MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEUKORD. OREGON
THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 12. 1963
C 11
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Religion in America
Inadequate Sunday School TimeOf Concern to Church Leaders
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By LOUIS CASSELS
L'PI Correspondent
You can't expect a child to
learn much about the Christian
faith in a class which meets for
half an hour a week.
This hard truth is slowly im
pressing itself on the millions
of families who rely on Sunday
school to provide all or most of
the religious training which
their children receive.
classes," says the Rev. Mr.
Parker.
' Vol lmnnrtnnt Knnuch
Under these circumstances,
he finds it hardly surprising
that "Christian training and ex
perience gradually retire to a
dusty corner of the child's
thinking."
A variety of efforts are un
der way in major Protestant
denominations to provide more
The traditional Sunday school time for religious education
session is one hour long. But I One possibility is to lengthen
at least half of the time is
taken up with a worship assent-
FILM FIGURES IN COURT - Three members
of the Hollywood film colony are shown as they
had their day in a Los Angeles court At left,
Mrs. Marjorie Chandler, former wife of late
screen actor Jeff Chandler, demanded that the
actor's estate be held liable for 1959 community
property income taxes. Bronwyn Bridget Price,
center, 19 year old daughter of Maureen
O'Hara, assumed her mother's maiden name as
she had her name changed to Bronwyn Bridget
FitzSimons. Actress Dinah Shore is shown at
right as she testified in the case of Weber Von
Rosenberg, accused of swindling over $14,000
by representing he had several stars, including
Miss Shore, under contract. (UPI)
bly, shuffling through hallways
to classrooms, taking the roll,
making announcements and oth
er things that have little to do
with systematic instruction.
What this means is stated sue
cintly by the Rev. Robert F.
Parker of Philadelphia, a Chris
tian education specialist of the
Lutheran Church in America.
"A young person spends more
time in one year studying
arithmetic than he spends in
five years of Sunday school
the Sunday morning session,
The Episcopal Church has roc
ommended a minimum of 90
minutes, and the United Pres
byterian Church is urging all
of its congregations to allocate
at least 75 minutes for Sunday
school.
But religious educators see
little hope for a major break
through in this direction. Pas
tors find it difficult to fit a long
Sunday school session into a
morning schedule which is al
ready complicated, in many
cases, by the necessity of hold
ing two adult worship services.
And parents especially those
who regard Sunday school as an
intrusion on their "morning to
sleep" are often unenthusi
astic about longer sessions.
More Promising Trend
A more promising trend,
which has been developing in
recent years, is to supplement
Sunday school with one or two
hours of "church school" on a
week day.
Sometimes this is done
through an arrangement with
public schools whereby children
are released early at their par
ents' request. This is called "re
leased time" and the Supreme
Court has ruled that there is
nothing unconstitutional about
public schools cooperating with
churches in this way.
No one has any reliable sta
tistics on the number of chil
dren now attending week day
religious classes. The National
Council of Churches guesses
that of the 30 million school
age children enrolled in Protes
tant Sunday schools, perhaps 4
million receive some week day
religious instruction. The Con
fraternity of Christian Doctrine,
which provides religious classes
for Catholic children attending
Dublic schools, estimates that
about 3.5 million are under in
struction in its classes, which
usually meet cither on a week
day or on Saturday morning.
Additional summer Training
Still another way to supple
ment the inadequate time span
of Sunday school is to provide
intensive religious educational
experiences during the summer.
This year more than 100,000
Protestant churches conducted
"vacation church schools" or
"vacation Bible schools." These
summer schools usually are in
session for three hours a day,
five days a week, for two to
four weeks. They provide more
time for systematic religious
training than is available dur
ing a whole year of Sunday
school classes. The Confrater
nity of Christian Doctrine also
conducts "summer schools of
religion" for Catholic children.
The consensus of Protestant
and Catholic officials who are
working with the problem is
that adequate time for religious
education of public school chil
dren can be found if theif
parents really want it enough
to give it at least as high a
priority as music and dancing
lessons, dental appointments
and their own Saturday morn
ing golf games.
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