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REPORT

The Findings Committee

of the

NATIONAL HOME
MISSIONS CONGRESS

in session at
COLUMBUS, OHIO

JANUARY 24-27, 1950

INTRODUCTION

I. This National Home Missions Congress is the second such gathering
sponsored by the Home Missions Council of North America. The first
was held in Washington, D. C. in December 1930 as a phase in a Five Year
Program of Survey and Adjustment in which the Home Missions Council
had the active cooperation of other general interdenominational agencies.
This Five Year Program was occasioned by the recognition of the far-
reaching changes in American life and in the work of the Church which
followed in the wake of the first World W'ar. Many of its hopes and plans
for advance in home missions were inevitably modified b)' the depression.

Tire present Congress is the culmination of a series of studies initiated
at the close of the second M'orld War and which have been concerned with
the problems and opportunities of home missions in the post-war world.
Preliminary reports of these studies have been made at each recent annual
meeting of the Home Missions Congress. The body of delegates as-
sembled here is perhaps the most widely representative group that has
ever attended such a home mission gathering, including as it does pastors,
laymen, both men and women and yOung people. Board members and
staff, missionaries from widely scattered fields, representatives of Theologi-
cal Seminaries and Colleges, and of many related interdenominational
agencies and of other causes of the Church.

The central purpose of the Congress has been conceived of as a re-
view and appraisal of the entire present enterprise of home missions in
the light of all significant present conditions and trends in America and
the world, and the charting of the course to be followed in the years ahead
by the Home Missions agencies and by the Church as a whole in the fuller
attainment of the objectives of a Christian America and a Christian world.

II. As we have entered this Congress we have realized that we have solid
ground on which to build. We have no sense that Home Missions has failed
or that we have to start de novo to create a missionary enterprise adequate
to the day. Over the years. Home Missions has done a difficult task well,
according to the needs and the resources of each period. With simple be-
ginnings, its development paralleled every stage in the development of the
nation as it sought to extend the preaching of the Gospel, to establish and
nurture the institutions of religion, to lay the foundations of Christian com-
munity life, to extend a ministry and fellowship to all types of people, to
serve in all areas of need that challenge Christian conceptions of well be-
ing, and to impress the spirit of Christ on all of life.

Obviously, such a task could never be completed, partly because it
was always beyond the capacity of the Church but partly because neither
the nation nor the Church ever stopped growing and changing. Our present
problem is in part that we still have unmet the historic needs for evan-
gelistic outreach, for new church development and for missionary service,
in larger measure and with greater urgency than ever. But it is e\en more
because the day for which this historic program was developed and to
which it was relevant has gone. The present day demands new insights,
new emphases and, above all, a new spirit, purpose and practice of unity.
W'e may well thank God for all that the home missionary forces have ac-
complished to this point. But we must accept the responsibility to give our
day as devoted and as consecrated a service as they gave theirs.

III. W'hile we recognize with the Amsterdam Assembly of the World
Council of Churches that the mission of the Church is fundamentally the
same everywhere in the world and that the churches of the West as well
as the East now confront a missionary situation in which the claims of
the Gospel are to be asserted over against aggressive alternative faiths
and anti-faiths, we believe it is necessary to take account of distinctive
elements in the environment and task of Home Missions in America.
We would affirm the validity of the historic home missionary aim —
which is nothing less than the lx)ld intention of Christianizing the life
of our nation. We believe that in a definable sense this is a realistic goal.
Despite the inroads of secularism, the indifference of multitudes of nom-
inal Christians, and the slow pace of evangelization, a large majority of the
I)eople of the United States and Canada would acknowledge that the
best elements in their common life derive from the Christian faith and
tradition.

Mr. T. S. Eliot has pointed out that a culture which avows Christian
origins remains in some sense Christian until it is ]X)sitively displaced by a
different form of society. This displacement has occured in many parts
of the world in recent years. It has not happened in America. Christianity
is a mass-movement among our people. The norms by which we judge
our ]wivate and collective behavior have their sanction in the Christian
faith and ethic. Within the last five years the American people, acting
through their government, have performed acts of international generosity
which cynics would have judged impossible for any nation. That this
generosity has not been without consideration of self-interest does not
remove the large element of authentic altruism from such actions nor
alter the fact that they are motivated in part by a genuine Christian
concern.

W'e believe that in this setting the Church has certain duties which
may lujt be as clear in lands where the Christian Community is a small

minority subject to restraint or persecution. In the United States and
Canada the Church has such freedom of action and such weight of in-
fluence that it is required to assume large responsibility for the character
of our society. In this situation descriptions of the Church which suggest
that it is an “underground,” or “cell,” or is driven into the catacombs,
become expressions of irresponsibility. The Church in America can
prosecute its mission in the open and must dare to speak of the making
of a “Christian nation.” Where this is true, the Church must appraise
its missionary work by exacting standards of competency and eflfectual
action in public life.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON PARTICULAR
FIELDS OF INTEREST

The following conclusions and recommendations are based on
the discussions and findings of the ten seminars into which this
Congress was divided.

THE RURAL HOME MISSION TASK

ASPECTS OF THE SITUATION

Among many aspects of the situation considered were :

1. The contributions constantly being made by the rural
churches and communities to the church at large. Rural com-
munities have been “seedbeds” of population and rural churches
have sent many members into other churches and have furnished
much of the professional leadership of the church at large.

2. The high mobility of the population continues to affect town
and country churches.

3. Rural church life is increasingly centered in villages and
towns.

4. A rapid increase in the rural, non-farm population, bringing
new people, new opportunities, new problems to the rural
churches.

5. The typical rural church program is meager. Large num-
bers of pastors are without special training and without ade-
quate compensation.

6. There are too many small churches for effective service, and
there is urgent need for creative adjustments which will bring
about a better distribution of churches.

7. The rural churches work with a limited theory of parish
work which has not met community needs.

8. A study by H. Paul Douglass appearing in the January,
1950, Town and Country Church, sums up data on trends in over
1,200 rural churches over a 15-year period. This reveals that
40 per cent of the churches were declining in membership, 40
per cent were gaining over 10 per cent, and 20 per cent had sta-
tionary memberships.

9. Churches in many types of communities have peculiar prob-
lems in accordance with regional characteristics. These are
described in the report of the 1949 National Convocation on the
Church in Town and Country, published in the February, 1950,
Town and Country Church.

RECOMMENDATIONS

TRAINING

The town and country ministry should have the best possible training,
cultural and professional, for a career of service in the town and country
church.

Seminaries should provide a basic course for all students on social
organizations' of the community and on church administration for both
urban and rural work.

Seminaries should so arrange offerings as to give opportunity for a
period of “interneship” preceding the senior year of study.

The national boards of home missions should take steps to e.stablish
a complete in-service training program — on all educational levels — as may
be needed denominationally and interdenominationally ; this to be arranged
in cooperation with agricultural colleges, theological seminaries and liberal
arts colleges.

The Committee on Town and Country should bring together teachers
of rural church work for exchange of experience and for planning and im-
proving curricula.

L.\Y PARTICIPATION

We recommend recruiting la\' leadership on a wide scale by local
churches, and formal installation of laymen in their offices.

The best possible training should be made available to laymen now-
serving temporarily as pastors in the local churches.

There should be regular and full consultation between minister and
lay leaders in the congregation.

There should be a spread of responsibility by rotation of offices.

RURAL ASPECTS OF COMITY

A comity committee of a council of churches is the place to go
when a denomination or a community faces a problem of inter-
church relations.

We recommend lay representation on all comity committees.

A survey of the field is a prerequisite to good procedure in
comity. We recommend that the Home Missions Council prepare
simple survey forms for interdenominational use.

We commend Section D. iii. 5, a., b., c., of “The Comity Report”
compiled by H. Paul Douglass.

Comity should be speeded up by various educational methods.

e. g., training of lay leaders. The Home Missions Council should
prepare comity literature for use by lay groups.

SALARIES

Adequate salaries for rural pastors are a means by which better
trained ministers and longer pastorates may be achieved ; we there-
fore recommend the following :

1. An intensified stewardship educational program in every
local church is of prime importance to the solution of the problem.

2. In order that a greater sense of dignity and worth of calling
may be maintained and a more effective Christian ministry be made
to the community, we call upon local churches and denominational
leaders to recognize more fully the importance of the problem and
that they seek more urgently its solution.

3. Denominational bodies should be more aggressive in setting
salary standards, — including personal salary, parish expense, such
as auto, utilities and postage, pensions and manse, — and in seek-
ing their adoption by the local church.

4. We recognize that the positive practice of comity and the
organization of church life on a community or interdenominational
basis with the elimination of useless competition among- churches,
will help to secure a more adequate salary.

5. In some instances denominations may need to assist local
churches to meet these standards. Wherever this is necessary, such
assistance should be by wise counsel and carefully considered
financial grants.

THE SUPERVISION OF TOWN AND COUNTRY CHURCHES

We find and recognize three major patterns of supervision employed
for local churches :

1. Supervision of a larger area such as a state, presided over by a
full-time executive.

2. Supervision of a smaller area such as a district, in which the
executive channels the whole program of the denomination down to the
local churches.

3. Supervision of a group of local churches in a limited geographic
area aided by a council composed of representatives of the churches.

We recommend that the Home Missions Council appoint a commis-
sion whose task it shall be to gather information relative to procedures,
and to secure statements or stories from various denominational agencies
regarding practices of supervision at these three levels, and that this

compilation be made available through the columns of “The Town and
Country Church” or other suitable medium.

SOME ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ASPECTS

We recommend that every rural church have a “land and home” com-
mittee to note farms for sale or openings that exist for small businesses,
and encourage the purchase of these farms and businesses by young fami-
lies in the community.

We recommend that funds for the Farmers Home Administration be
greatly increased for loans to tenants wishing to become owners. We call
attention to the fact private funds can be loaned through the Farmers’
Home Administration to encourage farm ownership by tenants and other
young people.

W'e recommend that the benefits of minimum wage legislation and Old
Age and Survivors’ Insurance be extended to all farm labor. We recom-
mend that employers of farm labor in our local churches take similar action.

W^e recommend that church members develop father-and-son agree-
ments for the purpose of keeping farms in the hands of families.

We recommend that denominational agencies study the possibility of
making available funds for loans to encourage farm ownership.

We recommend that a written, long-term profit showing lease be used
in agriculture.

\\’e call upon state and county councils to conduct institutes on the
church and the family farm, in cooperation with denominations and in-
terested local churches.

RURAL URBAN ASPECTS

The Home Missions Council should set up a joint city-rural committee
or conference group to consider responsibilities for populations in which
both city and rural church administrators have an interest.

Urban churches should assist the rural churches by providing financial
resources for home missions to strengthen the rural church ; by encouraging
members who move out of the city into the “fringe” areas surrounding
cities to affiliate with churches in communities where the people live.

In the “fringe” area, the people should have a community church with
a small “c”. That is, the church should be denominationally related but
inclusive enough in its fellowship so as to minister to people with differing
backgrounds.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Pastors should be adequately prepared for religious education in the
rural church. Field work for seminary students should be provided in rural
religious education. The large parish plan encourages thorough religious
education through a professional director.

There is need for home study by rural church members ; workers con-
ferences for leadership training ; camps for the various age groups.

We do not propose that separate curricula material be prepared for
use in rural churches, but we do recommend that there is need to consider
the situation of the small church in preparing literature.

WOMEN’S PROGRAMS

The main function of women’s organizations is to undergird the total
program of the church. Town and country church women should become
more active in adapting and carrying out women’s work programs of study
and action. W'omen’s organizations should be kept active in pastorless
churches. Town and country church women should know their own com-
munity as a basis for effective work.

YOUTH

There is need for youth to be represented on the official boards of
churches, local, state, national, so that they may have a fuller share in the
total program of the church.

THE CHURCH BUILDING

Inadequate buildings handicap many parishes. A structure can be
efficient and beautiful without being expensive. Expert advice should be
sought, either from denominational sources or from the Interdenomina-
tional Bureau of Architecture, for remodeling or for new construction.

The church must be first of all a place of worship. It must be adequate
for religious education, and for week-day activities. The grounds should
l)e landscaped. No matter how small the church is, it should have a plan,
and this should include provision for necessary church equipment.

TRANSFER OF NON-RESIDENT MEMBERS

There is need for state councils of churches to establish clearing houses
for recording names of non-resident members and transmitting them to
councils of churches and ministers.

