Words & Works

P:Newscaster Richard T. Sutcliffe, associate director of press, radio & television for the United Lutheran Church in Amer ica, broadcast his list of the ten top religious news stories of 1955: 1) the illness, recovery and vision of Pope Pius XII, 2) Christian missionaries released by Red China, 3) Evangelist Billy Graham's sweep of Western Europe, 4) Dictator Peron's "failure to choke Argentine Roman Catholics," 5) Princess Margaret's stand for the "indissolubility" of Christian marriage, 6) Lutheran heresy trials, 7) collapse of negotiations for the proposed merger between northern and southern Presbyterians, 8) indecision in some church leadership following the Supreme Court ruling on racial segregation, 9) the debate as to whether there is a "great religious renaissance" in the U.S., 10) the visits of U.S. churchmen to Russia.

P:The Methodist Church published results of its first nationwide opinion poll of Methodists. Among those polled, total abstinence from alcohol was endorsed by 68.9%, slightly more than were opposed to breaking the speed limit (67.7%). But despite a "clear warning of the church against games of chance," a few more than 50% saw nothing wrong in bingo, and the onetime Methodist sin of dancing is now frowned on by only 15.2%. Condemned by about 95%: profanity and the misrepresentation of a product "in trying to make a sale."

P:Yale Divinity School announced a $6,500,000 expansion program to include construction of seven new buildings, a $500,000 endowment fund for the Divinity Library, establishment of a $1,145,000 fund for scholarships and religious "internships"--which will attempt to give divinity students practical experience. Eventually, said Dean Liston Pope, the "master plan" might lead to development of an Institute of Advanced Theological Studies where ministers could carry on special work under the guidance of the Divinity School faculty and visiting theologians.

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