Episcopal Press and News

Opportunity to Give to Race Fund

Diocesan Press Service. March 8, 1965 [XXX-1]

"...We are long past the time when the issue is whether whites in the United States will, out of their kindness, be decent to Negroes - that sort of condescension simply will not be tolerated, nor should any Christian want it so. Our Church, like every Church, has said over and over again in its most official declarations, that discrimination, condescension and segregation are evil and of the devil. Yet we also know to our pain that all of us - Negro and white - have been raised in a culture which has believed that white men really are senior or better or superior or prior to black men. We must, therefore, do whatever we can to move, whatever we can to learn to help ourselves to change, to help men and institutions - including the churches - to wake up and move. We must not permit habits and structures, designed for a different age, to prevent the possibility of living and serving in this day and this generation...But we simply cannot use controversey or ambiguity as excuse to stay still. We simply must - in all our churches - acknowledge our sin and then dare to sin boldly. With all the risks of hurt and error, none now are as great as the risks of inactivity, non-commitment, or too great caution." (The Rt. Rev. Robert L. DeWitt, D.D. Bishop of Pennsylvania at Executive Council meeting, February 17, 1965)

And so, the Presiding Bishop at the request of the Executive Council in open session, has asked the diocesan bishops to designate May 2, the second Sunday after Easter, as Race Appeal Day. Bishop Hines will send a letter to clergy of the Church explaining the special offering with the goal of raising $100,000. This will supplement a contribution of $25,000 from the Women of the Church.

Expenditures of the Fund are under the supervision of a committee which includes the Rt. Rev. William H. Marmion, Bishop of Southwestern Virginia; the Rev. Birney Smith, Kansas City; and Mrs. Harold Sorg, Berkeley, Calif.

This is an opportunity for Episcopalians, who care about their Church's involvement, to give.