Religion: Love in Corpus Christi

Down an Episcopal church aisle in Corpus Christi, Tex. this week was to march a Jewish rabbi bearing a Menorah or seven-branched temple candelabrum. An Episcopal rector was to read from the Reformed Jewish prayer book. The rabbi in turn was to pronounce the solemn syllables of the King James version of the New Testament. Cheek by jowl in the church pews would sit Episcopalians and Jews of the only U. S. town named for the sacred Body of Christ.

Three years ago Rector William Casper Munds of the Church of the Good Shepherd invited Rabbi Sidney Wolf of Temple Bethel to join him in a union Thanksgiving service, with the Episcopal church decorated by its women’s Guild and the Jewish Sisterhood of the Temple,Episcopalians and Jews acting as ushers, the day’s offering to go to the needy of both congregations, and the sermon to be preached by the rabbi. His subject this week: “True Brotherly Love.”

Corpus Christi’s interfaith venture, probably unique in the U. S., owes much to the calibre of its brotherly shepherds. Rector Munds, 44, is president of the city’s Community Chest, its Planning Commission, and chairman of the Boy Scouts. Rabbi Wolf, 30 next month, is a Rotarian, member of the Civic Music Association, chairman of the county Red Cross.