On the other side of the picture, the Department of Commerce, in viewing 116 countries around the globe, noticed an over-all rise in movie theatres with seating capacities soaring from 43,000,- 000 to 49,000,000 seats. Although the United States shows a drop in the num ber of theatres, most countries of the world show sharp increase. A by-product is another statistic which acquaints us with the sobering fact that 72% of the pictures on the screens of the world are of United States origin. Arm's Return sS* It was in 1549 that Francis Xavier, one of the greatest missionaries of the Roman Catholic church, set foot in Japan. According to history, he made hundreds of converts and sowed the seed of a Japanese Catholic church, which now numbers more than 100,000. To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Xavier’s visit, a party of 75 notables, including bishops, priests and laymen recently returned to Japan bearing a gold, glass-panelled reliquary in which was Xavier’s right forearm. We wonder how much will be men tioned about the full spiritual presence of the risen, living Son of God in the Roman Catholic Church’s tour which will be made from one end of Japan to the other. American Giving The amount given by the people of the American churches is always inter esting reading. Each year the United Stewardship Council furnishes fairly ac curate figures on the exercise of this grace. Total contributions, according to this statistic, were nealy $850,000,000.00 or a per capita total of $23.71. However, most of this money went into other chan nels than missionary enterprise, for the per capita giving for missions of the whole was $1.22 for a year. The single denomination with the largest per capita giving was the Seventh Day Adventists with an over-all per capita of $130.20 and a missions per capita of $28.78. Other denominations showed relatively less with some giving a pitiful half dollar a year to all the missionary causes of the world. Paying Off What are the over-all figures show ing the results of Protestant missions? Recently this question was answered by the International Missionary Council. According to their report, in the last twenty-five years, the Protestant pop ulation in certain large mission fields has grown from ¡6% millions to more than 25 millions, an increase of 250%. In only one mission field—Mohammedan Turkey—was there a decline. For the basis of thoughtful compar ison, we might remember \the extra ordinary, unequaled growth of Christi anity in the first century of the Chris tian era. Page Seventeen
William W . Orr, D.D.
ations of the nation’s top thinkers. For instance, General Omar N. Bradley ob serves: “The world has achieved brilli ance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. This is our 20th century’s claim to distinction and to progress.” Another quotation is from Harold L. Ickes’ advice to the graduating seniors at Radcliffe College when he expressed doubt “whether there has been a gen eration on earth, since the human race began to walk on two legs, that has made such a mess of things as my gen eration. “It is a human achievement unparal- led in history,” he added, “ to have brought the world to such an appalling state of confusion in so short a time.” Big Increase As everyone knows, there has been a bumper crop of postwar babies, but as yet very little has been done about providing for their future schooling. Just recently, Oscar R. Ewing, head of the Federal Security Agency, warned that these children were continuing to grow and will swamp our' school sys tem with a million extra school kids a year. Ewing estimated that we would need some 30,000 extra classrooms cost ing nearly $10,000,000.00. Let it be remembered too that here is an oppor tunity for the church and the Sunday school to corral these youngsters and offer adequate facilities for their Chris tian training. Steeples and Marquees «5* Back and forth across the U.S.A., the breaking of ground for new churches was becoming increasingly familiar. In a recent report, the Protestant Inter denominational Bureau of Architecture announced incomplete figures on the ex tent of this new construction. More than one billion is contemplated, with half of this being spent in the South and most of that being a single denomination, the Southern Baptist Church.
Holy Year «5* The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church has officially designated 1950 as a Holy Year in which Catholic pilgrims from every corner of the globe will be urged to journey to Rome, hoping there by to earn a plenary indulgence (re mission of temporal punishment for for given sins). The idea of a Holy Year is about 650 years old, ostensibly to increase piety among the rank and file of Catholic people. On the other hand, building op erations in Rome are going on apace to make the most of the pilgrim’s spend ings. Less Spent J* According to a recent news item, the 1948 outlay for whiskey, beer and wine was an estimated 8 billion, a decline of nearly 9% below 1947’s high. This is the first decline since 1938. However, the article points out, the lower total may be due in part to some decline in price, or for lesser demand for high- priced liquors. Lest we be too jubilant over this, let us still remember that 8 billion is still a tremendous sum, nearly three times the amount spent on our whole national educational program. Universe Map «5* On Mt. Palomar, near San Diego, California, the new 200-inch giant tele scope is currently undergoing repairs to bring the mirror to absolute mathemat ical perfection. Meanwhile a smaller telescope called the Schmidt, with a 72- inch mirror, has been assigned the task of photographing the entire sky. The Sehmidt telescope takes 14xl4-inch pic tures which cover a portion of sky as wide as twelve moons placed edge to edge in a row. In four years the project will be completed and those interested will be able to purchase a gigantic photo graphic map of the universe for ap proximately $2,000.00. Some Quotes «5* Very sobering food for thought often reaches the public press from the quot- A U G U S T , 1 9 4 9
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