Persons lea\ ing a community should in general affiliate with a church
in the community in which they are taking up residence. The best interests
of both church and community are served in this fashion.

DEXO.MIXATIOXAL PUBLICITY FOR IXTER-DEXOMIXA-

TIOXAL WORK

More should be done by denominational headquarters to inform
local ])astors and lay persons as to when and how denominations are
cooperating in cooperative programs. Such information is highly
necessary to help cultivate concern in a vital unified service.

CHURCH COOPERATIOX WITH COMMUXITY AGENCIES

The rural church should know the other agencies at work in the
community. The church should assist in the correlation of community
agencies for exchange of experience, for community study, formulation
of policy, etc. The church should give direction to creative moral force
through community agencies.

THE COUNTY SEAT CHURCH

The Home Missions Council should studv and survey the relation
of the county-seat or town church to the total program of the church
in the county.

The Home Missions Council should study the possibilities of organiz-
ing interdenominational church work on a county basis.

Encouragement should be given to developing of a fellowship be-
tween town and country through the county-seat church.

THh: RURAL CHURCH AND ITS OVERSEAS OUTREACH

1. Material Aid for Overseas Relief

We propose that the Protestant denominational and interdenom-
inational agencies should consolidate the appeals for overseas relief
into a single program.

2. Rural Residence for Foreign Students

A vast number of the 27,000 of foreign students in the U. S. A.
will return to village society. The above material aid agency should
co-ordinate with student agencies of the colleges in order to give
these students an opportunity to spend vacations in rural commu-
nities, countrv churches and farm families.

THE URBAN FIELD

Over-all Strategy

In each city there should be a Protestant strategy covering all groups,
especially those of low income.

Wherever its members live, the local urban church has a special re-
sponsibility for the people of its neighborhood. As neighborhoods change
in racial or language character, there should be conference among the
churches involved to determine how the transition should be faced in order
to make the adjustment as continuously as possible, rather than the abrupt
sale of a property by one group to an entirely different one. Gradual
changes in paid personnel and the volunteer leadership should make plain
that whatever the predominant social group, the church is a fellowship of
all believers.

The church school continues to show little growth even in a time of
tremendous increase of the birth rate. A large percentage of the child-
hood of urban America resides in depressed metropolitan areas. A stronger
ministry to the inner city, where a great segment of tomorrow’s citizens
live, is urgently required, if the church is to overcome secularism and give
the Christian witness to the corporate life of America.

Local churches, mission boards and councils of churches should
especiallv address themselves to bringing the Christian witness to the de-
pressed neighborhood, as a sound investment for the Kingdom of God.

New methods of evangelism for reaching persons not now reached
by city churches, with more intensive long-term cultivation, should be de-
vised. Likewise methods for the speedier transfer of church membership,
and the reclamation of members whose connection has practically lapsed,
should be instituted or pressed with greater vigor.

Adequate publicity should be given to every comity allocation, so as
to secure a favorable public reaction to work thus cooperatively projected.
Denominations should everywhere be required to accept difficult as well
as attractive comity assignments.

Because so many missionary problems can be met only on an inter-
denominational basis, and local missionary funds are in many cases closely
integrated with national home mission budgets, denominational missionary
boards and agencies should establish a permanent (budget category for the
support of local interdenominational projects, particularly those in under-
privileged areas.

Community Relationships

L'rban Protestant churches should look out, not in; they should make
a larger place for spiritual ministry to the total community. They should
urge their members to accept responsibility in community organizations,

and aliould provide training for such service. Councils of churches should
assist in meeting critical community needs and interpreting these needs to
those in authority. This will usually best be done by cooperation with other
agencies in the community. It will involve information as to existing and
proposed legislation, and adequate church representation on social and
civic agencies.

With the aging of the population, churches should develop a whole
new ministry to older adults. Counselling service should be developed for
persons of all ages, especially those involved in marital difficulties or look-
ing forward to marriage.

The church as a prophetic institution must inspire its members to
stand courageously against injustice, wherever it arises. Every effort must
be made to engage in realistic social action as well as to minister to the
victims of urban living conditions.

The ability of churches to work together in the neighborhood is the
acid test of the ecumenical movement. Denominational programs, minis-
terial training, and parish activities, including the largest possible use of
church properties, should all l^e geared to the larger service of the com-
munity. Separately and together the churches have a unique contribution
to make to the individual, the family, and the neighborhood.

Minority Groups

Protestantism in America has ministered to a succession of immigrant
groups. At first there were foreign language churches which later became
bilingual. As assimiliation proceeds, churches of whatever origin finally
become wholly English-speaking, and are privileged to minister to all the
people of their communities. Each new group (Chinese, Japanese ; iNIexican
in the southwest, Puerto Rican in New York) represents a different stage
in a long process. This is not being greatly altered by the coming of “dis-
placed persons.”

All our churches should seek not so much to conserve a cultural
heritage as to use that heritage for furthering the claims of Christ and His
church and the enrichment of all American culture. The young people of
the second and third generations will otherwise continue to swell the un-
churched urban masses. City churches are urged to a sympathetic and
appreciative study of each transitional group, whatever the stage of its
development.

Local churches, their denominational leaders, and councils of churches,
should institute methods of in-service training for pastors needing more
adequate training, especially those of minority groups.

language and literacy techniques should be competently utilized as
a means of spiritual enrichment for those handicapped by language barriers.

Housing

The total welfare of people, which is a primary concern of the church,
is best secured through wholesome family living. If adequate housing for
all families in the nation cannot be provided by private resources, it be-
comes the responsibility of federal, state, and local government. Housing
needs should be met regardless of color, race, creed or national origin, on
a non-segregated basis. Christian work in low-cost housing projects may
well be conducted and financed at first interdenominationally, at least in
some experimental projects, with the understanding that if it seems that a
church is to be developed, it ought ordinarily to seek affiliation with some
denomination.

Church Edifice Strategy

Unwise financing of church building programs fruitlessly dissipates
resources, lowers morale, and deprives many Christian agencies needing
adequate support ; needless indebtedness may lead to repudiation of obliga-
tions, the subsequent loss of esteem for the church, and the tacit repudia-
tion of Christian ethical standards ; inadequate planning of church buildings
needless and tragically handicaps the ministry of the church for generations.

Basic to all good planning is a careful study of community needs and
the bringing together by competent leadership of a program and resources
for the particular undertaking. Such a procedure determines the location,
the size, and the equipment necessary. It may call for a relocation of
present work, the remodeling of an existing structure, the abandoning of
an old building, the erection of an expendable unit instead of a monumental
structure, or the projection of plans to build a unit at a time.

The location, planning, designing, financing, and erection of a modern
church edifice are more than a local concern. They invite the cooperation
and the pooling of resources on many levels of denominational and inter-
denominational life, and particularly the use of the building counsel serv-
ices of agencies specializing in that field.

The Church and Industry

The churches must always be friendly toward both management and
labor. They must stand for the right at all times, with high regard for
persons and human values. The official leadership of urban churches should
be recruited from all groups largely represented in their communities.
Church members should conduct themselves at all times as representatives
of the church.

Denominational boards and theological seminaries should jointly pro-
vide for ministers and non-ordained church w’orkers in city and industrial
areas training as to

(a) The rise and development of the organized labor and manage-
ment movements, and their implications for the church ;

(b) Urban and industrial sociolog}', particularly the factors that
make for industrial change;

Recommended Studies

The Committee for Cooperative Field Research, in consultation with
the Joint Commission on the Urban Church, is requested to study

(a) Criteria for testing the effectiveness of the urban church;

(b) The characteristics of effective downtown churches;

(c) The extent to which large scale housing omits provision for
adequate churching, with recommendations for nation-wide procedures in
approaching development promoters and housing authorities.

The Joint Commission on the Urban Church is requested to make a
study of the number, structure, budgets, personnel, and functions of denom-
inational city societies.

The United Stewardship Council is requested to study the effect of
present income tax regulations on church giving.

7p5(5 Census

The Congress is urged to appropriate the funds necessary for an
adequate 1956 census of religious bodies. The churches are urged to coop-
erate wholeheartedly with the census bureau, which is counselled to make
proper use of such denominational assistance as will greatly reduce the cost
of the census and increase its accuracy.

The Use of the Bible

Churches, denominations, and councils of churches should increasingly
include the distribution and use of the Bible in their evangelistic programs,
and should consider methods of increasing its use within the church
membership.

Alcohol

The churches record their deep concern over the increasing advertise-
ment, sale, and use of alcoholic beverages, and the problem they create in
the urban life of America. The value of sobriety in the attainment of con-
structive citizenship should be increasingly emphasized by all churches.
Vigorous temperance education should offset the incessant pressure of liq-
uor advertisements by press and radio. The refusal of certain publications
and radio stations to accept liquor advertising is heartily commended.

Appreciation

This Congress expresses to Dr. H. Paul Douglass, director of the
Committee for Cooperative Field Research, its deep appreciation of his
lifetime of service in the study of the work of the church and in particular
for his summaries of the recent urban and rural surveys.

Ill SPECIAL GROUPS

Special groups were not created by the church for the conveni-
ence of its ministry but are rather the product of a social order
which sets people apart because of race, color, culture, religion, or
economic status. Such being the case, the church reaches out to
touch these people in the name of the Master to serve them at their
point of need and to save them in His name.

General Recommendations
We urge :

1. That the possibilities of a field training program or regional
training seminars on an interdenominational and interracial basis
be explored by the Home Missions Council for pastors and lay
workers. Such a program should meet both rural and urban
needs,

2. That each board or agency be encouraged to study the salary
level of workers (both lay and clergy) with the aim of setting
minimum salary standards commensurate with the training, abil-
ity or job assignment of the individual worker regardless of racial
or national background.

3. Every effort be made for the recruitment, training, and place-
ment of the choicest personnel available for work with special
groups. Training programs for such leadership should call for
the highest possible educational and spiritual preparation for
such a ministry.

4. The Department of Evangelism of the Federal Council of
Churches be urged to include a concern for the Jews also in its
program beginning with its present campaign under its Com-
mittee on the United Evangelistic advance.

5. a. That the Home Missions Council create a committee to ex-

plore the field of available literature for special language
groups, publicize such resources, and when necessary seek
the service of some denominational publishing house in the
preparation of literature needed for special groups,
b. Such a committee should also recommend available literature

dealing with evangelism, promotion, and the implications of
the new state of Israel.

c. We further recommend that the ^Missionary Education Move-
ment consider “The Christian Approach to the Jews” as a pos-
sible study theme.

6. Regarding with deepest interest and sympathy the present ar-
rival of the Delayed Pilgrims (DP), the Home Missions Congress
calls upon all the denominations of its constituency to be alert
and do everything in their power, not only to alleviate the misery
and tragedy of this broken household of our evangelical faith,
but also to share with them all the riches of our American Christian
life.

Theological Seminaries and Curriculum

We recommend that the Home ^Missions Council make available
to seminaries and colleges resources to aid in the study of the mi-
grant problem as an integrated part of the interdenominational
home mission emphasis ; and that special attention be called to the
challenge and responsibility of the church’s ministry to Jewish
people.

THE CHURCHES AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE IN NORTH
AMERICA

I. The American Committee

We rejoice in, commend, and approve the action taken by the Home
Missions Council, the Federal Council of Churches, the Foreign Missions
Conference of North America, and tb'" International ^Missionary Council
through its Committee on the Christian Approach to the Jews in con-
stituting the American Committee on the Christian Approach to the Jews.

II. The Situation

One of every two Jews in the world now lives in the United States.
That means 5,000,000 or more Jews. Russia and her satellites have one
of every three Jews in the world. The new state of Israel will shortly
admit the one millionth Jew. Since Hitler, the center of gravity of world
Jewry has shifted numerically, materially, and culturally from Central
Europe to America.

In North America the Jewish people constitute one of the three
largest minority groups, vying for second place with the Spanish-American
minority. They are largely city dwellers. Thus, in 1937, of 4,770,647
Jews in the United States, no less than 4,656,233 lived in cities of 5,000
or more. Jewish people are actually resident in 9,712 American communi-

ties. Consequently, they are to be found in a high percentage of the
parishes or communities for which our churches claim spiritual responsi-
bility.

Social phenomena which characterize Jewish life today include,
among others :

1. Secularism in our day is not only a Christian, but also a Jewish
problem.

2. Assimilation of the Jewish people into American life proceeded
rapidly until it was largely checked by a renewal of Jewish con-
sciousness in the wake of Hitler’s anti-Semitism and of the
emergency of the State of Israel with its attendant Zionist agita-
tion.

