Together

The 1826 prospectus described the Christian Advocate as "an entertaining, instructive and profitable family visitor." This week, in one of the most ambitious ventures in the history of church publishing, the U.S. Methodist Church split the 130-year-old Christian Advocate into two visitors--one entertaining and one instructive.

The instructive visitor is for ministers: a trim, digest-sized monthly called The New Christian Advocate, packed with 22 pithy articles under such headings as Church Administration, Architecture & Building, Pastor & Parsonage. Illustrations and features enliven the pages between pastoral shoptalk ranging from "Preaching on Controversial Issues" to "Psychiatry Needs Religion." The centerfold is devoted to a spread of new gadgets calculated to gladden a ministerial eye, like the Carryor ("enables the minister to carry his pulpit robe easily"; $8.75) or the miniature pew ("makes youngsters enjoy attending church"; $5.95). The purpose of the new Advocate, said Los Angeles' Bishop Gerald Kennedy, will be to "bring back to men who have been beaten down by routine, the memory of their ordination and the sense of the dignity of their high calling." Initial circulation: 25,000.

For lay families the Methodist Publishing House has launched a spanking new slick-paper magazine called Together. Edited by Leland D. Case, onetime editor of The Rotarian (circ. 302,202), this 88-page "Midmonth Magazine for Methodist Families" aims to have something for everybody. Manhattan's crowd-pulling Preacher Ralph W. Sockman contributes the lead article on "What My Religion Means to Me," but religion as such is subordinated to fiction and features; e.g., a movie guide with plus or minus recommendations broken down for adults, youth, children and family, a picture essay on a child with a cleft palate, an account of the world's record drop-kicked field goal (63 yards, in 1915, by Dakota Wesleyan's Halfback Mark Payne). Eye catcher is a color portfolio of portraits of Christ, vividly demonstrating how men have altered Christ's image to accord with the temper of their times and of themselves. The portraits range from the sad ascetic of the earliest 2nd century drawings through the agonized Renaissance Christ of Flemish Painter Albrecht Bouts to the smiling companion of Contemporary Ohio Painter Ivan Pusecker.

Prepublication demand has been so great that the initial print order was upped from 600,000 to 700,000. By the end of the year, Together expects to have 1,000,000 subscriptions.

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