizer, Mathew Ah. mann of Chicago.

Called Project Equality, it now has operations going in 11 areas, with official Roman Catholic, Protestant and Jewish bodies participating in most of them, buying their supplies from companies that pursue approved hiring practices. The economic stakes are considerable, and the use of such everage has been questioned bj some churchmen. In the regions and cities al ready involved, the total pur chases by religious groups ar estimated at $2 billion annually From present indications planners predict the scope the program will triple by th end of 1968, with 30 regiona projects expected to be unde way by then. This would "pretty much blanket the country," Ahmann said. he estimated 70,000 to businesses that regularly supplj goods or services to religiou organizations would be involved by that time.

Altogether, religious bodie make up one of country 1 biggest customers. The approxi mately $6 billion received an nually in contributions is onlj part of the income they spend with an additional unknown to tal coming from investments. While the equal job oppor tunities program has become West Virginia Church Marks 192nd Year Eating Bear Meat By JIM HOWARD MORGANTOWN, W. Va. (AP.

Riddle: what do you soak in brine, mixed spices, lemon juice and vinegar 24 hours, then baste in buckwheat honey and blackberry wine and roast for nearly five hours? Answer: black bear. There are many other ways of preparing West Virginia's state animal for a feast. The Rev. Joe Gluck, part-time pastor of the 192-year-old Forknof-Cheat Baptist Church near Stewartstown, six miles north of here, can verify that. When he and his congregation of 60 asked for "the makin's" of a bear feast to celebrate the 192nd anniversary of their church next Sunday, they were quickly assured they could have a 275-pound sow bruin.

But the congregation had to advertise for a recipe to renew the church's traditional anniversary bear feast. Lower Male or Female? Who Can DENVER (AP) A cruiser policeman radioed other officers to watch for a car full of boys "with long hah-." Police dispatcher: "Was there a girl in the car?" Policeman: "It was hard to tell." The church probably collected enough culinary advice in the past ten days to provide a different-tasting bear-feast for several anniversaries. "We were buried with bear recipes," said the Rev. Mr. Gluck.

And he's gotten a kick out of reading them. Nearly all the recipes included instructions for marinating, or pickling the bear meat. But the duration of the soaking varied from two weeks to as little as 25 minutes. The ingredients of the pickling and basting juices were different in most of the recipes. One wag footnoted his instructions with this advice: "After properly pickling bear for 24 flours and basting for another five hours, throw out the meat and serve the juice." Rev.

Gluck said those who had tasted bear meat say either, "It's horrible," or it's "the best wild game ever put or a table." There apparently aren't many "middle-of-the road" bear eaters. Nuns Will Teach Lock Haven Laymen to Teach Religion With the closing of the prochial high school in the city, both St. Agnes and the Immaculate Conception parishes have made arrangements for teaching 40 to 50 laymen who will become certified to teach Roman Catholic religion classes in 'the fall. Two mission nuns of the Sacred Heart from Baltimore, will arrive at I.C. church Monday, July 24, for a two-week leadership course in methodology on the elementary and high school level.

The course is free and volunteers are invited to sign up, the Rev. Eugene C. Parrish and the Rev. John J. Burbardt said.

1 6UKS7HEAVWWAS The camel may become extinct. Predicts a gloomy Egyptian official: "Twenty-five years from now the number of camels in Egypt will not be worth talking about." The reason: trucks and airplanes are replacing them. And some Egyptian gourmets have developed a taste for camel cutlets. broadly interdenominational, it was initiated in 1965 by the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice, which still serves as its secretariate. Ahmann, the conference's executive director, said the project enables the churches to tie their "moral message to their spending" and to make their commitment to racial justice mean more than mere talk.

"The response from the business community has been very good," he said, adding that city and state -units of the major religious bodies also are widely joining in the program. However, there has been occasional opposition from some individuals and congregations. Criticism came this week from the Catholic Weekly, Ave Maria, which called the program coercive." "It is a direct attempt to force compliance with certain standards of employment practices," it added. Questioning whether this is "wise in view of the history of church attempts to use military, political ande conomic power," the editorial adds: "Patterns indicate pretty clearly that every time churchmen turned to economic, political and military means to achieve their goals, the tools were badly handled." However, Ahmann and others maintain the project is not coercive. "We're not in any position to close out businesses," he said.