3. As a consequence of the above trends, many Jewish people have
drifted away from the Synagogue or Temple. Like .so many
others today, large numbers of Jews are religiously adrift.

4. Coupled with the above disintegrating influence at work within
Jewish ranks is the distressing and regrettable evidence of in-
creasing anti-Jewish prejudice, not only outside, but unfortunately
even within the churches themselves.

5. The influx of so many newcomers from abroad who are so largely
victims of anti-Semitism creates responsibilities and problems of
all kinds.

III. Needs

In humble recognition of the situation among our Jewish neighbors
and in the firm conviction that Jesus Christ is God’s answer to the whole
world’s need, we believe the time has come when the Home Missions
Council and other related bodies must not only give more prayer and
thought to the Church’s responsibility to the Jewish people, but must
also take positive and concrete action.

IV. W'e submit the following recommendations:

I. That the Home Missions Council urge as strongly as possible
upon all of its cooperating bodies, including the Y.M.C.A., the
Y.W.C.A., the Student Christian Movement, and the Student Vol-
unteer IMovement, prayerful consideration and aggresive effort and
action to put the following recommendations approved by the Am-
sterdam Assembly of the World Council of Churches into the
earliest and fullest possible operation and practice.

(a) “We call upon all the churches we represent to denounce
anti-Semitism no matter what its origin as absolutely irre-

concilable with the profession and practice of the Christian
faith. Anti-Semitism is sin against God and man.”

(b) “We recommend all member churches to seek to recover
the universality of our Lord’s commission by including the
Jewish people in their evangelistic work. We further recom-
mend that these churches give thought to the preparation of
suitable and useful literature for this ministry and to the
preparation of ministers or clergy well fitted to interpret
the Gospel to the Jewish people.”

2. We commend the efforts of those denominational and interde-
nominating agencies which have already assumed some responsi-
bility toward the Jewish people, and we urge all others to take
specific and corporate action in this field. The importance of
women’s groups and other auxiliaries in the church must not be
overlooked.

3. We appreciate the necessity of promoting friendly relations
involving goodwill, understanding, and cooperation between
Christian and Jews.

We would emphasize, however, that the full Christian obligation
toward the Jewish people involves, in addition to all this, the actual
presentation of the claims of Christ to them as to all men. There-
fore, we urge that in all programs of evangelism the churches
make adequate provision for inclusion of the Jews in such. Our com-
mission is to teach, to preach, and to share Christ with all men in
boldness of faith.

4. In order to give effect to the above recommendations, we
ask the Home Missions Council to set up an adequate working budget.

AMERICAN INDIAN

A. Number, Distribution and Characteristics

According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs 393,622 persons in
continental United States were designated as Indians in 1945. This
shows an increase through the years and it must be remembered
that many are not enumerated as Indians, especially those of mixed
blood, the Hoover Report stating “The number is probably quite
large and is not known.”

B. Religious Ministry

According to an Indian study recently made, there are 36 de-
nominations and a goodly number of independent groups working
in some 375 communities with 833 workers in 437 stations, with a

church membership of 29,230, and adherents numbering 31,500,
with a total budget of not less than $1,162,939.29.

Comity and Cooperation

(1) That the Home Missions Council sponsor a committee on
allocation of fields, which should formulate a statement of principles
and procedures.

To guide the denominations in their relationships one with
the other and in the occupancy of a specific field.

To prepare a qualifying statement as to the meaning of the
term “covering the field.”

(2) That conferences be called to review allocation of responsi-
bility on a national, as well as regional level, and that these be held
more frequently than in the past, say every five years.

Leadership :

(1) That those who work among Indians be urged to study
cultural and religious background. To that end;

(a) That a bibliography of literature on the American
Indian be prepared, and reading courses based on this
bibliography be required for new workers by their
mission boards.

(b) That the mission boards require study at a recognized
school of the cultural and religious background of the
Indian group to which the new workers are appointed,
and linguistics for those going to areas where the native
language is in extensive use.

(2) That in order to provide a manual setting forth the histori-
cal, cultural, and religious background of the Indian, especially for
new workers, a revised edition of the “Hand Book for Missionary
Workers among North American Indians” be published. We further
recommend that the Indian survey completed in preparation for the
Home Missions Congress be made available.

(3) That Mission Boards should not only encourage attendance
but provide assistance for participation in the National Fellowship
of Indian Workers’ Conferences, regional as well as national. The
programs of these conferences should be based not only on needs
arising from the fields but on the larger community and world
interests.

(4) That for the next ten years at least, the Cook Christian
Training School, Phoenix, Arizona, should be continued, its facilities
expanded and strengthened, • and its program supported by all the

mission boards and societies dedicated to leadership training. We
further urge that the Cook School extension courses be encouraged.

(5) That in view of the increased number of native leaders be-
ing trained for Christian service, church and community agencies
be urged to give qualified native leaders positions of leadership with
responsibilities and salary commensurate with those given white
missionaries ; further, that this group reaffirm its policy in regard to
the use of bi-racial leadership.

(6) We recommend that we consider favorably the appoint-
ment of Indian personnel in other than Indian fields as, for example,
in schools primarily for other nationalities and races.

(7) It is recommended that under the sponsorship of the Home
Missions Council a competent writer be encouraged and subsidized
to write a book with popular appeal to sell the general public on
the inherent virtues of the Indian and the accomplishments ©f the
missions boards of the churches.

Church Program:

( 1 ) We recommend that, where there are white and Indian churches
in the same area, they be encouraged to launch programs jointly for the
betterment of the community.

(2) That since there are many Indian fields now without native
preachers, evangelists and other missionary personnel, the Home Missions
Council provide a central clearing house for the exchange and use of such
workers, wherever desirable.

(3) That each church be encouraged to have a vital program of
Christian education including educational evangelism, visual aids, adaptable
curriculum, departmental church school, children’s work, youth work, ac-
tivities groups, vacation church schools, and leadership training.

Federal Wardship:

Believing in Christian citizenship, we recommend that a definite goal
be set for the ultimate release of Indians from Federal wardship. In order
to achieve the end in view with a minimum of confusion and difficulty, it
is recommended that enabling legislation cover a period of from fifteen
to twenty years. In as much as suffrage has been extended to include prac-
tically all Indians, the next step would be the extension of state jurisdic-
tion with respect to law and order. We direct this recommendation to the
Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs and to the corresponding
committee in the House of Representatives.

INDIANS m Urban and Industrial Areas:

(1) That in so far as both the Indians and white people are ready,
the Indians be included in existing church programs. This process must be
carried forward through inter-cultural education.

(2) That for such Indians who for various reasons find it difficult
immediately to be included in the urban church program, the urban churches
cooperate in establishing inter-racial Christian centers, the ultimate goal
being to bring the Indian into the established churches.

(3) That rural pastors and missionaries seek to prepare their people
who are going to the cities for the problems they will meet there ; and that
they introduce these people to pastors or notify the pastors of their coming.

(4) a. That as recommended by the Bacone Conference, the Indian
Committee of the Home Missions Council be requested to publish a
booklet listing both by states and by sponsoring agencies the Indian work
being carried on in the various regions of the Fellowship of Indian Workers
and that said booklet be made available to all workers at nominal costs.

b. We feel there exists a need for a clearing house for information
as to those areas in which are to be found groups of Indian people. We
call upon the Home Missions Council to compile data on the habits and
movements of migratory Indians, as well as those ministering to them.
Full use should be made of federal agencies in compiling this information.

Law Enforcement:

(1) We further recommend that all churches and church agencies
working in reservation areas backed by the Home Missions Council be un-
ceasing in their exposure and condemnation of repeated and flagrant non-
enforcement of local, state and federal statutes effecting Indians in towns
adjacent to reservations.

(2) We urge the Home Missions Council and/or other interested
agencies especially the United States Indian Service, to petition the United
States Public Health Service (or some agency recommended by that Serv-
ice) to make a thorough-going study of p>eyote in all its phases.

THE RURAL NEGRO

The rural Negro in the South has been caught in a changing social
order with which he has not been able to keep pace.

The revelation of this comes to focus in the observation of his home,
his family and his community at large. The home has not been conducive
to good Christian living, as is noted in overcrowded living conditions and
in limited financial resources for the necessities of life. Rural Negro families
are generally large, though life expectancy is approximately one-fifth below

the national average. These rural people are forced to attend schools where
the education received is far below the national standard.

The rural Negroes are an inseparable part of the total community but
do not have a feeling of belonging to the commimity as it is generally under-
stood. They have been excluded from participation in determining policies
in politics, civic affairs and education. By far the largest participation has
been in their churches where they have manifested a sincere but often mis-
guided zeal for the Christian religion. This has resulted in a failure to apply
Christian principles to daily living.

If the church is to meet the needs that exist in rural sections, it* is im-
perative ;

( 1 ) That the church shall address itself first to the task of Christian-
izing rural areas for the purpose of making both land owners and tenants
conscious of their mutual obligations to each other and to the land.

(2) That the church shall provide community programs that will
compensate for the deficiencies of the rural home, especially as it relates to
the Negro.

(3) That the use of the Larger Parish plan be encouraged in order
that there shall be a larger participation in constructive community pro-
grams by rural people.

(4) That the church be urged to use its influence in creating an at-
mosphere and moulding sentiment for adequate and equal educational fa-
cilities for all people of the community. Further, that the church shall use
■its influence to procure Christian leadership in public schools at the grade
and high school levels.

(5) That churches shall cooperate with all agencies, private and gov-
ernmental, that are working for the improvement of life in rural commu-
nities.

(6) That churches take a larger responsibility for providing a trained
religious leadership so greatly needed among rural dwellers.

(7) That there shall be a larger cooperation and working agreement
between Negro and white rural ministers as a leadership enterprise in evan-
gelizing rural America for Qiristian living.

In consideration of the fact that about half of the Negroes in America
live in the South, and in face of a situation where adequate church facili-
ties are so woefully lacking, this seminar recommends :

( 1 ) That churches of different denominations shall cooperate in pro-
viding recreational facilities for the young people of rural communities.

(2) That denominational boards and agencies which sponsor activities
in rural communities shall take the initiative in settng up cooperative inter-
denominational programs.

(3) That small sub-marginal rural churches which are not able to
support a high order of rural ministerial leadership shall cooperate with
other churches in the community that adequate leadership may be made
possible. This should be done by churches of the same denomination and
churches of different denominations where possible.

(4) That there shall be a larger use of interdenominational activities
such as a Daily Vacation Bible School, Ministers’ Institutes and Work-
shops.

(5) That the Home Missions Council shall establish an interdenom-
inational project as a demonstration in the community of the value of a
cooperative enterprise by all churches. This shall be done in cooperation
with local agencies.

(6) That improved methods of church financing be adopted, such as
the Lord’s Acre Plan, in order to provide increased financial resources for
Rural churches, further that rural people be taught to practice systematic
Christian stewardship.

(7) That the denominations adopt standards for the training of re-
ligious leaders in rural areas, with a view to lifting the level of training of
persons now in service, as well as new ones.

(8) That we call on such interdenominational agencies as the Inter-
national Council of Religious Education to assume a larger part of the
responsibility for a program to train rural religious leaders.

We recognize the acute problems of the urban negro recently migrated
to the city, in that thousands of them are without satisfying church relation-
ships, and many thousands more with no church relationships. This need
can be met only by the combined efforts of all churches.

In the light of these needs we therefore urge the following ;

( 1 ) That the Home Missions Council set up a commission to study
this problem and devise methods for attacking it effectively.

(2) That in the basis of this study the Council call a conference of
all denominational groups to implement their findings.

SPANISH SPEAKING PEOPLE

The Spanish speaking people of the United States are employed in
many occupations, but mainly in labor, building, and maintaining railroads
and highways. Agriculture and the factories claim large numbers. Over
375,000 served in the Armed Forces during World War II, and many
are still enlisted. Those in the New Mexico-Colorado region live on sub-
sistence farms. Low wages, poor conditions of employment, and job inse-
curity, not to mention the “wet backs’’ problem, cause these people to live
close to the economic margin, which results in problems of poverty, over-
crowded homes, delinquency and crime.

We present the following recommendations ;

That integration of all language groups in social, economic, political
and religious life be effected as rapidly as the program of education among
the majority and minority groups makes it possible.

