CHURCH UNION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22346, 18 February 1936, Page 15

CHURCH UNION

WORK IN CHICAGO PROBLEMS OF RAPID CHANGE KEEPING PACE WITH PROGRESS "The Church finds itself faced with the great problem of coping with the terrific strain of modern life and progress, under which many other communal services are being brought almost to the breaking point," said Dr. E. G. Guthrie, a former New Zealander, who is now general director of the Chicago Congregational Union. Dr. Guthrie arrived by the Aorangi yesterday on a visit to his four brothers, who live in different parts of the Dominion, and is staying with Mr. H. D. Guthrie, of Heme Bay. Born in Dunedin, Mr. Guthrie was educated at Otago University, and later at the Presbyterian Theological Hall, continuing his training at Yale Divinity School. There lie won the coveted Fogge scholarship enabling him to continue his post-graduate studies. After a period as associate minister of the Third Presbyterian Church, of Rochester, New York, he returned to New Zealand, and while here received a call to Burlington, Vermont, where he had a charge for six years. His next, call was to the Union Church, Boston, his 12 years' ministry in that important position including service in France with the American Field Service attached to the French Army. He was also for eight years president of the Federated Churches of Greater Boston. Work in Chicago Following a further leave in New Zealand, and a visit to the East, Dr. Guthrie took up his present work in an organisation which is doing much toward the accomplishment of church union in a city of over 5,000,000 people of all races and social classes. The work of the union was made possible through the benevolence of Mr. Victor Lawson, formerly proprietor and editor of the Chicago Daily News, who bequeathed the largest single sum to religious work in the United States. "The scope of the union is very wide," Dr. Guthrie said, "and much of its success is due to the work of a department of research and survey, dealing with such matters as racial movements, and the general strategy of church work, in all this the Protestant churches work as a whole, attempting to keep pace with the rapid progress of the city and its extreme mobility." Tradition o! Helpfulness Another valuable work being fulfilled by the union, stated Dr. Guthrie, was tlie establishment of a tradition of helpfulness in which those more privileged should work in the interests of the less fortunate. To this end groups in one part of the city were related to those in others. Generally very valuable help was gained by frequent meeting of leaders of all the Protestant churches at which statistical information was made available to further the work of ecclesiastical sociology. Contradicting the prevalent misconception concerning the social state of Chicago, Dr. Guthrie said that against the huge foreign sections, the city was an outstanding cultural centre. It had more theological schools than any other city in the United States, and was rapidly becoming the dynamic heart of the country. On leaving New Zealand, Dr. Guthrie will travel to China and Japan, to follow up the work of the group led by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, jun., in collecting facts as to the true state of American-supported missionary work. This evidence, which had already been disseminated in the United States, would now be discussed in the field.