Messenger January 1935 Page 1

     On next Wednesday evening, January 9th, there are to be Parish Group Gatherings thruout the Church, in the form of "community" dinners. These are to be held at homes selected by the Group Leaders, and are to be cooperated in by every family of the Church, just so far as that is possible.
     The idea is to create a more intimate social relation between neighborhood groups of our Church members, encouraging a closer acquaintance between them.  If a degree of strangeness now exists that is the most excellent reason for having the dinners, and breaking down any "middle walls of partitions." Once together, in a home, and already having their common interest in their membership in Westminster, many other common interests will be discovered.
     So, in the spirit of the genuine goodwill with which response is made to Westminster’s enterprises, we ask that thruout the Church just such a response shall be made to this plan.
     Dinners should be held not later than 6:30 P.M.  Each family should contribute its "covered dish", as assigned by the Leader. The gatherings should remove to the Church, not later than 8:00 P.M., where a service will be held beginning at 8:15 P.M. The men of the Groups should provide whatever transportation is necessary, to and from the Church.
     At the Church. This will be the annual Week of Prayer, and the theme of the service will be the theme of "Prayer.’ There will be generous singing of Gospel songs, a special musical number, some guided prayer, and then an address by Rev. Paul Turner of Omaha.

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Memorabilia

     "1934 -- Another year is passing into the archives.  Religiously it has been a great year. It welcomed a New Deal. It got what it wanted. See it pass in review.  A Secretary of Agriculture was hailed as an Old Testament prophet.  Religious and Welfare Recovery was born. The peace movement went into a total eclipse. Denominations entrenched themselves for a steady pull out of the depression. The TVA was greeted by social planners and damned by the business press. Unemployment reached an all-time high for these United States. Edwin Lewis issued his apologia pro vita mea in his "Christian Manifesto"--retracing his steps after forty years of liberalism.
     The President took a vacation on a battleship to Hawaii and won an election by radio. The largest navy in our history was ordered. The munitions investigation put Senator Nye in the spotlight and gave the whole country a jolt about "this hell of a business".
     Germany groaned under Hitler and the church held out against being the tool of the State. A whole state organized to beat Upton Sinclair upon a program of proving him an anti-religionist. Even newspapers quoted the Bible to shove him into the back yard.
     Churches were sold under the hammer.  Homes were saved by the Federal dole. New York State put church properties on the tax list and leaders inveighed against compulsory military training at universities. The Supreme Court upheld the land--grant colleges in their compulsion of military drill.
     Tue wave of religious hysteria pegged tile Oxford movement at about 90% and drove university leadership down to about 40 point 5.   Brains were laughed at by Republicans, newspapers and Chambers of Commerce.
     A larger income tax was recorded while riots occurred over too thin a diet for the unemployed.
     Hogs were murdered; Cotton plowed under. Wheat was killed by drouth and whole sections moved bodily, hunting farms which were not subject to wind and weather.
     The government spent wildly as during the Great War. This was a war to end depression and the budget is not balanced by billions.
     The churches have told the movies to clean up or be boycotted. The movies and