Friends of God

Of the societies which exist to bestow high accolade on U. S. scholars, most illustrious are Phi Beta Kappa, founded in 1776, which enrolls honor students of all kinds; Tau Beta Pi (1885) and Sigma Xi (1886) which respectively honor engineers and scientists. Sigma Delta Chi, established in 1909 for students of journalism, is no great shakes. Not until 1933 did anyone do anything about providing clergymen with a professional honor society. Long in organizing, that society --Theta Phi--was launched last week under the auspices of a highly respectable group of U. S. ministers.

Taking "Friends of God" for its motto,

Theta Phi plans to elect men of "a high ethical conception of the ministerial calling, scholarship and a scholarly attitude toward truth, and distinction in service and achievement." Theta Phi's insignia: a gold key bearing Greek letters and three bars shaped and colored to represent the stripes on the sleeve of a doctor's academic robe. Its membership will be of two classes: students and older churchmen. First two institutions to get student chapters are Colgate-Rochester Divinity School (Rochester, N. Y.) and Southern

Methodist University School of Theology (Dallas, Tex.). Theta Phi already has 85 older members, all of a strongly evangelical stamp and running largely to Southern Methodists and Baptists.* Initiation fee to Theta Phi: $10. Members will receive a monthly bulletin.

President of Theta Phi is Dr. Frederick Bohn Fisher, 52, lately of Ann Arbor's First Methodist Church, now of Detroit's First. Long a missionary bishop in India, Dr. Fisher became a good friend of St. Gandhi whom he calls "Boppo" ("Little Father"). An able, vigorous preacher, he arises daily at 4 a. m., gives 20%, of his income to his church, 55% to all causes. Entering his new job with gusto, Dr. Fisher promptly produced a quotation to justify Theta Phi:

I think There should be two of me--A living soul and a Ph. D.

*Among the 85: Southern Methodist Bishops William Newman Ainsworth, Hiram Abiff Boaz, Hoyt McWhorter Dobbs, Arthur James Moore, John Monroe Moore, A. Frank Smith; Presbyterians William Hiram Foulkes of Newark, N. J., Joseph Richard Sizoo of Washington, D. C.; Congregationalists S. Parkes Cadman of Brooklyn, James Gordon Gilkey of Springfield, Mass.; Methodists Ralph Eugene Diffendorfer and Ralph Washington Sockman of Manhattan; President Ivan Lee Holt of the Federal Council of Churches.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.