All about ecumenism

Title

All about ecumenism

Language

English

Year

1967

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

News and Views on the Ecumenical Movement. NBM Fraternal Brotherhood In Action In Connecticut The constant attacks being made today on moral standards of America, call for the enlistment of the highminded strength of the great fraternal organizations of this nation to combat and overcome the forces whose degenerative influence is becoming a crippling menace to the. American way of life. In view of the increasingly close ties of mutual understanding and support of ecumenism among all the fraternal organizations, it is important that..wc associate ourselves in a manner suited to our responsibilities towards our God, our country, and our civic duties. To reach this goal, organizations must educate their members to understand and to act according to their individual ability in the fields of moral. civic and patriotic responsibility. It is the purpose of our future programming to coordinate and promote activities of our organizations which will help our communities with the complex problems of today, but this development cannot occur unless individual men and their associations cultivate in themselves the moral and social virtues and promote them in society. This joint effort in Connecticut is our answer to the advocates of non-patriot, loose morals, obscene literature, pornography and all those who through their actions have proven that they seek the moral decay of our great country. The participating organizations look upon this effort as a crusade believing confidently that the forces of good will overcome those of evil. On our side we have the 46,000 members of Freemasonry, the 10,000 members of the B’nai B’rith, the 40. 000 members of the Knights of Columbus and the membership of all other God-fearing and patriotic organizations who care to participate in this program which has as its basis the moral purposes of our American way of life and the object of our loving one another, our God, and our country. Fraternal organizations today face some hard decisions and failure to make these decisions means sure obsolescense. We must not merely state our positions in the Lodge rooms for all our members to hear — we must state them in public together and by every means of communication so that everyone will hear that our respective orders have shown steadfast devotion to American principles and American ideal and oppose atheisitic communist doctrines which would destroy religion and undermine the ideals upon which our democratic form of government is founded. In our proposed radio and TV programs. we as fraternal organizations, 14 Tho Cabletow will demonstrate that we are not going to drift with the tide and be carried away by the current but that we will try to anticipate the needs of our respective religions, our country, our youth and our fellow men and create a united fraternal crusade which will show that patriotism, decency, moral responsibility, parental guidance and teacher responsibility can live, and must live, to combat the popular unconcern regarding morals and patriotism that exists today in our modern society. A RELIGIOUS FREEDOM MARKED IN SPAIN Madrid, March 2 — (UPI) — Jews and Roman Catholics knelt together in prayer Tuesday night for the first time in Spain's history to mark a new era of religious freedom. They joined in Psalm 126 — the song of exiled Jews returning to the land of God: "When the Lord turned against the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.” They heard the leader of Madrid’s Jewish community, Max Mazin, praise the late Pope John XXIII as “a good, generous, inspired and providential pontiff.” The service brought 700 Jews and Catholics together in the church of Santa Maria in downtown Madrid to mark the passing of a law giving non-Catholic denominations religious freedom in Spain. Between the Roman Catholic prayers and Jewish psalms, the worshippers knelt together to praise their tommon God. "I felt I was hearing something going back through the ages, something buried in consciences, a heartmoving appeal from the beginning of mankind,” one Catholic said. Manila Chronicle, March 3, 1!>67, page 3, cols. 2 & 3. GRAVEL & SAND. . . From page 12 lions, spoke for over two hours on Masonry in daily life, in national and international life. He had his large audience practically in the palm of his hand and they asked for more. The mayor of San Jose, who had spoken before him, asked to make a few remarks after MW Baradi’s address only to announce publicly that he was applying for membership in the fraternity. • • • Our congratulations to WB Ceferino M. I’icache who was elected Rotary International District Governor nominee for the 1968-69 term. He was elected early last month at the annual convention of District No. 308 which was held in Baguio. District 308 comprises the Rotary Clubs in Luzon and Palawan. WB Picache is a Past President and one of the organizers of the Rotary Club of Quezon City. He is a Past Master of Nilad Lodge No. 12. The Capitol Masonic Corporation, formerly the Capitol Masonic Temple Assn., Inc., has just received the building permit for the construction of the first unit of a series of commercial buildings to be constructed on its lot behind the Quezon City Hall complex. The unit is a twostory building consisiting of eight store spaces on the first floor and eight offices on the second floor. It is estimated to cost 1*150,000.00. WB Elias Ruiz, corporation architect, is in charge of the bidding which will close on April 12, 1967. The Board of Directors, at its meeting on April 18, 1967 will decide on the lowest and most advantageous bid. Turn to page 26 APRIL, 1967 15

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