"We are simply giving preferences to those firms that go out of their way to be fair in their employment policies and take affirmative steps to overcome past patterns of discrimination." Says'Christians Get No Respect Today NEW ORLEANS world has no respect for Christians today because it knows we are simply faking it," says the Rev. Dr. Malcolm 0. Tol- jert of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He told a student missions New York Hilton Hotel and prayed about it.

Besides a general sag in financial support, what especially worried the 2.8-million-member church, second largest in American Lutheranism, was that a 1967 capital fund drive for $40 million has yielded only $5.25 million. Theological ferment in the denomination has been alluded to as part of the difficulty crippling the fund drive. The church's president, the Rev. Dr. Oliver R.

Harms, said earlier: "If I did not know the devil's influence I would be completely mystified how this effort, intended to bring out the best in many of us, has instead brought so little good and so much else in so many of us." He referred to those who "prefer to find fault with someone or something rather than to trust the power of God at work in them." The campaign, in which all members are urged to make a gift of gratitude on their birthdays, is designed to meet capital needs in overseas missions church colleges and seminaries, and extending domestic missions. REV. J. CARL WILLIAMS is the new pastor of the Trinity Methodist Church in Lock Haven. He succeeds the Rev.

L. Allyn Welliver. N.Y. Slum Youth Say Sky's Heaven NEW YORK (AP) For 27 minutes the dull heat and endless scuffle of the slums were far away, and for 158 Brooklyn kids home became the sky and a jet plane. "Hey, we're in heaven," one voice said.

We've Passed God," said The voices belonged to children riding Sunday as guests aboard a jetliner from John F. Kennedy Airport. Their trip was arranged through the Mayor's Citizens Summer Committee Pro gram which officers activities designed to keep young people boo busy with other things to become Involved in summer violence. Overseas National Airways has pledged to take 1,000 city children up for a "once around the neighborhood" ride on their jets before school begins in September. Snooks Go to Canada The Rev.

John E. Snook and family plan a vacation to the Finger Lakes and Canada, beginning July 25th. Guest ministers will fill the pulpit of St. Luke's United Church of Christ in Mr. Snook's absence.

German Churches Do Baffle with German Communists conference: "Jesus himself fully with identified those He came to reach, in their anguish, agony, dirt and disease. We say that we believe in Him, and yet we raise barriers that keep he world from coming in con- act with us. 'We must point people to God by our willingness to relate to hem. I am spending my ife separated from the people Jesus spent His life surrounded who are outside the of human respectability. God does accept the sinner, and as long as we Christians do not, the world faking." LAND CHECK Mother Ancille uses a camera to record garden scene at Lady- well Convent in Godalming, England, where nuns and novices are running a 100-acre farm.

will know we're ONE WE A R-NOW the June bride can save on expenses with this gown made of paper. by Paco Rabanne and shown in Paris, can be discarded after KM ceremony. Advocates Using Jazz in Church DALLAS (AP) Churches should make use of "all the sources of music, both tradition al and contemporary," says the Methodist Commission on Worship. Its chairman, Bishop Lance Webb of Springfield, 111., said this includes jazz, folk music, guitars, drums, trumpets and other wind and string instruments, in addition to the traditional organ and piano. Kenneth Olson Dies EVANSTON, 111., (AP) -Kenneth E.

Olson, dean emeritus of the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism died of a heart attack Thursday at the age of 71. Underworld King Dies LIDO BEACH, N. Y. (AP) Thomas Gaetano Luchese, described by police as one of the lords of the underworld, died Thursday at his $100,000 home at the age of 67. TEENS read newspapers, too.

