Words & Works

P: At its biennial convention the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations in America backed members of a Mount Clemens, Mich, synagogue who are seeking court action against trustees trying to mix men and women in the synagogue pews. Said Union President Moses I. Feuerstein: mixed pews, forbidden by traditional Jewish law, are "the direct influence of the [Christian] church on the synagogue."

P: Protestants should avoid "vicarious Pope baiting" at their Reformation festivals, said Lutheran Scholar Dr. Jaroslav J. Pelikan Jr., instead make the festivals an "opportunity for serious self-examination of their own reasons for existence." Anti-Roman Catholic sentiments often are voiced by Protestants "whose Protestantism Luther or Calvin would have a hard time recognizing."

P: Scotland's Baptist Union, assembling at Edinburgh, was debating a motion to raise the yearly minimum wage ($1,036 plus a house) of its ministers when a sturdy dockworker rose, announced that his salary was $3,360, and made a strong plea for the underpaid clergy. "That is well said," replied the Rev. John McBeath, assembly president, "but let me remind you that you canna tak the breeks off a Hielan' mon!" Nonetheless, the assembly voted a $140 increase.

P: The Norwegian Parliament repealed a constitutional clause excluding the Jesuits from the officially Lutheran country, thus ending a 142-year-old ban that once also included "other monkish" orders and Jews.

P: Perfume made by the Cistercian monks of Caldy Island, off Wales, will be introduced early next year by Sybil Connolly, Ireland's leading fashion designer. First offering: "Caldy Bouquet."

P: A Montreal Superior Court judge ruled that testimony may not be accepted from a witness who does not believe in heaven or hell. Judge Claude Prevost refused to allow the plaintiff in a damage action to give evidence under oath, because she belongs to La Mission de L'Esprit Saint, a Protestant sect which does not believe in reward or punishment after death.

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