Episcopal Press and News

House of Deputies President Publishes Controversial Pamphlet

Diocesan Press Service. June 10, 1969 [77-18]

NEW YORK, N. Y. -- "Is there anything more ludicrous than a clergyman passing judgement about rent control when he has never paid rent in his life? Or preaching about the poor when he never walked through a ghetto ? Or arguing about employment practices when he has never had a job where he worked from 9 to 5 five days a week? Or protesting against militarism when he has never faced a draft board, much less a staff sergeant?"

These are the words of the Rev. John B. Coburn, one of today's best known Episcopalians and President of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies. They are taken from his challenging new pamphlet, TIME FOR TURNING, just published by Seabury Press for the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church.

A year ago, John Coburn resigned as Dean of The Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to teach at a storefront school in Harlem.

TIME FOR TURNING tells the story of his experience in trying to bridge the gap between the established church and the world of Harlem. It is both thought- provoking and optimistic . . . a message for all Christians.

The Rev. Mr. Coburn's booklet is the first in a new series being published by Seabury Press on the pressing issues of our day. Future booklets will discuss drugs, urban problems, old age, the draft, modern missions and other topics of concern.

TIME FOR TURNING provides an excellent springboard for group discussions. Copies of this 4" x 9", sixteen-page booklet (sized to fit an ordinary #10 business envelope) are available from the Seabury Bookstore, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017. Individual copies are 25 cents each. In lots of 100 or more, they are 15 cents each.

Profits, if any, will go to the Jonathan Myrick Daniels Fellowship Fund, to honor the memory of the young seminarian who was murdered in the struggle for Civil Rights at Haynesville, Alabama, in 1965.