Religion: Words & Works

¶ Birth control is God’s will in many instances, said Dean James A. Pike of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to a Planned Parenthood group in Manhattan. “There is nothing more ‘artificial’ in this approach,” according to Episcopalian Pike, “than there is in the adaptation of natural processes toward good ends in many other realms of life. Parents, in sharing God’s creative process, must think through the responsibility of having children in the light of all the factors operating in their particular situation from time to time … If they decide they should not be having [a child], then they have a positive duty to use the most effective means possible to effectuate this intent, and at the same time to continue that relationship which is the sacrament of unity between the spouses . . .” ¶ A $400,000 Protestant Radio and TV Center was formally dedicated at Atlanta, Ga. to “its task of carrying the word of Christianity to the world.” Owned jointly by the Methodist, Presbyterian (Northern and Southern), United Lutheran and Episcopal Churches, and by Emory University, Agnes Scott College and Columbia Theological Seminary, the center will send religious radio programs to several hundred stations in the U.S. as well as the Armed Forces Radio Network. ¶ Southern Presbyterians (756,886 members), known officially as the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., defeated a long-projected merger with the Northern Presbyterians, known officially as the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (2,492,504), and the United Presbyterian Church of North America (228,718). Merger prospects, church leaders now feel, are hopeless for “at least” several years.