Episcopal Pastoral

From Williamsburg, Va.. where they had met in special session, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church issued a pastoral letter to their 2,545,000 church members reviewing "the state of the church today."

First, said the bishops, there are some causes for thanksgiving. Among them: the "steady and continuous" gain in the number of Episcopal communicants (1.72% in the U.S. between 1951 and 1952); the general increase in church membership in all denominations. But most of their words were devoted to Christian grounds of concern. Despite church gains, they warned, "the outlook for Christianity and for the world from a Christian point of view has rarely been more serious."

"Communism, with its philosophy of materialism." the bishops said, is Christianity's greatest avowed enemy. But equally dangerous is "another form of totalitarianism which deifies the state, expressing itself in various forms of national state socialism." The bishops suggested that the U.S. might have some unwitting state deifiers behind recent "broad generalizations and accusations" against the churches--presumably those made by members of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Said the bishops, quoting a speech by Presiding Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill: "We are against trial by uninformed public opinion, against accusations by hearsay . . . The church is equally opposed to what may be described as 'creeping fascism.' "

Other dangers to the church, as the bishops saw them: "The suspicion [in Asia and Africa] that Christianity is a creature of Western imperialism," and "the prevalence of racial discontent" in Africa, Asia and the U.S.

At home, the bishops found that the most serious problems of U.S. Christianity were faint hearts and secularized spirits. "One of the chief difficulties the church must face everywhere is nominal church membership. This is reflected in irregular church attendance, in infrequent communions, in perfunctory giving and in worldly living. Nearly one-half the people of the U.S. do not have so much as a nominal relationship to any religious body . . . We have become anxious and worried, the victims of our fears--our fear of war, of military service, of insecurity and of Communism."

Their conclusion: "In the face of these perils and problems, Christians see clearly that the ultimate solution of the troubles and tragedies of this confused world is found in the Christian faith. No peace can be had, no concord established until men come to accept the truth of the Gospel. The call to the church is clear to tell the story of the redemptive life of Christ Jesus . . .

"Our task is not to adapt Him to the world but to convert the world to Him . . . Times of crisis are days of the Lord if God can find men and women who are ready and unafraid to speak His truth. Old, yet ever new, the church remains the instrument of God's loving purpose."

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