Young Christians for Europe

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Dr. Willem A. Visser 't Hooft of The Netherlands, had had the idea: a nondenominational institute where young laymen of all nations would be trained to spread Christian ideas and ideals in their own communities and walks of life. John D. Rockefeller Jr. had supplied the money: $500,000. Last week plans for the Ecumenical Institute were well under way.

To house the Institute, the World Council had signed a five-year lease on the luxurious, 18th Century Chateau de Bossey at Celigny. ten miles from Geneva. In this elegant, vine-hung pleasure dome that once belonged to the brilliant Mme. de Stael,* 70-odd young men & women, selected as potential leaders, would study, think and talk Christianity.

Three permanent professors, reinforced by others on loan from the world's theological schools, universities and churches, would teach them such subjects as modern evangelism, Christian ethics and pedagogy, sociology, the Ecumenical Movement. Courses would be divided into three-month periods, but students at Celigny would be urged to stay for at least six months before going forth "to present the Christian message to [Europe's] demoralized young people . . . and to build with them new forms of moral and social life on Christian foundations."

* Whose political writings and salon wisecracks so ruffled Napoleon that in 1810 he had her exiled from France.

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