Surveys reveal the fact that papers exert real influence on their habits. Advertising can reach them through Express and The Evening News. KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL litter doesn't happen. People cause it- and only people can prevent it means you 3i putiiK servue in coop The Council By HUBERT J. ERB BERLIN (AP) The East German Communist regime remains locked in a struggle with religion that lies largely beneath the surface but sometimes shoots off sparks like a smoldering volcano.

Officially, the regime allows religious worship. But it will not allow large numbers of West Germans to come to East Germany for the October celebration of the 450th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in Wittenberg. Martin Luther lies buried in the Wittenberg Castle church where he posted the 95 theses that launched the Reformation. His heritage is one of the things that Germans East and West, have in common. Some 80 per cent of East Germany's population of 17 million are Protestants, mostly Lutheran.

About 10 per cent of the population is Roman Catholic. In East Germany the Protestant Church carries the major burden of opposing the official atheism of the state. Elsewhere in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, the Roman or Orthodox Churches bear the brum of Communist repression. A major problem facing both the Protestant and Catholic faiths is getting government permission to build churches and the money and the materials to build them with. Many churches are still in ruins from the war, although some of general historical or architectural value have been rebuilt.

For the Protestants, money is less of a problem since each church member pays an annual tax, one per cent of his income to the church. This is traditional in Germany. Because of its smallness, the Roman Catholic Church faces less open opposition from the government than do the Protestants. An aide to Alfred Cardinal Bengsch said in East Berlin recently: "We make ourselves no illusions. One of the reasons we are deft alone as much as we are is because we are so few." Bengsch himself is one of the few direct ties between East and West Berlin.

Residing in East Berlin, he is allowed to go to West Berlin three days a month to minister to the 250,000 Catholics there. At 45 the youngest cardinal in the church, Bengsch became Berlin's bishop only days after the Communists had built the wall dividing the city and his diocese, on Aug. 13, 1961. Both sides in the church-state battle try to capture the minds of the young. The Communists have instituted the Jugendweihe, a ceremony in which a boy or a girl of 14 swears allegiance to the state on the basis of atheistic and Marxist principles.

Protestant opposition to the state ceremony can vary from parish to parish. Said one East Berlin man, for example: "We have a new and young (Protestant) pastor. Although the church is willing to bend a little, he is not. He says, 'If you go to the Jugendweihe, don't come back He has plunged the whole parish into a crisis." The Catholic Church goes easy on actual punishment for those" who attend the state ceremony. There was a time when it was said that if a child did not go to the Jugendweihe, his career was as good as over.

In some places this apparently is still true. But in manpower-short East cWmany, the regime, too, has learned to bend a little. Said a parish priest, "We try to get our children to religious instruction when they start school. If we succeed, they generally will skip the Jungend- weihe. If we don't, maybe 50 per cent or more will go to the state ceremony." "We also make every effort to see that our children scholastically are near the top of their class.

This puts the state in the position of having to reject a good student and potentially valuable contributor to the society as a whole. We have found that, faced with this decision, they will let a child continue higher education even if he or she did not the Jugend- weihe or join Communist youth organizations." Priests emphasize theolog talk in their sermons because is possible for them to draw Scripture and parable to expre. a point running counter to tt regime. "The Communists," or priest declared, "are often bound up on their own dialectic that they do not realize what being said. If you know yoi church, however, you will kno what we are talking about.

It a trick we first learned undt the Nazis." The courage of its convictior has stood the church in goo stead in East Germany undt two totalitarian regimes, the Nazis for 12 years and no for 22 years under communisn Bible: A book that tells us 1 love our neighbors and enernie probably because they're th same people. 1 1 MB 1 The age of 14 is critical because it -is then that school authorities decide if a child is to go on in school or should learn trade. This also is traditional for all of Germany. Catholic tutoring to help give then- children an edge is but one of the many subtle expressions of underground warfare. Another is preaching.

THE QUESTION OP REQUIREMENTS FOR SALVATION IS SETTLED Scripture Acts FROM time to time in the history of the church it has been expedient for its leaders to conduct church councils to determine and maintain purity and truth in matters of faith and action. The first such council provides the basis for today's lesson. It was convened at Jerusalem in the year A.D. 50 to determine the authority of the law of Moses and adjust the differences between Jewish and Gentile Christianity. Through, the ministries of the apostles, the early church was experiencing a phenomenal growth.

