Religion: In Calvin’s Town

Protestants from many lands gathered in Geneva last week for what was scheduled to be an international gesture of Christian unity. It turned out to be considerably more. Without any advance headlines, without adequate press facilities, hundreds of clerics staked out a program to change and improve the shape of the world.

Unlike the splendor of Rome’s parallel gesture, the Geneva meeting was stark and austere. Only the colorful garb of an Anglican bishop here & there relieved the somber black-robed meeting of hundreds of Protestant churchmen. From Calvin’s pulpit in the gaunt Cathedral of St. Pierre the speakers discussed their project : a World Council of Churches which would bring the joint influence of Protestant and Orthodox Churches to bear on world affairs. Last week’s decision : the first council will meet in Holland or Denmark in 1948. Meanwhile, the World Council will continue material relief of war-ravaged countries. General budget for 1946: $4,000,000. Biggest contributors: U. S. Lutherans.

Tear the Wall. German delegates mingled with such survivors of Nazi oppression as Norway’s heroic Bishop Eivind Berggrav, France’s Protestant leader Marc Boegner, as the Archbishop of Canterbury prayed for the tearing down of the wall that “separates and divides.” Star speaker was Germany’s Martin Niemoller*, who made a heartfelt confession of his country’s guilt, and at least a partial atone ment for his previous statement that a “good German” does not ask whether or not Germany’s cause is just.

With all the fervor of a grim old theologian, Pastor Niemoller declared: “We have made a discovery that . . . has surprised us far more than the Nazi terror and has terrified us much more than the unimaginable consequences of our collapse.

“We have discovered that sin and guilt are not merely words and empty symbols that pastors in pulpits are accustomed to preach. On the contrary, sin and guilt are terrible matters of fact and reality against which human beings stand helpless.. . . .”

Mercy Plea. Niemoller joined Lutheran Bishop Theophil Wurm of Stuttgart and other Germans in pleading mercy for his country. The delegates agreed with their German colleagues that the Allies’ Potsdam declaration had not been carried out. Then they passed resolutions, significantly read to the press by the Archbishop of Canterbury, protesting:

¶ “An extreme limitation of German industry and export [which] cannot be enforced except by long military occupation.”

¶ “The compulsory transfer of a large number of people from other countries into a smaller Germany . . . condemning millions of Germans either to be fed by charity … or to die of starvation until the population fits the new frontiers; it [will] bring ruin not only upon Germany but on Europe.”

* fact that came out last week: during his long imprisonment by the Nazis, Niemoller received food and provisions daily from the Pope in Rome.