(1) Through a program of education to uproot prejudices within
the majority group and interpret to this group the bases of such an in-
clusive Christian fellowship.

(2) Greater emphasis on preparation of special groups for integra-
tion into the larger fellowship.

We recognize our Protestant responsibility for Christian nur-
ture and evangelism among the non-Christian and nominal Christian
groups in our country, believing that “there is no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we can be saved.” For example,
a large percentage of the Spanish-speaking population is unchurched
and without Christ. Most of them claim allegiance to the Roman
Catholic Church, but very many have actually neglected the faith
of their fathers and many more are not even nominally Catholic,
much less Christian. Many never were Roman Catholic. They are
the so-called “liberals” but really “pagans.”

As a result of restriction of immigration, the foreign speaking
communities are rapidly disappearing, consequently the need for
specialized ministry rendered by the foreign-speaking and the bi-
lingual churches is gradually diminishing. It is essential therefore
that the churches be encouraged to adjust their approach in order to
serve more effectively the people in their immediate communities
irresp>ective of the national background. It is also important that in
cases of contemplated curtailing of financial support of the foreign
speaking and the bilingual churches necessary precaution be taken
so as to avoid danger of withdrawing prematurely the Christian wit-
ness from large sections of population. Let it also be remembered
that the rate of progress varies with groups of different national
background.

We recommend that this Congress encourage interdenomina-
tional cooperation in programs for special groups, for a united effort
on evangelism, as an example.

MIGRANT LABOR IN AGRICULTURE .

Introductory Statement:

We would direct the attention of this Congress to the increasing
urgent need of migratory labor in agriculture. While the numbers of these
workers have increased 40 per cent between 1945 and 1948 the job op-
portunities for unskilled labor in agriculture have been constantly de-

creasing due to the mechanization of harvest processes. This increase is
further aggravated by irregpilar employment which caused adult migratory
workers to average 158 days of work during 1948- We would express our
regret that American citizens do not enjoy the human rights and privileges
agreed to be a “common standard of achievement for all peoples and all
nations,” by the General Assembly of the United Nations. We believe, as
asserted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “that everyone is
entitled to all the rights and freedom . . . without the distinction of race,
religion, origin or status. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice
of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection
against unemployment; to join trade unions and to a standard of living
adequate for the health and well being of himself and his family.”

As Christians we would express our concern that the spirit and
teachings of Christ be applied to our agricultural economy and that these
shall be applied to correcting the problems of migrant life.

Our Recommendations on Program:

1. Cooperation with other agencies.

Conscious of the limitations of our own resources and our inability
to perform certain specialized functions, we recommend a close and constant
cooperation with all other agencies, public and private, operative in meet-
ing migrant needs. The field staff will function in case finding and referral
and will continue to supplement the resources and programs of these
agencies with Christian counsel, Christian education and religious services.
To this end, members of the field staff will familiarize themselves with the
resources of these agencies that can be made available to meet migrant
needs.

2. Local responsibility

W’e would commend to the communities and to states directly bene-
fiting from migrant labor an acceptance of their responsibility for facing
migrant needs. We would arouse them to recognize these responsibilities,
counsel with them in the development of interdenominational local and
state committees and of programs to meet these needs, and would assist
in the supervision of these programs. While staff assistants may be neces-
sary in the initial stages of such a program, we would recommend that
such committees accept responsibility for as much support as possible as
soon as possible.

Increased Awareness on the Part of the Church

Because there is need for greater effort in developing an increased
awareness of the agricultural migrant laborer in this country on two counts :
a. Everyone who eats enjoys the results of migrant labor and there-
fore should share the responsibility of solving the problems of their work-
ing and living conditions — and

b. Few Christians living in areas where agricultural migrant labor
is employed are aware of their presence —

It is recommended:

That the Church be urged to discharge more fully its responsibility
for educating its members to an awareness of these laborers, and the
workers representing the church who labor among these people.

Migrants to be Included in Fellowship of the Church

We recommend that the Home Missions Council refer to the de-
nominational youth agencies the need for young people to be aware of
their responsibility to migrants as a part of the mission of the church and
that the young people be advised to enlarge the fellowship of the church
to include migrants by working WITH and not for them.

Recognizing that mobility is accentuated by the variable inbalances be-
tween agriculture and industry we would direct the attention of the Church
and this Congress to the desirability of maintaining full employment and
the support of programs and policies to achieve this end.

Importation of Foreign Labor

It is the judgment of this group that the shortages of agricultural labor,
which during and after the war justified the importation of foreign nationals
for this work, no longer exists. We therefore

RECOMMEND that the importation of foreign nationals as agricul-
tural labor be discontinued; and we urge that this recommendation be re-
ferred to the U. S. Department of Labor and Bureau of Immigration and
Naturalization.

Note: We wish to state clearly that the foregoing is not to be con-

strued as opposition to the reception by the United Staes of our full share
of European Displaced Persons.

Collective Bargaining

The churches have long declared that both employers and employees
have the right to organize ; that it is socially desirable that both become or-
ganized ; that both employers and employees have an obligation to advance
the public interest through their organization. We therefore recommend
that churches continue to recognize that farmers and farm labor have the
same right to organize and the same duty to use their organization respon-
sibility.

Relation of Minimum Wage Law to Agricultural Migrants ,

In considering the newly enacted minimum wage law which does not
apply to migrants we recommend that the minimtim wage legislation be ex-
tended so as to include adult agricultural migrant labor.

Child Labor

It is recommended that we concur in the recommendation of the Na-
tional Migrant Committee to State and Local Committees to support legisla-
tion protecting migrant children from employment that will interfere with
their schooling or be harmful to their physical well-being. We also recom-
mend to the child-serving agencies more adequate provision for leisure
time activities for children who will be released by such legislation.

Social Security and Workmen’s Compensation

Since migrants constitute a low income group who are less able
than other workmen to meet emergencies due to accidents, illness, etc.,
because they are not eligible to receive workmen’s compensation and
benefits under old-age and survivors’ insurance we recommend that the
provisions of the Social Security Act be extended to include agricultural
labor and we urge the U. S. Senate so to amend the Social Security
Bill now before it so as to provide these benefits without regard to
residence.

Extension Services

We recognize that there are vast adfflt educational needs among
agricultural migrants. We are aware of the current agitation for the
creation in the U. S. Department of Labor of a Lalx)r Extension Service
comparable to the widely respected Agricultural Service.

We, therefore, call for the creation of the projxDsed Labor Extension
Service and urge that in it be included a strong branch devoted to the
development of an adult education service for agricultural labor.

Field Program

The members of the committee recognize with deep satisfaction the
work which has been done by the staff and workers with migrants across
the country.

In view of the tremendous problems which exist we recognize the
need for a more adequate program and recommend concur ranee in the
following objectives of Field Program from the Findings of the National
Conference on the Church and Migratory Labor held in Chicago.

a. To make available to migrant labor by means of personal and
group evangelism, by Christian attitudes and conduct, and through a
religious ministry the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and — through Efim —
the opportunity for the spiritual regeneration of their lives.

b. To e.xpedite such spiritual rebirth by insisting upon the relevance
and the application of Christian principles and the Christian ethic to the
agricultural economy within which migrants live and work.

c. To encourage and assist migrant folk to grow, physically, mentally,
morally and spiritually so that they may become increasingly able to take
their rightful place as citizens in a democracy.

d. To encourage migrants toward the discovery of those greater
opportunities and increased security that are available in resettlement and
rehabilitation.

e. To educate resident communities and to counsel with them so that
the}- may encourage and assist migrants to become integrated and as-
similated into the life of the community, and to assist migrants to under-
stand their responsibility to the community.

f. To maintain a mobile ministry to serve migrants who are essential
to agriculture.

IV EXTRA-TERRITORIAL GROUPS

ALASKA

The strategic importance of Alaska became evident during World
War II and caused the national government to attend to its develop-
ment and encourage an increase of population. Huge sums of money
have been appropriated for this purpose. The population has
fluctuated with the fortunes of Alaska. At the beginning of World
War II there were approximately 61,000 people equally divided
between natives and whites. At the close of 1949 the population
was estimated at 100,000 with the whites outnumbering the natives
two to one.

Life in Alaska is a continuous series of problems. The ways of
the white man have spread over most of the Territory. The economy
of the native has greatly changed. The radio and airplane have
brought closer communication but distances are still great and ex-
istence during long winter nights is lonely. Health is an acute
problem. The tubercular rate among natives is fourteen times higher
than in the States and the general average nine times higher. Away
from the larger centers doctors are few and hospitals too far away.
The natives claim ownership of the land upon which their ancestors
lived but the United States Government hasn’t cleared the titles in
(|uestion and industrial development in some sections awaits the
answer.

For seventy years missionaries have been at work in Alaska.
Early it was agreed that cooperation was necessary and the Ter-
ritory was divided into geographical areas of service. At the end of
1948 nine member denominations of the Home Missions Council
and twenty other church groups were serving in the Territory.

A creative ministry in a pioneer condition requires that great
emphasis be placed upon the simple essentials of the Christian faith
and that more personal work be done to reach people who seem to have
little concern for the Gospel. The great increase in population in a
new country calls upon the church to move with fresh vigor and
spiritual power into every facet of life.

Since government figures show the liquor traffic to be near
the top of all business in dollar volume

1. We urge all churches and welfare agencies to unite in a de-
termined effort to lead every community to exercise its privilege
of referendum and eliminate the traffic ; and

2. We urge the Alaska Legislature to pass legislation which will
provide for more rigid control of the sale and use of liquor and
the elimination of excessive private profit on the wholesale level
of distribution.

We desire to express appreciation to the American Hygiene
Association for its contribution toward the improvement of the
morals of Alaska and urge that Association to enlarge its program
and increase its personnel for wider and more thorough service.

In view of the continued large scale military operations in
Alaska we respectfully urge the War Department to enforce the
May Act wherever vice exists near the army camps.

Failure to enforce the law outside of incorporated towns pre-
sents an intolerable condition inside and outside of such towns. We
respectfully request the Department of Justice to revise its system
of law enforcement and provide sufficient personnel, funds, and
equipment for more adequate and effective enforcement of the laws ;
and that the churches and social agencies cooperate with law en-
forcement officers to eliminate juvenile delinquency.

Recognizing that territorial status permits discrimination and
retards progress under local responsibility we urge Congress to
grant statehood to Alaska.

We urge the Department of the Interior to confer with native
leaders and use the power already granted by Congrss to seek an
immediate settlement of the territorial claims of the natives so that
the natives will be granted the ownership of sufficient land to assure
a livelihood for their people and open all the land for development
under wise policies of conservation and use of natural resources.

We commend the twenty homes for child care under private
agencies for their earnest efforts to supply one of the basic needs
of the Territory. Since many of them are operating on less than
minimum standards we urge that:

1. All such homes adopt at least the minimum standards; and

2. The Legislature pass an act requiring all homes for child care
to report to the Welfare Department and achieve minimum
standards within three years.

We commend the movement toward the unification of the school
system and urge that it be completed as soon as possible on the primary
and secondary levels so that all children will have equal opportunities
under high standards of instruction and physical equipment in centers as
near as possible to their owp homes ; that where boarding schools are neces-
sary special attention be given toward placing young people and preparing
them for the adjustment to the home, community, and economic life which
they enter ; that further provision be made for adequate vocational training
for trades, nursing, etc. ; and that efforts be made to contact former
students through an extension service to conserve and further develop
training already given.

We urge the Alaska Committee to review the spiritual needs on local
and national levels to the end that

1. Each denomination will evaluate its own program looking toward
a more varied and effective ministry.

2. Provision will be made on the local and national levels for a
conference

a. Of denominational representatives to prevent overlapping and
plan a more united ministry to the whole Territory; and

b. Of denominational representatives with those from other agencies
and organizations to face and plan together to serve the total needs of
the people.

In view of the development of a second large boarding school and the
construction of two large hospitals under government sponsorship, it
becomes the responsibility of the Alaska Committee of the Home Missions
Council to expand the ministry for people in government institutions.
We urge the Home Missions Council to allocate a portion of the World
Day of Prayer offerings to the Alaska Committee for this purpwDse.