Thousands of Gentiles were declaring their belief in Christ and experiencing full salvation. Yet, some Jewish Christians, though sincere believers, were insistent that these Gentiles would not be accepted by God unless they were circumcised "after the manner of Moses." Not content with holding 1 such convictions themselves, they began proclaiming it in the churches in and around Jerusalem and even as far away as Antioch. In Antioch, Luke tells us, Paul and Barnabas discussed this with the Judaizers, a discussion that grew so heated that the Antioch church decided Savior of the world, and he sought to reveal this, and the fact that God did not limit the gospel to the Jews alone, 3o hla listeners. After much discussion PeUr took the floor and showed his true colors by coming to Faul't defense. He showed the circumstances surrounding the conversion of the Gentiles as a very real expression of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Their had been purified by faith and God had blessed them, yet they were uncircumclsed in fact, they had not yet been baptized. God had made no distinction between Jew and Gentile, between circumcised and unclr- cumcised. If God put no difference between Jew and Gentile Christians, why, then, should man make trial of God by trying to reconstruct ritualistic barriers which He had broken down? Ending his defense, Peter drew the only conclusion that seemed reasonable. The grace of Jesus Christ had saved Gentile Christians; their tion was the same salvation Jewish Christians recognized. Their faith made them whole and that was sufficient.

Peter and Barnabas offered. GOLDEN TEXT I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of Qod unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." Romans 1:16. to send Paul, Barnabas and cer-similar evidence gleaned from The Council at Jerusalem ILLUSTRATED SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON By Alfred J. Buescher MTERESTCP IECWMI MMMKR CMMMT Christians believing- in strict adherence to the laws of in Antioch to demand circumcision of gentile Acts Paul and Barnabas head the Antioch delegation to bring- the matter before the mother church at Jerusalem and have it settled once and for Acts Addressing the council, Peter showed that God made no distinction between Jew arid Gentile, circumcised, and un- eircumcised, so why should Acts James worked out a compromise based upon Peter's testimony and the prophetic teachings of Amos. GOLJDEN TEXT: Romans 1:16.

tain others to Jerusalem to bring the matter before the entire church and settle it once and for all. We are not told how many persons accompanied the apostles to Jerusalem, but it seems there was a sizable delegation. They were met by the apostles and elders of the Jerusalem church, to whom they reported the positive effects of the spread of Christianity among the Gentiles and witnessed to "all things that God had done with them." Though the controversy which brought them to Jerusalem was relagated to second place by the Antiochenes, a group of Christians from the Pharisees sect, who believed in strict adherence to the laws of Moses, brought the subject up immediately and declared that redemption for the Gentiles depended upon their being circumcised and keeping the law of Moaea. On missionary journey Paul had come to see no difference between Jew and Gentile, that God looked upon all men as worthy to receive the good news that His Son is the their apostolic labors and then James took the floor. Faced with two staunchly opposing ideas, a compromise in order and he provided it with, a fourfold prohibition baaed upon the facts related by Peter and the missionary apostles and the prophetic teachings of God has a chosen people) among the Gentiles and meattt them to be included -in church.

There is nothing 1 new in this, for it was told by the prophets that the Gentiles would seek Him. Though it wai expected that the Gentiles would be gathered in by becoming Jews, this is not-Hid mean- 3 ing. Jews and Gentiles are fel-" low-heirs to the promises of God. Therefore, neither Jewish nor Gentile Christian, should needlessly harass their brethren. Word should be sent to Antioch, by letter and by mouth, that Jew and Gentile alike need but faith to be saved, but must company their faith with righfrT eous living, including from idolatry, fornication, murder and eating flesh with blood in it (inevitable when animals are killed by strangulation).

Rued on copyrighted outllnei produced by the Dlvlitoni of Chrlitltn Education, National Council of Churchei. of chrlit in the U.S.A., and una by ptrmlMfoi, Distributed by Kiiut fttturM firodictu.