Newspaper Page Text
A
b
1
i
PAGE 2 — The Southern Cross, January 29,1970
Group Named To Study
Restructuring Of NCC
TULSA, Okla. (NC) - A
15-member task force to
study proposals for radical
change in function and
structure of the National
Council of Churches was
confirmed at the conclusion
of the week-long NCC general
board meeting here.
The task force is to report
its findings to the next board
meeting scheduled to convene
in Washington, D.C., in June.
It was the board’s longest
(five days) meeting on record,
completing on the opening
night (Jan. 19) the recessed
organizational session begun
in Detroit, Dec. 5, and going
on throughout the next four
days debating NCC structure,
problems of deficit financing,
lack of board power in
implementing its own
directives, and the role of
minorities in decision-making.
The climate of discussion
indicated the sense that the
NCC bureaucratic set-up,
serving the wish of tight
denominational structures to
meet in unity and in social
action, was out-of-date and
that a new age dictates a new
style to meet new needs.
Two different plans
stimulated discussions-the
general ecumenical council
proposed by the NCC’s
general secretary Dr. R. H.
Edwin Espy, and a plan
calling for streamling the
organization’s structure and
function submitted by the
reappraisal commitee, of
which Dr. William Thompson,
stated clerk (chief executive
officer) of the United
In Savannah
Shop Easily at Stores and
Service Establishments
Displaying this Emblem.
OR
Stop at any of the 8 convenient
C&S Banks for Instant Money
Albany
Metal Sash
Steel
Construction Supplies
Joe Brosheors
Steel, Inc.
P. 0. Box 1305 Phone HE. 5-4548
ALBANY, GEORGIA
Presbyterian Church in the
U.S.A., is chairman.
Although both men
indicated that their proposals
had much in common, a sense
of cross purposes existed
among board members. Dr.
Espy’s plan calls for a United
Nations-like structure in
which groups of all Christian
denominations or agencies
dedicated to certain programs
(liturgy, worship, social
action, theology, human
needs, and so forth) could
unite in these tasks, all
existing under the general
umbrella of an ecumenical
council which has no central
power to enforce decisions
upon the different agencies.
Dr. Thompson’s plan
called for a streamlined NCC
in which staff members
worked on specific
experimental projects in
behalf of member
communions for limited
periods of time; an NCC that
would act as a forum,
catalyst, in outreach,
experimental and short-term
programs.
The question of sources of
power and fiscal
responsibility hung over both
plans, along with a feeling
that a general board which
passes resolutions having “no
teeth in them” is not good
enough.
In the end, the board
directed its president and
general secretary to appoint a
committee of 15 members to
present it by its June meeting
with clear alternative options
which can be debated and
voted upon.
The question of ever larger
social demands in the face of
shrinking financial resources
also plagued the board. A
financial report, listing
different council units “in the
red”, recorded 1969
expenditures of $25,903,475
and receipts of $24,280,582.
Tighter controls over
expenditures in the future
was promised by the general
administration and finance
f’ommitteb.
In special presentations,
delegates were acquainted
with a number of minority
concerns. Mrs. Martha Grass,
an Indian mother, spoke of
the conditions under which
she has lived; the Rev. Wendal
Chino talked of the limited
effectiveness of government
programs among American
Indians; and Miss Tillie
Walker, a vice president-at-
large of the council and
director of the United
Scholarship Service for
Indians questioned the entire
relationship of the church to
the American Indian.
ALBANY
CAR-WASH. INC
I3P
ONE OF THE FINEST IN
THE SOUTH
CAR WASH PLAN
WITH PURCHASE
OF GASOLINE
CREDIT CARDS HONORED
Dial 432-9598
1211 N. Slappey Blvd. at 6th Av.
Tree Service — Spraying
Grading & Planting
GRASSES
Zoysia — Centipede
St. Augustine—Hybrid
Patch Nursery & Landscaping
Phone 436-2122
Leesburg Road
The Weatherley’s
Albany, Ga.
