Hines Meets the Press
Diocesan Press Service. February 8, 1965 [XXIX-3]
On the day before his installation as the 22nd Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the U. S., the Rt. Rev. John Hines met the press of the nation and proved himself as competent as his fellow Texan, Lyndon B. Johnson, in the quiz game.
Facing news media from all parts of the country Bishop Hines spoke out strongly on many challenging questions facing the Episcopal Church today.
He declared uncompromisingly that immediate superiors should unfailingly support parish priests who encounter difficulties because of involvement in Civil Rights activities and should stand behind them.
"When a priest gets into trouble it is incumbent on his superior to stand by," he declared. "In the Episcopal Church those higher up are less subject to being dispossessed and they are committed to stand and deliver in terms of their commitment to Christ. This may be hard but they have to be ready to take it. It may cause despair in terms of a man's individual vocation and may break a parish but it has to be taken."
Bishop Hines declared that "the majority of the segments of the Church's life in times of social crisis have been weighed in the balance and found wanting." Adding humbly,"including myself." He also admitted that the public image of the Episcopal Church today is still that of an upper class, "silk stocking, carriage trade, intellectual and monied communion" adding though that even in Texas he hadn't seen money being thrown about in the Church. However, he said, while the Church is fairly conservative in terms of social problems and "doesn't go in for revolutions," there is evidence in some areas which gives the lie to this image. But "high-income people do not rock the boat."
Calling himself a "conservative in terms of his theological position but a progressive in social ethics," he said that he thought the Church's role in the President's program for a Great Society is to fulfill its obligation to be a society of people called by God to help establish God's kingdom on earth where justice and brotherhood prevail. "The Church is committed to fight on the frontier in this behalf," and he hopes to see the Church continue its attack on this front as it has been doing in past years under former Presiding Bishop Lichtenberger.
However, he expressed some reservations about President Johnson's proposals to give federal aid to parochial and other religious schools unless "remarkably buttressed about with safeguards. " He voiced "profound concern" about all education but said that he "looks warily" on any proposal for federal aid in relation to aid to parochial schools. He strongly favors separation of church and state and hopes the country never will permit any repudiation of that doctrine. In this connection he believes the judgment of the Supreme Court regarding prayer in public schools was correct. He does not think that in our American democracy it is possible or needful that there be any official manifestation of religious belief such as Bible reading or prayers in public schools or tax supported institutions.
Asked whether this view was not contrary to the position of the General Convention favoring federal aid for education being given to parochial schools for certain public welfare reasons, he replied that the Episcopal Church always has permitted its Presiding Bishop to speak his mind as he sees fit but he cannot commit the Church -- "only a General Convention can do that," he added. Individual Episcopalians also are free to speak their mind regarding particular political candidates but the Church should not be involved in endorsing individual persons or parties as such.
As regards the current Ecumenical movement among the various communions he sees as one of the most hopeful aspects of the present day the position which the Roman Catholic Church has taken. "It has seen fit to look at itself and examine the validity of its position as to the expression of other faiths, " he said. However he said he had been misunderstood when he was recently quoted in The Houston Post as saying there might be some closer relation between the communions in three to five years. What he meant was that it would take the Episcopal Church three to five years to know where it wants to go in terms of organic union with other communions. He is not optimistic enough to think such a union could occur in that short span of time. Valuable conversations are now going on but the matter can not be placed before a General Convention until 1967 and it would take at least another Convention (in 1970) to take any definite position.
He spoke optimistically of today's teen-agers declaring that he has found them always ready to listen to anyone able intellectually to participate in their interests and concerns. They are quick to spot "phonies" in any line but he has the utmost confidence in their ultimate position on religion.