W't urge all churches to intensify and expand their programs of
Christian ministry, to be ready to serve in whatever manner and place as
need arises. Basic services for human need are not yet adequate. The
church must be ready with orphanages, schools, hospitals, doctors, nurses,
teachers, preachers, pastors — every one and everything needed to meet
the needs of the whole person. Additional consecrated leadership should be
recruited, adequately trained, equipped and supported, commissioned by
home congregations to be sent for a rugged ministry which demands all
that they are and all that they have. Christ gave His all to redeem men
from sin and nothing short of that will redeem Alaska for Christ.

HAWAII

Historically, American interest in Hawaii has been at least four-
fold : missionary, commercial, military, and tourist. Hawaii is also an
arena of human relations in which Christianity and democracy confront
social forces inspired by their own ideals of the freedom and dignity of
man. Family life, economy, political structure, community relations,
education, and church reflect the growing purpose of the people to re-
place paternalistic and authoritarian controls with autonomous and demo-
cratic patterns of living. Their ultimate objective to achieve there a
society whose members, institutions, and ways of life would be Christian,
the churches thus confront problems of the sort presented in the following
suggestive but not exhaustive list :

1. Secular Materialism and non-Christian Religions:

Although the churches of Hawaii include a great number of persons
of oriental ancestry, many others find acceptance of the Christian faith
difficult because they are conditioned by the religious background they
no longer accept and because they are lacking in the idiom provided by
long and familiar experience with the Christian tradition. A part of
such attraction as Christianity does exercise may lie in its identification
with the dominant culture and may therefore reflect the goals of secular
materialism as much as those of Christian faith. A large percentage of
the non-oriental community is not in the church, and, as in continental
United States, this is part of the challenge to organized Christianity.

In a providential way the church in Hawaii is placed in close relation
to other great ethnic religions of mankind, and in every way not compro-
mising the validity of Christian faith we would preserve the values in-
herent in those other faiths to support family and community life. Our
eflPorts should be to conserve common values and to cooperate on common
problems by developing community councils and by including repre-
sentatives of non-Christian communions on boards of community agencies.
We recognize our opportunity in this situation to bring a positive witness
of Christian faith and life and our obligation to present to the whole
community, oriental and Caucasian alike, the call for commitment of life
to Christ.

2. National and Cultural Sentiment:

Although much of life in Hawaii (including the churches) is inter-
racial, religious expression may be associated with national, racial, and
cultural loyalties. Language and festival are important, but the Christian
faith must not be identified with any one cultural expression. We affirm
the power of -Christian fellowship to transcend variations of racial and
cultural heritages and it may be enriched by assimilation of their positive

contributions in its life stream, but the emerging culture must be subjected
to a continuing critique to see that it embody Christian character. We
would, therefore, encourage Christian leaders of Hawaii: (1) to participate
in university sponsored east-w^st conference of philosophy; (2) to explore
new ways of contacting and interpreting our faith to non-Christian peoples ;
(3) to bring guest leaders of Christian thought to the islands for occa-
sional lectureships or missions; (4) to intensify efforts for extending
Christian religious education to all children; and (5) to support the pro-
posed emphasis of the public schools on moral and ethical values cherished
by the total community.

3. The Struggle for Economic Democracy.

From outright feudalism Hawaiian economy has passed through an
era of strong paternalism and for the past several years has been engaged
in an intense effort to achieve a status of economic democracy like that of
continental United States. Recent issues, however, have been clouded
by fears of Communism, of rising racial and class antagonisms, and of the
suspicion that both big labor and big management may be using declara-
tions of principle to conceal a basic struggle for power. The churches, in
spite of their past effectiveness in this field, carry the responsibility to
ennunciate moral principles, to avoid alliance Avith either side, and to stand
for the welfare of the total community above any partisan advantage. We
would suggest to the churches in Hawaii the desirability of island confer-
ences by which they would bring together leaders of church, management,
labor, and community to confront the issues of economic relations. Such
conferences, we would hope, might result in a sustained effort of a similar
nature in this field.

4. The Recognition of Hawaiian Maturity:

“The Key to an understanding of post-war Hawaii is a full recogni-
tion ... of the fact that the descendants of Chinese, Japanese, and
Koreans are as capable, as educated, as ambitious, as democratic, as patri-
otic, and as thoroughly American as are the descendants of, for example,
Germans now living in the American middle west.” (John H. Shoemaker)
As the recognition of the maturity Hawaii has attained requires the ad-
justment of its economic and political structure to this fact, so it
requires a similar adjustment in the life of our churches. Simple justice
supports, as we do, the admission of the territory to the full status of a
state in our national commonwealth. While we regard Hawaii as a part
of the general concern of our Home Mission endeavor in no more special
way than that accorded to any state or section of the country, we recognize
the unique contribution which can be made by churches that are polyracial
in background but American in training and culture. Both denominationally
and interdenominationally they should be drawn into equal fellowship with

mainland churches through full and reciprocal participation in support, in
pK)licy formulation, and in control. Increasing emphasis must be placed on
indigenous professional leadership, and we recommend: (1) interdenomina-
tional support for an enlarged staff and program in the University >f
Hawaii School of Religion; (2) in-service training or extension courses
for island ministers by a mainland seminary; and (3) scholarships to
more men and women for mainland study.

5. Interdenominational Co-operation.

Allowing for the inaccuracy of statistics, it is still clear that the com-
bined strength of the “main line” Protestant churches is not great for the
work which could be done. Considerable coop>eration has already been
achieved across the barriers of denominational and theological difference.
Drawing attention to the wide experience in mainland cities of the value
of cooperative effort, we commend to churches, individuals, and denomina-
tions in Honolulu the support of an even stronger Council of Churches
than they already have. Perhaps a territorial council of churches could be
served in part by the same staff. These councils should make possible
united effort in such fields as research and survey, radio and public rela-
tions, audio-visual aids, tourist interpretation, and evangelism.

WEST INDIES

For four centuries the West Indies were bound by political and
cultural ties to Europe but for the last 50 years most of these islands have
developed closer ties with the United States. The beginnings of Protestant
work in the \*irgin Islands, Haiti and the Dominican Republic date back
more than a century. In Puerto Rico and Cuba evangelical work is only
fifty years old and one of its outstanding characteristics is the develop-
ment of a native leadership in this brief period.

It is also worthy of mention that the Cuban Government has rec-
ognized the contribution of North American missionaries by honoring
various of these outstanding leaders by conferring on them the Order of
Carlos Manuel de Cespedes.

Some of the problems and features of church life are common to
Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

In these three countries there is gratifying development of coopera-
tion in national Christian councils. In Santo Domingo one is in the pro-
cess of formation and to date five groups are included. In Cuba the
expanding work of the Council makes urgent the provision for secretarial
services. In Puerto Rico a restudy needs to be mafie of comity arrange-
ments, especially in view of new urban housing projects and rural re-
construction projects.

There is great need for the compiling of dependable statistics on a
uniform basis for all phases of evangelical work in all of these countries.

We recognize the great need of the rural population for evangelistic
and social work in this field including the training in seminaries and other
centers of workers to aid in meeting the needs of these neglected areas.

In Puerto Rico we join the Association of Evangelical Churches in
urging the Home Missions Council to make available the services of a
trained rural worker not only to promote rural evangelism but also to
assist the churches in a program of rural reconstruction.

In view of the increasing number of evangelical students in govern-
ment universities, we recommend that adequate steps be taken to care
for their spiritual life during this critical period.

In the Dominican Republic we would encourage the strengthening of
the recently organized Evangelical University Student Group.

In Havana, Cuba, we strongly recommend that immediate steps be
taken for the establishing and staffing of a student center.

In Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, we commend the work of the inter-
denominational student pastor and we recommend a student center as a
part of the projected Protestant center near the University.

We recognize the growdng importance of literature as a means of
reaching people for the Kingdom and the serious inadequacy of the present
facilities for its production.

While the Dominican Republic has a splendid evangelical bookstore,
Cuba and Puerto Rico have only book deposits as outlets for evangelical
literature. We urge serious study of ways of meeting these needs.

In view of the unusual opportunities for a radio ministry, we urge
that every effort be made to improve the quality of the programs.

We would commend to the churches the use of the new curriculum
materials being prepared under the auspices of the Committee on Co-
operation in Latin America and World Council of Christian Education.

CUBA

We note with appreciation the interest of some of the local churches
in establishing and maintaining clinics and medical services for the poor
of their communities. We recognize, however, the need for more adequate
medical services in different geographic and social areas and for a united
effort on the part of the Cuban Council of Churches in cooperation with
the mission boards toward the establishment of a hospital and training
school for nurses in some strategic center in the island.

We recognize and commend the work of the Evangelical Seminary
at Matanzas and urge continued cooperation of the constituent denomina-
tions and closer cooperation by other denominations.

In view of the growing acuteness of problems in the industrial field.

it is recommended that definite efforts be made toward the training
of workers to guide the church in helping to meet some of these prob-
lems. The bringing of workers to the United States for study in this field
is suggested as a means.

In view of the problems, needs and opportunities mentioned and
taking advantage of the new awareness of such as a result of the celebra-
tion of the 50th anniversary of evangelical work in Cuba, it is recom-
mended that the West Indies Committee in cooperation with the Cuba
Council of Churches initiate at once a study of the whole field and that
after such study a conference of Cuban pastors and leaders and representa-
tives of mission boards be held for the planning of a strategic program of
advance which will challenge all groups to accept responsibility for the new
tasks and areas for the winning of Cuba for Christ and His Kingdom.

PUERTO RICO

( 1 ) We recommend to the West Indies Committee a realistic study
of possibilities of establishing a Protestant center near the University of
Puerto Rico, which would include facilities for denominational and inter-
denominational offices, a bookstore, the American Bible Society, and
student activities and dormitories.

(2) In order that Polytechnic Institute may be recognized as a
Protestant College for the inclusion of all faiths and churches in Puerto
Rico, we recommend that the Board of Trustees of this institution be asked
to approach the denominations participating in the Association of Evan-
gelical Churches to determine steps necessary to bring about the desired
end.

(3) We recommend to the West Indies Committee that some ade-
quate plan be developed for in-service training for pastors and lay-
workers and that special attention be given to the problem of training
women workers and that the opportunities in these fields be presented
as a challenge to our Evangelical Seminary.

Rural Puerto Rico lacks educational opportunities for thousands of
children of school age as well as cultural advantages for young people and
adults. We recommend that local churches in rural areas offer their
facilities to be used to increase the primary classes for children and
to establish groups for cultural activities for youth and adults.

W'e recognize the very important contribution medical missions have
made to evangelical work in Puerto Rico, and we recommend that as funds
become available medical work be extended to rural areas through clinics,
visiting nurses’ services and the use of mobile health units.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

In 1920 a unique program of evangelistic, medical, educational and
social service was initiated by the Board of Christian Work in Santo Do-
mingo in which the Presbyterian U. S. A., Methodists, and Evangelical
United Brethren united. This board has pioneered in demonstrating com-
plete interdenominational cooperation at the home base resulting in a single
church constituency on the field, known as the “Dominican Evangelical
Church”.

In addition to the church, which in 1931-33 absorbed the English
Wesleyan Methodist Churches, there have been developed three schools,
a publishing house and bookstore (Liberia Dominicana), the 100 bed
Hospital Internacional and the first nurse’s training school in the country,
and the 15 year old weekly radio program.

There is great need and opportunity for the development of an edu-
cational program both on the elementary and secondary levels.

The United Board is receptive to enlargement and invites other de-
nominations to share in the common task. It is a matter of encouragement
that the Council of • Community Churches has accepted this union work
as an object of missionary giving. Greater financial support is urgently
needed to maintain this program as an outstanding illustration in Latin
America of a united evangelical approach to a whole nation.

HAITI

1. Within recent years mission activity in Haiti has been increased,
and there has been an amazing response to the Gospel, resulting in a great
growth in the numbers of churches and the size of the congregations.

2. The growing churches need effective tools in their ministry. We
recognize the need for literature, and we commend the beginnings of
cooperation in the preparation of literature, and of materials for literacy
work.

3. Christian education has not kept pace with the rapid growth of
the congregations. We recommend that the agencies working in Haiti
give special attention to this aspect of the work.

4. In view of the lack of educational and health iacilities under
Evangelical auspices, and consequent handicaps suffered by the Evangeli-
cals, we commend to the boards at work in Haiti, a study of the pos-
sibilities of cooperation in these fields, especially in the rural areas.

5. In this connection, we recognize with appreciation the work of the
Pilot Project of Fundamental Education of the Unesco at Marbial, and
recommend that Haitian church leaders study it, both for the use of the
services offered, and for the adoption of its methods where practicable.

