Malvern to New Haven

Few Christian conferences have so struck the hearts and imaginations of churchmen everywhere as did the Malvern Conference of the Church of England, with its bold blueprint for a just and Christian post-war society (TIME, Jan. 20). Last week Malvern came to the U. S. The Church League for Industrial Democracy, the liberal, social-action group of the Episcopal Church, met at New Haven, spent its entire annual meeting discussing the Malvern resolutions in the light of U. S. needs.

Not so distinguished an assembly as Malvern, which was convened by the Archbishop of York and drew 23 bishops, the C. L. I. D.'s meeting was nonetheless an earnest and effective one. Presiding Bishop Henry St. George Tucker, a C. L. I. D. member, could not come; with 20 other Bishops he was in Chicago, to consecrate the Rev. Wallace Edmonds Conkling as Chicago's seventh Episcopal bishop.* But four bishops and a raft of other prominent churchmen were there. In two days, some 450 delegates resolved that: "We subscribe to the Malvern Resolutions in spirit, also in letter except insofar as local circumstances require modification." Some further conclusions from this general endorsement:

1) Production for use instead of profit --and abolition of the "profit motive."

2) Communal ownership of the means of production, especially of natural resources "as a storehouse of divine bounty on which we all utterly depend."

3) A cooperative commonwealth of Europe, with which the U. S. by implication would be an active partner.

4) Universal education of children and adolescents "to take their full share as Christian citizens in the life of the community--economic, cultural and spiritual."

5) Rights of labor "recognized as in principle equal to those of capital in the control of industry, whatever the means by which this transformation is effected."

6) Active participation by churchmen "in public and political life, both local and national, in labor unions, and all other bodies affecting the public welfare . . . [to] seek ways of expressing Christian principles through these channels."

7) Corporate and national reform. "We note the tendency to delegate our responsibility to large corporate bodies which of their very nature must be at least partly irresponsible--corporations in which we hold stock, the nation to which we belong, groups in which we hold membership, and even the Church itself. To the sin of pride we add the sin of evasion."

8) Social justice for groups and individuals to end the blight of the " 'mass man,' who is conscious of no status spiritual or social, who is a mere item in the machinery of production, and who easily develops the herd psychology."

Church Self-Reform. Malvern's plan for spiritual and financial reform of the church itself came in for plenty of discussion at the New Haven meeting. Speakers trenchantly pointed out that the lay employes of churches have not the social security of other U. S. workers, that clerical salaries are often inequitable, that church endowments and finances are not above suspicion. Due attention was paid Malvern's proposed solutions, including:

1) More active work by congregations in remedying social evils in their locality, with "cells" formed to promote spiritual and social study and service.

2) A supplementary form of worship "so directed and conducted that its relevance to life and to men's actual needs is evident." The C. L. I. D. plans soon to publish a service book containing socially-conscious Scripture readings, hymns, prayers. Much applauded was a social creed presented by George Frederick Wiemann, a retired coffee importer of Newtown, Conn. Excerpts:

I believe that we are all the children of God the Father, Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth.

I believe that, as God loves us, so should we love our fellow men, everywhere.

I believe that, as Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, so should we be willing to sacrifice ourselves and what we possess to help needy men, women and children, everywhere on this earth. . . .

I believe that it is God's divine purpose that His bountiful and all-sufficient gifts to us should be shared by all mankind, and that no nation or government should usurp or withhold from others a fair possession of His gifts.

Above all, I believe that I should do no injustice to or take any unfair advantage of any man, woman or child, either directly or indirectly, and that I should discourage others from so doing by obeying God's commandment not to kill, steal, defraud or deceive, and not to covet what rightfully belongs to others.

All this I believe to be my bounden duty in helping to stop all warfare and help to promote peace on earth and goodwill to all men in order to help build the Kingdom of God on earth.

Women are allowed less leadership in the church than in almost any other field of U. S. activity. But notable at New Haven were the skill and spokesmanship of many an able Episcopal laywoman. Chief speech at the annual C. L. I. D. banquet was given by Vida Button Scudder, emeritus professor of English at Wellesley. Principal speaker at the opening session was Director Mary van Kleeck of the Russell Sage Foundation's Department of Industrial Studies. Said she: "What does Christianity require of Britain and the United States in their jointly assumed responsibility for world affairs today? The answer may at once be given in simplest terms, Love thy Neighbor as thyself. . . . We are Christians just to the extent that we assume responsibility to aid in lifting out of poverty and insecurity those millions, not only in our own nation, but in all countries with which our nation has economic relations. For Britain and the United States together, this means the whole world."

Well does the C. L. I. D. know that to many a churchman its sponsorship of Malvern would, thanks to its left-wing label, be more of a hindrance than a help. Led by its lean, kinetic executive secretary, the Rev. William Benjamin Spofford, it cheerfully voted to turn over its findings to the more official joint commission set up last October by the Episcopal General Convention and headed by liberal, well-liked Bishop William Scarlett of Missouri.

Soon to consider Malvern in one way or another are the Federal Council of Churches, the United Christian Council for Democracy (coordinating body of Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Congregational and other church social-action groups), many another U. S. church organization, and--most important of all--the conference of leading churchmen of the Western Hemisphere summoned by the World Council of Churches to meet in Toronto this June. As special guest the Toronto Conference is expecting the Archbishop of York, with his help plans to draw up a worldwide plan for post-war society. Keynote for its deliberations was struck last week by the C. L. I. D.'s president, retired Bishop Edward Lambe Parsons of California:

"The important thing about the war in any case is the peace which comes out of it, and the essential thing in the peace for all Christians who are aware of their Christian responsibility seems to me to be that it shall set forward further the democratic processes which are only a political and economic expression of the fundamentals of our Christian faith."

* Chicago had a remarkable double consecration that day. In Holy Name Cathedral 64 abbots, bishops and archbishops met to consecrate the Right Rev. Francis Joseph Magner, Roman Catholic bishop of Marquette. The day was appropriately St. Matthias', first apostle to be chosen by the church.

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