80 Countries Represented at Church, Society Conference
Diocesan Press Service. August 3, 1966 [45-2]
National development, modern technology, and the struggle for world peace were the three areas singled out for primary attention by some 400 theologians and laymen from 80 countries attending the World Conference on Church and Society. The Conference, sponsored by the World Council of Churches, was held in Geneva, Switzerland July 12 - 26.
The conference message called for the Church to live as a "servant" and declared that "the dynamic world in which we live calls for new experiments in social organization and for new structures. " It also urged an end to the present conflict in Vietnam and a search for solutions in other potentially explosive areas, notably South Africa.
While there was apparent agreement between participants on the necessity of change in our present situation, there was not such agreement on how to do so. The Conference message recognized both the position of those who would work for social renewal within established institutions and those who have adopted a more radical or revolutionary position. The conference recognized that the tension between these two positions will have an important place in the Christian community for some time to come.
The social problems which the participants dealt with impinged upon the conference despite its primarily intellectual nature. One of the prime events, a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, was cancelled at the last minute because of racial tension in Chicago. Participants listened to a sermon recorded in Chicago and flown to Geneva, but the pulpit was empty. In a reply to Dr. King's telegram explaining his dilemma, conference leaders expressed their understanding and remarked on the symbolic meaning of the empty pulpit.
Those who addressed the conference came from many parts of the world, including those "developing" nations whose problems were high on the priority list of the conference. Nearly one-half of the delegates came from these "developing" nations, making this conference truly world-wide.
Following the conference 73 of the U.S. participants and others attending the conference communicated with President Lyndon B. Johnson and the government and people of North Vietnam, asking both sides not to turn the incident with American prisoners into a cause for further escalation of the war. Among the signers were Presiding Bishop Hines, the Rt. Rev. J. Brooke Mosley, Bishop of Delaware, and Margaret Mead, noted anthropologist and Episcopal layman.