OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

Jim Noblett of Tulsa called to tell us that a prayer breakfast is planned for that city come April, and that it has the support of city officials and church leaders, including Jews, Protestants, and Roman Catholics. One Church of Christ minister is sharing in the planning, which includes a visit from Pat Boone.

Dwain Evans, who visited our congregation in Denton recently, tells us that the Bering Drive Church of Christ in Houston, where he is an elder, is still having two services on Sunday morning, one of which is more traditional than the other. This seems to take care of a situation that might otherwise polarize the church. Bering Drive was one of the first avant garde Churches of Christ.

I recently represented Harvard at the inauguration of the new president of North Texas State University, which was a gala affair, the university seeking to correct a lot of bad press, due to irregularities of the previous administration. But Ouida was the heroine of the affair, serving as the inaugural secretary, which involved several months of work for the university. As protocol dictates, the delegates in the academic parade line up according to the age of their institution. Since someone was there from Oxford I had to march second, to which I issued a protest. I insisted that having both the reputation of Harvard and the inaugural secretary behind me, I should still be first, but the man from Oxford did not see it that way. Two Church of Christ schools, by the way, Lipscomb and Abilene, had delegates listed in the inaugural program.

A new college called Christian Heritage will open next year in Texarkana. While supported mainly by Christian Churches, it seeks a wide base of Restoration folk. Both David Reagan, also of this area and of Church of Christ background, and I have been asked to serve on the adjunct faculty. We will fly in once or twice a month to do our thing. Charles Herndon, now of Dallas Christian College, will serve as the school’s first president.

One of our favorite charities is the American Friends Service Committee. Quaker oriented, they recently reported that part of their funds is going for desks and school supplies, as well as beds and unbreakable bowls, to the children of Cambodia’s 5,000 schools. They are also working to improve the housing and nutrition of Chicano farm laborers in Texas. But this is not even a tithing of their work around the world.