Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 11

THE DETROIT DAILY PRESS A-ll RELIGION Parish Comes Alive Holiness Techniques Revive Staid Lutheran Church Sunday, August 16, 1964 i ikrMzpC? BY HILEY H. WARD Death hovers around the 66-year-old German speak have a Bible study. When something goes wrong such as when one youth was apprehended for involvement in a school stabbing the teens all join in prayer for their erring member. PENTECOSTAL INFLUENCE grams, community action are done by members of the congregation. He has no evangelism or stewardship committee.

"If our present congregation lives the faith and exercises the ministries it has been given, growth will continue to take care of itself." In the six years, the balcony has been re opened to handle the Sunday morning attendance of 300. Membership climbed back to 350. The budget jumped from $18,000 to $32,000. "We feel it is better to suffer for lack of funds (which has never happened) than to canvass for church pledges," he says. He believes canvassing for funds "alienates suspicions which many tend to have that the church is a racket more interested in funds than anything else." His book table sells conservative Moody Bible books books, as well as those of his own and other denominations.

"To conform to the standard," he says, "is to die in the city." Bieber is strongly influenced by a Pentecostal pastor whom he came to know in Nova Scotia. He practices "speak ing in tongues" in his own pri vate devotions, but has not brought this phenomena prac ticed in the early life of the church to his parish for fear of the abuses of overemphasis on strange, incomprehensible sounds. He says, "I became con vinced that in spite of excesses and in spite of the fact that their 'positive emphasis' some times distorts the truth, the Pentecostals have something. I decided that Pentecostal excesses are less harmful to the church than much main line Protestant sterility." He refuses to have any pro fessional help on his staff, not even a secretary. Secretary work, parish visiting, hospital calls, youth recreational pro Children loudly, with Pastor Bieber, the wall almost zoom away t) A t' II '') i jwi I if Iff 1 1 1 V' ii fmr iii iff i'hiii mi' i iii f.ii'iif iii liT.tit--" rf 1T iatiT.ww i i i 1 fbrH i i -sr I 'i jt 1 to i i -T 4 -s 1 A ing Messian a Church, 3816 Toledo, like a team of wicked vultures.

Seven desolate food warehouses, with windows broken, stand next door as mute evidence of impending By rights, Messiah church should be dead. Its former congregation once 1,000 strong in the 20's has largely moved cut. Six years ago death was close, though there was still some life. Attendance was down to 100, membership to 230. Then came a young pastor from out of the sticks in Nova Scotia.

His name is Richard Ernst Bieber. His ideas were different. He changed the image of the church so much that Southern whites, Negroes, Maltese, Mexicans, former members in suburbs all began to flock in. Messiah is the only truly successfully integrated Lu theran church in the 130-mem- ber church Michigan Synod of the Lutheran Church in America, says the Rev. Howard Christenson, of the District office.

"Pastor Bieber's doing an outstanding job." WEARS A CASSOCK Bieber has kept the basic liturgy, and wears the formal surplice and cassock on Sun day morning. He no longer makes the sign of the cross He stands out in front of the pulpit when he preaches. He has issued altar calls, and whites and Negroes come down the aisle to the altar together. He has had his congrega tion members turn around dur ing a Sunday morning service and shake hands with the per sons next to them. Occasion ally there's a "alleluia," or a "glory!" shout.

There are services of prayer for healing (but testimonies to healing are not encouraged). There's an old-time prayer service and Bible study on Wednesday night. The men come out for a special Bible study of their own on Monday nights. The teens He says one-third of the 825, 000 persons on the island of Trinidad are Catholics, but there are only 60 priests. Only 11 have been ordained in the last two years there, he said.

Winston promises to go back to Trinidad and "teach in his school, if he will have me." pected to move into the cooperative organization for the first time as the NLC revamps its membership as a result of recent. Lutheran mergers. Larsen will assist in evaluating the effects of racial tension and other factors in inner city life and will also set up human relationi conferences. church pays high demolition costs Pastor Bieber loosens tie daring give-take Bible study I If" shout their action songs so This land 10,000 Disciples To Meet More than 10,000 members of the Disciples of Christ will review their constitution and look toward more centraliza tion in their International Con vention in Detroit, Oct. 2-7.

'We will decide whether we want to become a delegate convention in the future," said the Rev. Jack Clark, of Pon tiac. The church policy is now decided by those who register at a convention. The denomination, organ ized by Alexander Campbell, in the last century is a network of 8,000 "autonomous" or independent churches with about 2 million members. The denomination will de cide also whether it wants to continue in a series of 6-way merger talks initiated by the Blake-Pike proposal and what representative group of the de nomination would have authority to carry on negotiations.

The Rt. Rev. J. E. Lesslie Newbigin, bishop of the church of South India, and currently director of the Division of World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches, Geneva, will be the speaker at a church unity service on Sunday, Oct.

4, in Cobo Hall. Other speakers will include the Rev. Dr. Ben M. Herbster, president of the United Church of Christ and George J.

Hammond, editor of the Christian Advocate, Bourne mouth, England. The Rev. Dr. A. Dale Fiers will be installed as the new executive secretary of the International ft-sS 'SiisS Episcopalians Stall On 6 -Way Merger The nation's Episcopalians served notice this week they State Hosts Cursillo Meeting Should the popular Cursillo Movement now 15 years old become organized in the U.S.? More than 1,000 Roman Catholic laymen and women from across North America will decide this question in the sixth national Cursillo Conference next Wednesday through Saturday at Michigan State University.

