Opinion in Richmond

The Rev. W. Leigh Ribble was disturbed. His Grace and Holy Trinity Church in midtown Richmond, Va. seemed to be doing well; its generally well-off Episcopal parishioners were better-than-average churchgoers and they were raising their children to be credits to the community. But earnest Rector Ribble, 48, who also edits the weekly Southern Churchman, had a growing sense that between him and his congregation there were "barriers of language, of plain ignorance and of lack of conviction."

Such barriers are common between ministers and laymen, Ribble is convinced, and he thinks he knows why: ministers don't know what their flocks believe or want to hear about. "They . . . assume knowledge in their congregations which isn't there . . . They use words and terms which at one time meant something to people; words which, however, seem not to be understood anymore--words like redemption, conversion and grace."

To find out what 550 communicants really believe about the fundamentals of their faith, Ribble sent them a questionnaire. Last week, with 314 replies back, he made report.

The first question went to the heart of the Christian doctrine of the natural sinfulness of man--though Rector Ribble phrased it in casual, man-in-the-street language. Doing their best to interpret the theological issue in the poll's terms, 245 parishioners declared that people "by nature" are "good" or "more apt to be good than bad"; only 21 could bring themselves to say that people are by nature "bad." But 272 were firmly orthodox in declaring their belief in a personal rather than an impersonal God (one came out for no God at all), and 271 accepted the divinity of Christ. (Nineteen checked "a noble man only"; one, "just a symbol of good, like Santa Claus or the Goddess of Liberty.")

To the rector's surprise, 222 replied that they pray every day; only 13 said they do not pray at all. Seventy-four thought that "the world is getting better all the time," as against 184 who thought not, and 49 were undecided. "To be a Christian," answered 41, "it is not necessary to believe that Jesus Christ is God."

Rector Ribble feels that he has his work cut out for him. He plans to use the returns as a guide in planning his future sermons. Meanwhile, theological arguments have been breaking up parishioners' bridge and canasta games, and Grace and Holy Trinity's post-Easter Sunday congregations have been running about a third larger than usual.

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