COLUMBUS UNITY WEEK — Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church of
the Ascension both in Columbus, observed the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity on Wednesday
evening, January 21st with prayer and fellowship. A joint service of evening prayer was held in Our
Lady of Lourdes Church Building with Rev. George C. James, Pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes
Church presiding and Pastor John Underwood of the Lutheran Church of the Ascension delivering
the sermon. Mr. Thomas Pugh and Mr. B. W. Sloan from the Lutheran Church and Mr. Donald
Oswald from Our Lady of Lourdes Church presented Scriptural readings during the Ecumenical
Service. Our Lady of Lourdes Folk Group offered the meditation hymn. The evening was
concluded with a Fellowship Social held in Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Hall. Highlighting the
social (Shown above) was the presentation to Rev. Underwood of a holly tree to be planted on his
church property as a permanent sign of the friendship between the two communities.
‘NOT CALLED> BY CHRIST
City Daily Says
Can’t Be Priests
V atican
Women
VATICAN CITY (NC) -
Can the Catholic Church ever
ordain women priests? No,
not even if it wanted to,
according to the Vatican City
daily newspaper.
Although women are equal
to men in rights and at least
equal to them in worth, they
were not called to the
priesthood by Christ, the
front-page article in
L’Osservftitttre Romano
asserted. j
The timing of the article
(Jan. 23) indicated it was a
reply to a recommendation of
the Dutch National Pastoral
Council earlier in January
that women be admitted “to
all ecclesiastical functions,
not excluding the celebration
of Mass.”
L ’ O sservatore Romano’s
reply to such a notion
occupied about a fourth of
the front page.
The writer, Divo Barsotti,
asked if the Gospel shows any
hostility to the fair sex.
“No, the Gospel is not
hostile to woman. Yet Jesus
does not call women to the
ministry, does not
communicate to women the
message he received from the
Father. It is a fact that we are
bound to recognize it.
“Why could not woman
fulfill a public mission of
teaching, guidance and
worship in this world? The
reason is probably that God,
just as he chose a human
language when he wanted to
speak to men, had to choose
a time and a place, and a
cultural and social
environment, when he chose
to make himself a man. His
Incarnation would not have
been true and real if He had
not. Submitted to the
conditioning of our nature.
Can the mission of Christ
continue in the Church if the
conditions of this community
are neglected?”
There would be no
objection to ordaining
women priests if the
ministerial priesthood were
not something other than the
priesthood of the entire
Christian people, the article
maintained.
“If in fact the powers of
the ministry were delegated
to the community, nothing
today could prevent the
community from calling
women too the priesthood.
But if the ministerial
priesthood, as the Catholic
Church would have it, is by
its essence an ‘other’
priesthood, the priesthood
which forms the men raised
to it to the likeness of Christ
the head, then the continuity
of transmission of these
powers could not put aside
the positive will of Him who
alone chooses them and
empowers them for the
ministry.”
The will of Christ is
manifested in the Gospels,
the article continued.
“He has chosen men, and
to them alone He has
entrusted the power of
continuing His mission in the
world . ..
“Not even the Church
could alter or ignore this will.
It is precisely this will that
founds the Church and is the
law of its nature and of its
ZURICH, Switzerland
(NC) — The arguments
advanced by Divo Barsotti in
L’Osservatore Romano
against women priests are
‘‘totally outdated and
irrelevant,” said Dr. Gertrud
Heinzelmann, a prominent
Swiss Catholic lawyer and
champion and women’s
suffrage.
She has authored two
books on this subject and
presented a petition to the
Second Vatican Council
asking for the revision of
pertinent sections of canon
law.
“Christ appointed Jews
only to be apostoles;
nevertheless no one would
claim that Jews only can be
priests,” Heinzelmann
explained.
Christ “told only men
they should baptize; still
women can do it today,” she
said. “Men only were present
The Newman Apostolate
of Georgia Southern College
will sponsor a Theology
Insitute February 20 and 21
on the Statesboro campus,
according to a press release
issued by Sister Michelle of
the Newman Apostolate.
The Institute will be
conducted by Father John
Hein S.J. director of the
Jesuit Retreat house in
Atlanta.
It will be open at 5 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 20 with a
general introduction by
Father Hein. At 8 p.m.
participants will discuss “The
existence.”
But if Christ was silent on
the matter, cannot that
silence be taken as consent?
The objection is
‘‘specious” replied
L’Osservatore Romano.
“Silence does not say
anything and certainly does
not ensure the positive will of
Christ, which alone could be
the sure base of legitimacy of
■>' a priesthood of women.”
at the Last Supper; still
women partake of Holy
Communion just like men.
There are many other good
reasons why L’Osservatore’s
position is untenable,
especially since women were
prophetesses in the Old
Testament and ordained
deaconesses in the New.