The Cursillo Movement Is an intense study program, usually conducted for a week' end. It began in Majorca off the coast of Spain in 1949 and came to the U.S. through the efforts of Spanish soldiers stationed in Texas. Cursillo comes from "Cur-sillos de Cristiandad," which means "Little Courses in Chris tianity." NEW ENTHUSIASM' Those who have taken the cursillo or course usually con tinue their fellowship throughout the year. Those who at tena tne courses speaK or a new enthusiasm in their faith and outlook in life.

Main convention speakers include Harry Golden, pub lisher of the Carolina Israelite, author, columnist; William Jacobs, managing editor, Ave Maria; the Most Rev. G. Em mett Carter, bishop of London, Ontario; the Most Rev. Ernest J. Primeau, bishop of Man Chester, N.

the Rev. Father Dennis Geaney, O.S.A., author and expert on the laity; the Rt. Rev. Msgr. Clement Kern, Most Holy Trinity Parish, De troit, which serves a large Spanish-speaking community.

RESOLUTION DEFEATED A resolution to set up an official Cursillo secretariat was roundly debated at last year's convention in Austin, and was defeated 2 to 1. The Most Rev. Joseph H. Albers, bishop of Lansing, will keynote the convention 8 p.m. Wednesday.

General chairmen, who will also be speakers next Saturday, are Chief Justice Thomas M. Kavanagh, of the Michigan State Supreme Court, and State Sen. John P. Smeekens, president protem of the Michigan Senate. lnMIMWaMltl JmoU Primeau Golden Carter will not enter official merger negotiations with five other denominations with whom they have had preliminary talks for the last four years.

Father Max Murphy: A cold cily. but warm friends Missioner Seeks Help Here has been offered Bieber if Trinidad BY HILEY H. WARD When the Rev. Father Max Murphy became a priest 30 years ago, he was one of an exclusive dozen Catholic priests. A Negro priest was indeed rare then.

Now there are still only hardly more than 12 dozen of his kind. Father Mur phy, 60, is a mission repre- a tive of Port of Spain, Trinidad. The native -born Texan has the 750-family Richardt St. Philip and St. James church there since 1937.

He's built a 600 student high school, several elementary schools, started a credit union and worked hand in hand with community leaders to organize clinics and welfare projects. Father Murphy wai in De- if- V- 5 'A i and elsewhere," he diocesan priest, he been traveling ever since he studied theology in Czechoslovakia back in the 30s. He says he has been talking up the idea of exchanging Detroit and other seminarians with seminarians in Trinidad. airports said. A The 3.3 million member Protestant Episcopalian Church becomes the second major denomination to turn thumbs down on the merger proposal that would bring together 23 million U.S.

Prot estants. Methodists, 10-million strong, also balked at entering official talks at their annual meeting last spring. "Before any commitment should be made to the negotiation of a plan of union there must be sufficient theological consensus to support this activity with the promise of achievement," the report of the Episcopal Joint Commission Approaches to Unity says. The report will be presented to the Church's governing legislative bodies when they meet in St. Louis, Oct.

11-23. The Episcopalians had been asked to adopt a proposal that would authorize a drafting of a plan of union. New Episcopalians would not withdraw, however, the report says, from the annual meeting of the representatives of the six churches for further unofficial talks. Involved in the talks besides the Episcopalians, are the United Presbyterians, Methodists, Disciples of Christ, the United Church of Christ, and the Evangelical United Brethren Churches. To date, the Presbyterians, the Disciples, and the UCC have approved formal negotia- tions and delegated the au thority to participate in drawing up a merger plan.

The EUB will not have occasion to decide before 1966. The merger plan was proposed by the Rev. Eugene Carson Blake, chief executive officer of the Presbyterians, in a sermon Dec. 6, 1961, in Episcopal Bishop James Pike's cathedral in San Francisco. The plan seeks to combine traditions that are Protestant and Catholic, as was done in merged Church of South India.

Episcopalians, with their emphasis on an unbroken ordain ing of clergy by a laying on of hands in direct succession of the Apostles, and a liturgical based rite, emphasizing the sacraments, are the most "catholic" of the six. Michigan bishop Richard S. Emrich is one of 15 members of the Commission making the report. The Ecumenical Officer of the Episcopalians, Peter Day, of New York, said the door was still open for Episcopalians to enter serious talks of merger later. "The Commission simply feels that this is not the time to make further commitment to the Consultation on Church Union," Day said, "but if the Consultation wants to discuss a plan of union on a purely theoretical basis, that is a different matter.

The Consultation is still at a conversational rather Hhan a commitment stage Name Detroiter To Inner-City Post An unusual Lutheran inter-church move has been announced in Chicago involving a Detroit pastor. troit this week seeking funds for his schools and a 23-year-old seminary. He met with a former stu dent, Winston Richards, now a Ph.D. candidate in mathematics at Wayne State University. The two greeted each, other fondly at the Most Holy Trinity parish, despite the fact that Father Murphy once gave Richards a sound whipping for a shoddy job with his Latin.

"He has never said thank you for giving him the licking he needed," said Father Murphy, laughing. Father Murphy clutched an empty bufferin bottle, saying he's been plagued with head aches here, brought on, he thought, by the sudden cold weather. Things are brighter for the Negro, he notices, in his travels. "I used to be the only Negro on a flight. Now there are others and you see Negroes in responsible jobs at the The Rev.

Donald H. Larsen, 39, pastor of the St. Andrew- Redeemer Missouri-Synod Lutheran church in Detroit has been named as an assistant secretary of urban church planning of the National Lutheran Council's Division of American Missions. The Missouri-Synod does not belong to the NLC, but is ex I.