VIRGIN ISLANDS

In view of the centuries old traditions of Christian culture and
education in the Virgin Islands and the difficulties of the islanders them-
selves in maintaining desired standards of education, sanitation, health,
and general social welfare, it is recommended that the denominations
and boards having or planning work there exert every legimate influence
available for promoting governmental measures toward raising the eco-
nomic level of the island and the standards of public education and health
services.

CANAL ZONE

In 1914 Canal Zone residents, in cooperation with church repre-
sentatives in the United States, organized the Lhiion Church of the Canal
Zone. In 1920 the Union Church of the Canal Zone was by request
related in trusteeship and for the purposes of general consultation and
counseling, to the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America.
The personnel of its committee is drawn from representatives of the home
and foreign boards of the communions which are signatories to the trust
agreements by which the Union Church was established.

Today there are seven parish churches which belong to the Union
Church of the Canal Zone. The ministry of the Union Church is extended
only to the white English-speaking residents of the Zone.

We recommend that wherever interdenominational or united Prot-
estant ministries have been or may be established they should be made
available to all peoples irrespective of nationality, race, or color.

V HOME MISSION INSTITUTIONS

All institutional services which are rendered to meet human need so
as to provide for each person a healthful, wholesome, creative experience
are considered sacred. The church holds that such services can never be
all that they should be unless they are rooted in the Christian religion.
The public and private institutions which do not supply this religious
orientation in their programs should be approached by a united Prot-
estantism to open the way for an adequate chaplaincy service. When the
public is not informed on adequate institutional services, a program of
education to arouse interest should be carried on. This may require the
establishment and operation of an institution as a demonstration. When
the public is economically disadvantaged, it may be necessary to provide
the institutional service until the economic situation has been changed.

We recognize that as Christian missionaries one of our prime respon-
sibilities is thus to minister to human need in the spirit of Christ. We

recognize also, that one of our major responsibilities is the vigorous
promotion of Christianity. This necessitates a home missions strategy,
conceived both on a denominational and on a broad interdenominational
basis, for the community, the various distinctive missionary areas, and
the nation. The home mission educational institution functions at the
heart of such a strategy for the development of Christian leadership.

Needs of the situation

We have identified the following imperative needs ;

( 1 ) Definition of the functions of Protestant service and welfare
agencies in relation to the expansion of public services in education, health,
welfare, etc.

(2) A service of research, study, and evaluation to help boards and
institutions faced with a changing situation to determine their functions,
policy and standards of program.

(3) Planned co-operation of national boards and local boards
responsible for home missions projects in service to a community and
region.

(4) Clarification of the place of home missions institutions in
the total church (i.e. denominational and interdenominational)
strategy.

(5) A more flexible service calling for a minimum of capital
expenditure (buildings and equipment) with possible short term
goals looking toward the leading of the community to accept respon-
sibility for the service.

(6) On specific situations the committee suggests the following
in addition to the recommendations which it recognizes will come
from other seminars :

(a) A spiritual ministry to people with unique needs in special
environmental situations, i.e., the blind, the deaf, the hospitalized
prisoners, seamen, children in institutions, older people in
institutions and children in secular camps.

(b) Experimentation in religiously related inter-racial and in-
tercultural education on the elementary, secondary and college
levels involving campus and community life.

(c) Experimentation in adult education especially in the com-
munity level looking toward the development of a mature
religious citizenry.

(d) Curriculum experimentation in religious education in in-
stitutions.

(e) Experimentation in the integration of religious experience.

insights and knowledge into the total program, and admin-
istration of the home mission institutions.

(f) In children’s institutions, group work agencies and other
education institutions, adoption of an approach to the guidance
of the individual and his family as a social unit.

Specific Recommendations

(1) We endorse J;he principle of greater participation and
responsibility on the part of local, district or regional boards in
the administration of home mission institutions.

(2) We would recommend that home mission institutions not
only strive to achieve established minimum standards (local, state,
regional and national) but make every effort to surpass them for
effective service. Concern for standardization, however, should be
balanced against the necessity of establishing pioneering institutions.

(3) With respect to finances, we recommend that

(a) The principle of seeking support, even if limited, from the
groups served, be reaffirmed.

(b) While safeguarding the security of individual institutions
responsible for their own financing, all the institutions of a
denomination within a given area should work toward co-
ordination of appeals in terms of the needs involved in the
total Christian mission to the area.

(c) The practice of united financial appeals by Protestant in-
stitutions before church and private sources be adopted in order to
strengthen and advance the ecumenical home mission.

(4) That definite suggestions be worked out by the Committee on
Home Mission Institutions for better coordination between agencies and
boards in discovering and meeting more adequately the total needs of a
community or area, for example: (a) Co-operation between existing in-
stitutions on projects of mutual concern, (b) Assignment of a specific re-
sponsibility or area to a particular denomination in terms of established
comity principles and procedures, (c) Denominations rmiting to support
and administer service and institutional projects.

(5) That the following general principles relative to the transfer of
work to public or community groups be affirmed :

a) Transfer to be made in such a -way as to insure adequate base of
support and maintenance of proper standards.

b) Care to be taken to preserve social and spiritual values by a con-
tinuing religious ministry in connection with the institution or by
undertaking new typ>es of service in the community.

Recommendation: That the Committee on Home Missions Institu-
tions be requested to conduct an intensive study to outline principles for
maintaining, transferring, or closing of each of the various types of home
mission institutions.

(6) Because of the rapid change in the field of social welfare and
because of apparent confusion over the role and function of church agen-
cies there is need for a national conference on social welfare work which
is sponsored by or related to the church bodies. It is recommended to the
Home Missions Council that (a) the proper persons be appointed to co-
oj>erate with representatives of other interested organizations such as the
boards or committees of the national ecclesiastical bodies functioning in this
field, the Department of Christian Social Relations of the Federal Council
of Churches, the Church Conference of Social Work, the Association of
Church Social Workers, the American Protestant Hospital Association, to
plan for a national conference on social welfare work and (b) because of
the thorough research that should be conducted in preparation for such a
meeting the year 1955 be designated as the time of the proposed conference.

VI PERSONNEL

The Missionary Personnel Committee of the HMC has worked out
a careful statement of the elements of a well-rounded personnel program.
Principles have been adopted which cover enlistment, training, placement,
cultivation, support, and retirement. Much has been accomplished during
the past several years in raising standards.

The supply of young people qualified for successful missionary ap-
pointment is reaching a jwint where much more careful selection will be
required. Now is the time for mission boards to take stock of their
position — have they put into full effect all of the principles laid down
for an adequate personnel policy?

The Personnel Seminar recommends that denominational mission
boards which have not done so set up personnel agencies to administer
complete personnel programs covering the missionary from the point of
enlistment through retirement. In the case of boards having work ad-
ministered on the local level, such a central personnel agency should be
set up to offer counsel and to suggest standards for local agencies.

We recommend further that all home mission personnel agencies
work closely with the Home Missions Council to discover more and more
areas where personnel services may best be performed cooperatively.
It is our judgment that orientation of missionaries and in-service training
courses should be set up immediately on an inter-denominational basis
under the Home Missions Council.

The Personnel Seminar recommends that all agencies make full use
of the Student Volunteer Movement as the recognized interdenominational
agency for recruiting for home missions. Required will be increased
financial support and cooperation in making available to the SVM for
itineration the most colorful and dynamic missionaries.

We recommend that the SVM be urged to work out an effective plan
for finding the ablest young people in our high schools and colleges and
challenging them to lives of Christian service by presenting the urgent
needs for leadership in the home missions enterprise. This challenge should
be based on the superior abilities of these young people rather than on the
fact that they may already feel a commitment toward the work of the
church.

We recommend that pre-service training begin as early as the junior
year in high school through carefully supervised and evaluated summer
experiences. The personnel seminar also recommends the increased use
of a psychological testing program as another approach to understanding
the individual and guiding him toward a career decision. Because the spe-
cialized needs of city, rural and minority groups call for particular train-
ing, we recommend that Christian colleges and seminaries be urged to
provide training directly geared to meeting these needs.

The Personnel Seminar recommends that orientation of new mis-
sionaries be based on clear-cut statements of conditions and terms of ser-
vice, job analysis of the specific job, interviews, visual aids as well as ex-
tensive background information which will assist the individual in his
adjustment. An interdenominational approach should be used for setting
the basic standards to be followed.

The Personnel Seminar urges the HMC through its Missionary
Personnel Committee to set up standards and programs for an interde-
nominational approach to in-service training which will provide for con-
tinuing personal growth.

We recommend that mission boards cooperate through the HMC
in improving present techniques and plans for placing missionaries in
jobs and fields where they will be most effective.

We recommend that attention be given to more adequate provisions
for transferring missionaries when interest lags or usefulness is impaired.

We recommend that, as rapidly as possible, placements be made on
the basis of individual merit without regard to racial or national origin.

We recommend that each agency develop and inaugurate a procedure
for periodic evaluation of personnel on all levels to insure continued effec-
tiveness and happiness of the missionary and the progress and vitality of
the work.

The Personnel Seminar recommends that further adjustments be

made in missionary salaries in light of living costs. The Missionary Per-
sonnel Committee is requested to arrange for the preparation, publication,
and distribution of a careful statement of a Christian philosophy of wages
stating the implications for home missions salary policies.

We recommend that home missions agencies ma'ke provision in their
programs for missionaries on the field to share in evaluating the work
and in planning on a policy-making level.

The success of the home missions enterprise depends upon the
successful workmanship of each missionary. Good workmanships is the
end-product of a successful well-rounded personnel program.

VII UNDERGIRDING THE HOME MISSION ENTERPRISE

The genius of home missions is to lead men to a saving knowledge
of Jesus Christ. In so doing it pioneers, experiments, and labors so as
to develop the intrinsic worth of individuals in such a way as to produce
a social segment which is creatively Christian. It is concerned particularly
with disadvantaged people who lack opportunity and hope and who are
without a sense of fellowship with Christ. In addition to preaching,
teaching, and healing, it also shepherds and befriends, and seeks to remedy
social ills. It endeavors to redeem all of society, to secure constructive
legislation, and to unite the churches in a common approach to present
problems and opportunities. No congregation can limit its responsibility
to its local parish, which cannot be separated from its intimate relation
to the nation and the world.

Our vision in this Congress of the enlarged task and program of home
missions calls for much greater resources of money and of life than have
thus far been made available. We recognize, however, the existence of
processes now current, both denominational and interdenominational,
which can be more effectively used.

The basis for the larger support of home missions is a church which
is dedicated to a Christian view of the world and which is informed
concerning Christian enterprises throughout the world. This calls for :

First. A program of stewardship education for all ages which begins
in the home, which is rooted in the Scripture, and which expresses
itself in an inclusive fellowship of Christian people. Its effect should be
to unite a congregation in a common devotion to the cause of Christ, and
thus to inspire sacrificial giving.

Second. Missionary education materials should be based on and
related to the principles of stewardship. Particular projects should be
used as illustrations of principles rather than as objects of giving in
themselves. Needs should be presented factually and realistically but

without condescension. The wide range of opportunity should be pre-
sented but with the emphasis on the essential oneness of all problems and
the fraternal character of all real solutions.

More imaginative use should be made of missionaries and other
resource personnel. In addition to making speeches they should be in-
troduced into the whole life of the church in the most intimate way
possible. Advantage should be taken of the opportunities for community
contacts through local radio broadcasts, luncheon clubs, school assemblies,
and other groups.

We note the improvement in the quality of the newer means of
communication now available : audio-visual materials, kodachrome slides,
film strips, television. We believe that larger use should be made of them
and that they should be more closely integrated with the other elements
in the program of the church.

Leadership should be developed both among pastors and lay people
to the end that the local church may become a fellowship of people who
are interested in and concerned about the larger interest of the Kingdom.
We recommend travelling seminars which visit mission projects and both
denominational and interdenominational leadership training schools.

We report with joy that the publicity program on Religion in Ameri-
can Life which took place last fall will be repeated in 1950. Local people
can enhance the effectiveness of this program by securing the cooperation
of local radio stations, newspapers, and advertisers. We urge that the
United Church Canvass be continued and expanded.

Recent years have seen a revolution in the means of communication.
Of this the churches have not taken full advantage. We now have the
possibility of influencing the thinking of the nation through the mass
media of the press, radio, movies, and television. Our program planners
should take this development into increasing account. We need more
workshops to train our pastors and other leaders in the use of press and
radio for religious ends. Local churches should do more to follow up our
national broadcasts. In addition to the good work being done by the
Protestant Film Commission and the Protestant Radio Commission there
is need of local and individual initiative.