Arguments against a female
priesthood taken from
scripture ignore the
fundamental fact that social
conditions have since changed
substantially, and are no
longer applicable to women’s
position today.
“I am convinced the day
will come when women will
be ordained priests, and many
Catholic theologians support
this view. With so many
Protestant churches now
ordaining women, the
ecumenical trend certainly
would not be furthered were
we to maintain views no
longer acceptable in modern
society.”
Church as a Eucharistic
Community.”
On Saturday, Feb. 21,
sessions will begin at 9 a.m.
with a dialogue on “The
Church as an Eschatalogical
Community.”
Following discussions on
“The Dimensions of the
Church,” “Freedom and
Authority in the Church,”
and “A Look into the
Future,” at 11 a.m., 2:30
p.m., and 4:30 p.m.
respectively, the Institute will
conclude with the celebration
of the Eucharist. A
registration form for the
Institute is printed below.
Swiss Lawyer
Says They Can
AT GA. SOUTHERN
Newmanites Slate
Theology Program
HURT BY 1-65
Ave Maria Grotto
Regains Tourists
CULLMAN, ALA—It’s
been a long hard struggle but
through the untiring efforts
of Father Lambert Gattman,
OSB, and his small staff, the
Ave Maria Grotto located at
St. Bernard near here is
almost back to its peak as a
tourist attraction.
Grotto as the key instruments
in bringing motorists back to
the shrine.
“The highway department
really helped us once we were
able to convince them of our
problem with the signs,” he
said. “We are very grateful for
their help.”
Father Lambert, director
of the famous religious
shrine, uses the word “back”
because he was hurt so badly,
attendance wise, when
Interstate highway 1-65 was
opened some three miles west
of St. Bernard.
“The year before that
highway opened we had over
58,000 to tour the Grotto,”
he said. “The following year
we were down to about half
that number. The highway
folks didn’t put any signs on
the road traveling South and
the tourist from the Northern
states just couldn’t find us.
We began getting reports of
travelers stopping at
Arkadelphia, Warrior, and
other points south of here
and asking how to find us,
but by that time they were
25 miles down the road and
never came back.”
Figures just released by
the Grotto show 57,703
attended the creation of
Brother Joseph Zoettl, OSB,
last year. “This leaves us less
than a thousand short of our
record year, so I guess you
could say that we are almost
back,” Father added.
The Cullman attraction
drew from all 50 states and
some 60 foreign countries last
year. Father Lambert knows
that close to half of his guests
sign' the registration book in
the Grotto. He keeps check
by comparing the book with
admissions.
In 1969, Alabama led all
states in the number of guest
registering. The home state
had 14,552 people listing it in
their home addresses.
Illinois, Georgia, and
Mississippi all broke the
thousand mark. Tennessee
followed Alabama with 1339
signees. Foreign registrants
numbered 448.
JEWELERS
AUGUSTA.GA
Savannah
Glass & Appliance Co.
Auto Glass
Full Line of Home
Appliances & Service Dept.
234-0618 227 West Harris
Savannah, Ga.
Before his death, Brother
Joseph expanded his “Little
Jerusalem” to include many
historical monuments. Today,
the Grotto houses more than
150 miniature replicas
exquisitely sculpted in
concrete, stone, marble, tile,
shells, rocks, prisms, and
beads.
Father Lambert credits tha
good help and response he
received from the Alabama
State Highway Department
and the heavy advertising
campaign carried on by the
Johnnie Ganem
Steak Ranch {
i
CHARCOAL BROILED STEAKS \
PRIME STEAKS ^
DINNERS - LUNCHEON
COCKTAILS
DINNER MUSIC j
Gaston and Habersham <
AD 3-3032 <
Albany
See The New
Pontiacs
Tempests
Cadillacs
In Our
Show Room
PONTIAC
Aultman Motor Company
Albany, Georgia
Telephone: Hemlock 6-2431
The National Bank
Of Albany
SERVING EAST ALBANY
WITH OUR BRANCH OFFICE
300 S MOCK RD.
410 BROAD AVE. 436-8421
MEMBER F.D.I.C. & THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
“COMPLETE BANKING SERVICES”
T?hodgi.,9nc.
furniture
JACKSON STREET AT PINE
Albany. Georgia
SERVING
the SOUTH
since i q 7 5