U.S. Church and Society Conference Held Oct. 22-26
Diocesan Press Service. November 6, 1967 [59-8]
Confrontation with our rapidly changing technological society highlighted the experience of participants in the U. S. Conference on Church and Society held Oct. 22 - 26 in Detroit.
Participants were barraged, during the opening session, with a cacophony of sounds from television, film and conversation, and with a variety of visual images. They then spent much time in work groups and reported out suggested strategies for future action by the churches on a wide range of issues: from use of leisure time to chemical manipulation of man's mind, from privacy to education for job flexibility and from Southern Africa to the Middle East.
Policy recommendations or resolutions were, purposely, not forthcoming from the Conference, which was a follow-up of the World Church and Society Conference held in Geneva during the summer of 1966. Those who attended acted as individuals and reports coming from work groups represented the consensus of that group, The outcome was a long list of questions and suggestions, with answers remaining for the future.
Of primary concern during the Conference were American involvement in Vietnam, the urban crisis, the Middle East and world hunger. Vietnam and the urban crisis, in particular, were kept before the Conference by the substantial number of students who attended.
Sixty percent of those attending the Conference were lay persons and they represented a wide cross section of American life. The official Episcopal delegation of 35, for example, included a bank executive, an anthropologist, lawyers, a professor of sociology, an agriculturalist, social workers and public officials, along with two bishops and a number of clergy.
The delegation also included four elected members of the Executive Council, three officers of the Executive Council staff, four students and four representatives of the poor.
Many Episcopalians served on the staff of the Conference and in the leadership of the work groups and sections. These persons and others representing Councils of Churches brought the total number of Episcopalians in attendance to over 80.