We favor the plan to follow this congress with local meetings devoted
to the consideration of the religious needs of local areas. We recommend
that the Home Missions Council study ways in which to stimulate areas to
make surveys and that it assign a staff member to help in promoting meet-
ings based upon such studies, as well as other home mission gatherings in
which the conclusions of this congress may be presented.

VIII

A CHRISTIAN INTERPRETATION
OF HUMAN RIGHTS

It is our conviction that the Christian faith as revealed in the Old and
New Testaments offers the only adequate and universal foundation for a
doctrine of human rights. In the Christian faith human rights are derived
from God and belong to every person as a direct gift from Him in the act
of creation. Human rights, therefore, inhere in the relation of the individual
to God and in the purpose of God for him. Man is a three-dimensional
being — body, mind and spirit — , and his God-given rights are directly re-
lated to his many-sided nature.

With every right there is a corresponding duty. Rights are held not
in solitariness but in relation to one’s fellows who are likewise members
of the family of God.

Every human being has the right to the fullest possible physical ex-
istence in terms of life, food, shelter, clothing, recreation, and whatever
contributes to health and well-being. One has not only the right to express
himself in creative work, but the obligation to work in order that he may
draw sustenance from the earth and to realize the fullest degree of his
creative powers.

Again, human rights, in the Christian teaching, include freedom of
one’s personal being and development, the right to his own uniqueness and
unfoldment without the hindrance of artificial divisions and limitations,
the right to free and unhampered human associations.

Because sin atllicts every man and the social order of which he is a
part fundamental rights must be safeguarded by social and legal sanctions.

Human beings also have the right to truth. This involves freedom of
inquiry and study in order that they may know truth and express truth as
they understand it. It further involves freedom of faith and worship and
freedom to propagate one’s faith. Freedom of faith and worship, the most
intimate of rights, involves the right of the creature to approach the Creator
and to surrender himself to God as Father.

These rights come directly from God. They are basic and transcend
the vicissitudes of time.

WTen confronted with the Christian doctrine of human rights, we are
constrained in deep humility to confess that as individuals and as churches
we have fallen far short of the teachings of our Lx>rd. We have often
succumbed to the secular spirit of the age and to divisions, classes, parties
and distinctions that are foreign to the purposes of Jesus Christ and the
example of the early church. We humbly confess our sins in this matter
and record our determination to build an unbreakable fellowship of men
and women founded on a common faith in God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

In harmony with this determination we make the following recom-
mendations :

I. In Relation to the Local Church

1. We urge local churches to study their life and work with a view
to bringing them into harmony with the Qiristian doctrine of Human
Rights.

2. We recommend that no person be denied membership or fellowship
or the right to bear office in the church because of race, color, sex, nation-
ality, or cultural backgrounds.

3. We recommend the same principle of non-discrimination in the
employment practices of local churches with regard to the preaching and
pastoral ministry, the ministry of music, and other forms of employment.

4. As an immediate and practical means to achieving an inclusive
cliurch membership, we urge Christians to seek fellowship across racial
and cultural lines and that they seek to establish and participate in com-
munity-wide groups devoted to this purpose.

5. We recommend that churches located in changing areas make such
adjustments in their ministry and programs as will enable them to serve
the changing community rather than retreating to new locations.

6. Recognizing the extent to which the question of human rights with-
in the United States and Canada is involved in the whole question of hu-
man rights around the world, we urge local churches and inter-church
groups to become familiar with the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and to measure practices in the church and community against these
world ideals.

II. In Relation to Denominations and General Denominational
Agencies

1. Recognizing that in relationships among diverse groups the same
sort of obligations are imposed upon each, we urge that any denomination
or denominational agency which is now organized along particular racial
lines prayerfully consider its relation to similar bodies of other races.

2. We recommend that church-related welfare agencies, such as
hospitals, children’s and old people’s homes, examine their admission and
employment policies with a view to eliminating practices that discriminate
against qualified persons because of race, color, sex, nationality or culture.
This recommendation applies also to all national and regional denomina-
tional boards of missions, education and benevolence.

3. We urge that church-related colleges and theological seminaries
offer their facilities to all qualified students without restrictions as to race,
color, nationality or cultural backgrounds.

4. We recommend that in tlie projected interdenominational studv
of Home Missions and Human Rights in 1952-53, the Christian interpreta-
tion of liuman riglits both at home and abroad as formulated by the Home
Missions Congress be presented to local communities for study to the end
that local tension points may be examined and appropriate action taken.
We further urge that those responsible for planning denominational and
interdenominational conferences give large place to the question of human
rights in the ]:irograms of such gatherings.

. HI. In Relation to Wider Community Issues

1. We believe that churches should support equal political rights for
all citizens. This includes the right to participate in elections, to hold office,
to equal sharing in public services, and to equality before the courts.

2. M'e believe that churches should stand for the equal right of all
citizens to employment and livelihood and that no person should be denied
this right because of race, color, nationality or cultural background.

3. Since shelter for the individual and the family is one of the God-
given human rights, we believe that the churches should stand for equally
adecjuate and unsegregated housing for all of the people.

4. Wt believe that the churches should stand for equally adequate
and un segregated educational opportunities for all the people.

5. We recommend that councils of churches set up departments
which will actively advance the cause of human rights at the legislative
and policy level and stimulate local churches to education and action on
behalf of the rights of all people in its community.

6. M e recommend to the Congress of the U. S. A. the speedy
adoption of the Fair Employment Practices Commission Act now pending
in the blouse of Representatives. We further recommend that the Home
Missions Congress immediately send a telegram to Speaker Sam Rayburn
urging him to bring this bill to the floor of the House for vote, and that
each person attending this Congress he urged to send an individual post-
card to Mr. Rayburn.

y. MT recommend the support of Federal, State, and local legisla-
tion as well as voluntary efforts in the promotion of more adequate public
health services, including grants for medical training and research, school
health services, and other effective measures which will make possible
more adequate health protection for all people. We further recommend
that particular consideration be given to that large group of physically and
mentally handicapped persons within our society.

Finally, We urge voluntary groups, associations and individuals to
accept responsibility for promoting justice and security. Such efforts
should he reinforced by governmental action only when necessary.

If. as Dr. Frederick C. Grant has said, “Religion is life controlled
bv the consciousness of God,’’ then secularism is life untouched and
uninfluenced by the consciousness of God. The discussion which follows
is limited to a consideration of the inter-relationship l>etween secularism
and Christianity, without reference to other forms of religion.

The issues which the Christian forces confront must he faced on three
levels, (i) in the community; (2) in the church; and (3) in family and
individual life. Xlie spiritual condition of any man might well be recorded
on a sliding scale, moving from complete secularism at one extreme to a
wholly God-dominated life at the other — a quality of life of which the
only' example is Jesus of Nazareth. All of us have the seeds both of
secularism and of God-centeredness in our individual lives.

The conflict between secularism and Christianity is signiflcantly
joined in local communities. In one community, in which the effort is
being made to bring interdenominational Christianity into the center of
the community’s life as a unifying force, there are difficulties created by
denominational differences on the one hand and on the other by the
tendency to weaken the impact of the Christian message in the effort to
hnd a statement upon which all can agree.

To keep religion out of the public sch(X)ls entirely, in accord with
the -American tradition of separation of church and state, is to limit
the average child’s appreciation of the inter-relation of religion with life,
both in history and in the current scene.

The conflict between secularism and Christianity in the church-re-
lated colleges has resulted in the existence of some church-related colleges
that are no more religiously oriented than are many non-church related
colleges and universities. Six causes are recognized.

1. Economic pressures resulting from the loss of church support
especially notable after the close of the first A’orld War.

2. -An increasing competition for students in order to diminish
per capita costs.

3. Em])loyment of faculty members not qualified or interested
to be religious educators of youth, and sometimes positively hostile
to religion.

4. Failure of the student’s home church properly to equip
him with a Christian perspective with which to evaluate and analyze
the various view])oints and theories with which he is confronted.

5. " Failure to relate the student to a church in the college com-
munity able to sustain and counsel him in his Christian faith.

6. Failure of family life to establish in childhood an enduring
api)reciation of Christian faith and life.

This discussion of the problems of secularism in our college de-
veloped a consensus of o])inion leading to the following recommenda-
tions ;

1. That the Home Missions Council be requested to give con-
sideration to the provision of a more adeejuate financial supjjort of
the church-related colleges.

2. That local churches be asked to encourage church families
to consider the merits of church-related colleges.

3. That the boards and administrative officers of church-re-
lated colleges be urged so far as is consistent with the principles of
academic freedon to maintain in faculty posts men and women who
are both competent scholars and sincere Christians.

4. That the theological seminaries be urged to provide to their
students a more adequate training in the religious education and
guidance of children and youth.

5. That on each college campus a chaplain be appointed, quali-
fied by training and personality to command the respect and allegiance
of college youth.

The conflict of secularism and Christianity in the Protestant
churches finds one of its expressions in the interracial practices of
the churches. So long as many churches display more unbrotherly
racial attitudes than many trade unions, the church can criticize
secularism in general only after deep soul-searching and regenera-
tion. Class and caste, the whole disintegrated structure of our secular
society, are set up where they have no right to be. in the Temple
of God. Here we have the most serious and alarming symptom of
the presence of secularism in our churches. It does not help the
situation that some church people are prone to substitute ethical
trivialities for the more basic virtues in their public defense of
morals. Yet it cannot be denied that the church in a caste- or glass-
segregated neighborhood is inevitably constrained to serve principally
those who reside within the normal radius of its influence. The in-
terracial church is a symbol merely, unless the neighborhood is inter-
racial. Where the neighborhood consists of a variety of groups the
church’s membership should represent them.

It is recognized that the church has a primary responsibility for the
religious education of its members, a responsibility involving the recruit-
ment and supervision of church school teachers trained and competent to
their task; the provision of courses, institutes and personal counsel for
Christian parents; and the challenging of church young people to active

service in the community and a real share in the life and work of the
church. For this, “made work” is no effective substitute. For youth
and adult members alike there is needed more of the spirit of adventure
and the element of courage.

The greatest single untapped resource of Protestantism is found in its
laymen and laywomen who have not yet been successfully inducted into
an understanding participation in the varied programs and problems of the
local church, nor have they been challenged to consider in what ways the
practice of their occupation or profession, be it house-wife and mother, or
carj>enter or teacher or lawyer, gives opportunity for the fuller realization
of the Christian values to which their church membership commits them.

The individual Christian, who would combat the influence upon his
own life of the pressures toward irreligion, must accept a self-discipline in
the areas of his social, economic, religious and political interests. If his vo-
cation is such as to afford little means for the expression of Christian values
then he must find as an avocation an opportunity to serve the Christian
cause in the work of the church itself or of the community. There are four
disobediences which serve to keep the Christian from living a fully de-
voted religious life, (1) the modem tendency to crowd religion into an
ever more limited period each week (a God who can be adequately wor-
shipped in one hour a week is not worth worshipping) ; (2) the failure to
make the reading of the Bible a daily and customary exercise; (3) the
inability or unwillingness to develop and maintain a meaningful prayer-life ;
and (4) the failure in stewardship resulting in the spending of one’s re-
sources in ways which clearly do not indicate a life devoted to the cause
of Christ.

In summary : the churches, enabled by a keen sense of the present
reality of God, can :

( 1 ) Be a courageous witness to that Divine Power which it is the
primary function of the churches to receive and to communicate.

(2) Improve their processes of worship, preaching, Christian educa-
tion, pastoral counselling, social service, and Christian fellowship in order
to witness more effectively to the unique Christian truth.

(3) Enlist the assistance of our laity in order to relate the will and
judgement of God to all of modern life; in homes, industrial relationships,
business practices, public education, modern mediums of thought trans-
mission, race relations and government.

(4) Intensify in each local fellowship a sense of fellowship with
God in order to purh'y and strengthen the internal life of the church.

(5) Redeem the secular person and incorporate him into the fel-
lowship of faith so that he may exemplify more perfectly the Christian

standards of conduct and in his own life prove the importance and the job
of religion and thus lead others to seek it eagerly.

(6) Clarify and articulate our beliefs and doctrine in order to correct
the religious ignorance of our day.

