Detroit's Moderator

The 82 Presbyterian churches of the Detroit presbytery, like most other U.S. churches, are divided among white and Negro congregations. At their annual meeting last week, the pastors and elders of the Detroit presbytery decided that church is no place for segregation. After admitting "with regret and shame" that U.S. Presbyterians have not done much in practice to end segregation, the presbytery called on its member churches to bring about "nonsegregation in the life and work of their congregations."

At the same meeting, the Detroit Presbyterians elected a moderator for 1953: the Rev. William H. Molbon, the first Negro ever to head the presbytery in its 123-year history.

Moderator Molbon, 39, a graduate of Massachusetts' Andover Newton Theological School, has been pastor of St. John's Church, in a Negro section of Detroit, since 1942. In his decade there, he has tripled church membership (present total: 620) and built up a wide program of community activities, ranging from a day nursery to weekly ballet classes. Pastor Molbon for the last six Summers has run an "Adventure in Brotherhood" program in which white children and Negro children visit each other's homes during vacation time. Says Molbon: "This is very much of a new day."

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