X CORPORATE ASPECTS OF THE HOME MISSION TASK

Winning America to Christ is a corporate task. Therefore, we in-
vite all communions to join in a common effort to achieve this end, rec-
ognizing that it can be done only as we work together in the comradeship
of Christian love.

This calls for a genuine and wide-spread movement for cooperation
in which both churches and communities everywhere must face their need
together.

We recommend that all communions encourage and support their
churches in the establishment of local and state councils of churches;
thus helping make real our response to the prayer of our Lord that we
be one.

Among the areas and situations that call for corporate action are
blighted urban districts, new housing projects, depleted rural communities,
ministry to institutions, and to minority and special groups, such as
migrant laborers, American Indians, foreign speaking peoples of non-
Protestant background, campus student groups, and displaced persons.

In dealing with blighted residential areas in cities the strategy should
be formulated through the appropriate council of churches and should
provide both for denominational and for interdominational projects.

The ecclesiastically cosmopolitan nature of new housing develop-
ments and the honor and prestige of Protestantism demand unified action
based upon cooperative study and survey.

In confronting rural areas experiencing depletion of social and eco-
nomic resources, we endorse the comity principles and the method of
implementing them as adopted by the town and country church convocation
in Lincoln, Nebraska, November 8-io, 1949. \\'e urge that local self-
studies be initiated in such depleted rural communities either by state
councils of churches or by national home mission boards. The wide-
spread use of “Rural Prospect” by Dr. Mark Rich and other related
materials developed for the study theme “Toward a Christian Com-
munity" would supply a basis for these studies.

We recommend that state or city councils of churches establish
departments of institutional ministry to provide for cha])laincies in hos-
pitals. and penal institutions, to set up standards for chaplaincy training

and service, and to develop materials for the use of pastors who visit
or counsel in hospitals and institutions.

^^'e rejoice in the achievements already attained in our corporate
ministry to such special groups as migrant laborers, share croppers, and
American Indians. Where study warrants it, we recommend that such
services be extended to other groups such as foreign language speaking-
peoples of non-f’rotestant background, displaced persons and campus
student groups.

Since objective and thorough survey and planning can best be done
cooperatively, we recommend that councils of churches establish depart-
ments of research and survey, and we add our endorsement to the pro-
])osed department of field research in the National Council of Churches
of Christ in the United States of America.

We recommend that the support of interdenominational projects be
a ])art of the total home missions strategy of national boards and that
j)rovision be made in their annual budgets for interdenominational
ministries.

We recommend the coordination and timing of denominational and
interdenominational programs and emphases in order to perform more
efficiently the corporate task of the home missions enterprise.

In order to emphasize these corporate aspects of our church life there
should be an immediate nation-wide restudy of the situation in every
community to eliminate hurtful competition and to ]>rovide an adequate
Christian service.

We call upon the denominations to initiate a national effort to carry
the factual and emotional drive of the ecumenical spirit to every com-
munity, to enlist church members and Ixith local and general officials
in a sincere determination to work out with every local situation a co-
oi)erative program with eyes single to the will of God and the highest,
good of all in the community.

★ ★ ★

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

All of the discussions during this Congress, as well as the studies
which preceded it, bring us to the recognition that we are in a period of
profound and far-reaching change which affects every aspect of every field
in which we are at work. The analysis of current conditions makes us
keenly aware of the great significance of such factors as the following :

1. The long-range trends with respect to population show a tem-
porary increase in the rate of growth following the war but a general move-
ment toward a point of stabilization which may be reached toward the

end of this century. However, there is a significant change in the age
distribution of the population, a generally lower birth rate combining with
greatly increased longevity to give us an increasing number and proportion
in the upper age brackets. There are still significant differences in the birth
rate for different elements in the population, with important variations
related to social, cultural, economic and other factors.

At the present time we are witnessing important changes in the dis-
tribution of population by regions and sub-regions. During the present
decade, only eight states have significantly exceeded the national rate of
growth, six of these being in the far west, one in the middle west and one
in the south. There is also a significant shift of population within particular
regions, with the rapid growth of certain centers or areas while other areas
remain static or declining.

The long time shifting of the balance between urban and rural popula-
tions continues but with new elements added. The period of growth of
great central cities appears to be about over. The rate of growth of suburbs
and satellite cities has in many cases been spectacular. The farm population
has sharply declined. The most rapidly growing single segment of the popu-
lation for two decades now has been what is described as the “rural non-
farm population.” This introduces as distinctive a new type of social or-
ganization as did the initial development of the suburb.

The very high rate of pnjpulation mobility during the present decade
is a war-created phenomena in part but seems to be in some measure a char-
acteristic of the times which will continue. One of the immediately signifi-
cant aspects of it is related to the widespread redistribution of particular
racial or cultural groups which is having a devastating effect upon the as-
sumed solidarity of many communities.

On the whole, any long-range movement toward stabilization of pop-
ulation cannot be regarded as static in character but as a form of dynamic
stabilization. That is to say, we may approach stabilization as to the total
but with a constant shift in the significance and the arrangement of the
parts.

2. The problem of intergroup relationships within society has as-
sumed new form and significance. One phenomenon of our day has been
the emergence of strong, vividly defined pressure groups. Many of the nat-
ural distinctions within society are being so organized. That is true of
labor, business groups, particular professions, certain racial or cultural
minorities. Such groups are strongly influenced by political and other
considerations and are often exploited for political ends.

Formerly, whatever distinctive status most minority groups had was
imposed upon them. It was a part of a practice of segregation, enforced
by law or social tradition. Recently there has been a tendency toward the

conscious assertion of distinctive character by such groups but with a
struggle for equality of status. Frequently, the ideal of a completely unseg-
regated society is as much resisted by minority group leaders as by the
majority.

The great danger in this is that we shall lose entirely the concept of
society or of community as a whole and will substitute for it the concept
of distinctive and competing groups, all asserting and maintaining their
position in society by the familiar process of bloc pressures.

3. Everyone is familiar with the extent to which we have gone in
asserting the responsibility of the state for fundamental social welfare.
\\'hile some aspects of this constitute a present political controversy, it has
actually been a slow and steady evolution over a long period of years in
which society, through local, state or federal governments, has asserted a
corporate responsibility within an ever widening range of concerns.

The results of this process have certainly not been all good
or all bad. The social gains, especially in relation to such interests
as education, health, housing, social security, etc. have been im-
pressively great. At the same time, this trend has a corrosive affect
upon individual initiative and self-reliance and raises many im-
jjortant questions as to the future of voluntary organizations and
private initiative in many fields broadly included within the area of
social welfare.

4. The general expansion of available facilities for education
and cultural development has been spectacular, particularly in recent
decades. In spite of obvious deficiencies and inequalities, the formal
enterprise of education has made remarkable progress. At the same
time, the informal agencies of education, of mass communication
and of mental conditioning have assumed a place in modern life
for which there is no precedent. This is a development involving de-
sirable and. to the highest degree, undesirable elements.

5. There are many evidences that American life is passing
through a moral crisis. Not only is the nature of modern society so
complex that moral standards seem for many to have lost their
clarity so that there is much genuine ethical confusion, it is
also true that by any standards the current prevalence of crime,
gambling, drinking and other forms of immorality indicate a serious
weakening of traditional standards.

Such factors as these and many more that might be mentioned
are important in shaping the situation within which Home Missions
must do its work. We, in common with many other agencies that are
concerned with social welfare, are embarrassed by the continuing
importance of certain unresolved tensions, the implications of which

are familiar to us in many fields. One we may describe simply as
the problem created by the persistence of the distinctions among
churches which are based on essentially non-religious factors. Such
tensions are often very tenacious and persist as the occasion for them
has passed. A second is the familiar problem of achieving a proper
balance among local regional and national interests. Each has authen-
tic value but a great deal of energy is wasted by our failure to get
them properly adjusted to each other. A third is the familiar
urban-rural tension, the final solution of which still eludes us and which
is being made even more difficult now by the constant spill over of urban
populations into surrounding rural areas. The fourth is the problem of
reconciling a necessary emphasis on specialization in function and program
with an inclusive concept of total welfare. Much of our organizational
confusion results from the conflict between technical specialization and
the necessary inter-relatedness of all specialized interests.

As the Home Mission agencies approach their enlarged task, we be-
lieve that we must keep before us such considerations as the following:

(1) We must adjust ourselves psychologically to the fact of change.
We have a permanence which we can offer to a changing world but we
have also an organization and a program which we must be prepared to
change and adapt at need.

(2) In such a situation as the present, the Christian cause must
certainly have a seriousness and earnestness comparable to the crisis
psychologies of many secular causes. The church needs a new sense of
urgency about its missionary business.

(3) In many situations, at least, we need to develop a new philosophy
of our mission. For one thing, we must learn to think functionally instead
of institutionally, that is, in terms of our ability to permeate society with a
Christian spirit rather than in terms of the maintenance of particular
institutions. Further, the Home Mission enterprise must attach itself
locally to the abiding community rather than to an individual shifting
constituency,

(4) In a day which has carried every form of technology' to such
a high degree of competence, we must likewise develop the Home Mission
enterprise on a new high level of competence. We do not imply that
spiritual devotion has become less important but that it needs the rein-
forcement of the best intelligence and technical skill which we can produce.

(5) There is demand in our day for a more precise and convincing
definition of the relevance of the Christian message in terms of the prob-
lems and tensions of everyday life. The concern of the church for welfare,
in the broadest and most fundamental sense, is of the essence of the Gospel.
Obviously, Home Missions which have so long ministered to the ills occa-

sioned by social injustice must be prepared to bring its influence to bear for
the eradication of injustice.

(6) Qearly, we must be more conscious than we have been of the
bearing of our Home Mission enterprise upon the world field. America has
moved into a role of world leadership. The character of that leadership
depends upon the character of America which in turn depends, to no incon-
siderable extent, upon the character of the Home Mission enterprise.

(7) It seems inescapable that we must now undertake a strenuous
program of advance and expansion. That is true with resp>ect to every
aspect of our work, evangelistic outreach, new church development, prac-
tical ministries of every sort. Furthermore, this program must be con-
ceived not merely as a multiplication of individual projects but as a great
movement undertaken on behalf of the Christian Church as a whole and
directed toward life as a whole.

In order to do this, we must accept and develop the corporate nature
of the task of the Church. We are pitted against powerful united forces,
many of them national and international in outreach. Chir deep need and
opportunity call for massed strength.

(8) We rejoice in the decision to bring into being the National
Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America before
the end of 1950. This new and comprehensive organization, of which the
Home Missions Council will become a part, represents the most significant
development of the cooperative organization of American Protestantism.
This should have the fullest measure of support of all Home Missions
agencies and of the entire church.

★ ★ ★

MESSAGE TO THE CHURCHES

The Church owes its existence to the Good News. It is created and
sustained by the ever renewed assurance that, in the life, sacrifice and
victory of Jesus Christ, God has concpiered the power of enmity, evil and
death. This is indeed Good News. It has power to shatter the human
heart with wonder and shake the world with hope.

While the Church is brought into being by the Gospel, it ceases to
be the Church unless it is the bearer of this Good News to all mankind.
Thus the Church is given its mission. It is called to make known God’s
redeeming love and bring all of life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The mission of the whole Church is also the mission of every con-
gregation. The local church is a portion of the Christian Community
resident in a given place but called to accept the full commission of its
Lord, to share its faith and life with the neighborhood, the nation and

the world. Mission boards, institutions, and missionaries are instruments
by means of which the local church extends its ministry to the farther
l^ounds of its parish.

In the work of Home Missions the churches join in communi-
cating to all the people of the nation a saving faith in Jesus Christ,
a meaningful life purpose in His service, and a demonstration of the
power of the Gospel to bring justice, mercy and true fellowship
into the ways of the common life. Each church fulfills its Christian
vocation only as its members are informed and motivated to bear
their own responsibility in performing the missionary task for which
the Christian Community exists.

The National Congress on Home Missions calls upon all churches
and church members to examine themselves as to the vitality of
their sense of mission, the cpiality of their Christian witness in our
own nation, and the fidelity of their stewardship of those gifts of
time, talent and money which God has entrusted to them. We ask
the Christian people of America to sustain with their prayers the
work of home missions and the multitude of faithful missionaries,
so that our country, strong in the faith and fruits of the Gospel, may
be used of God to reconcile the world unto Himself and His purpose
for mankind.

NATIONAL CONGRESS ON HOME MISSIONS

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