Columbia Theological Seminary Bulletin, 61, number 1, Winter 1968

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Dr. Richards Named

MAN OF THE SOUTH

Dr. J. McDowell Richards has been
named the Man of the South for 1967.
The award is presented annually by Dixie
Business Magazine. Dr. Richards is the
22nd man to be so honored. Others pre-
viously honored include statesman Ber-
nard M. Baruch, golfer Bobby Jones and
Dr. R. M. Wilson who founded the Pres-
byterian Leprosy Colony in Korea.

February 15th had been proclaimed
James McDowell Richards Day by Geor-
gia's Governor Lester Maddox, Atlanta
Mayor Ivan Allen. Mayor Jack Hamil-
ton of Decatur and Brince Manning,
Commission Chairman for DeKalb
County. Over 150 friends attended the
award dinner at Decatur Presbyterian
Church that evening. The "Man of the
South" award was presented by Dixie
Business editor Hubert F. Lee.

Tributes were paid to Dr. Richards by
Mr. Harvey Walters, a member of the
Seminary Class of 1970; Mr. Jack Wil-
liams, a Ruling Elder of the First Pres-
byterian Church of Waycross, Georgia;
Dr. P. D. Miller and Dr. Felix Gear of
the Seminary Faculty and Dr. J. Davison
Philips, Chariman of the Seminary's
Board of Directors and pastor of the De-
catur Presbyterian Church.

"The award could have been given
to politicians or business leaders," Dr.
Philips said, "but rather Dr. Richards
has been chosen. This is particularly ap-
propriate because he presents the image
of the South that we would like for all
of the country to see." In presenting the
award Mr. Hubert Lee, an Elder in the
Glen Haven Presbyterian Church of De-
catur, said that in receiving the honor for
1967 Dr. Richards "did honor to all
those who had preceded him in receiving
the award."

In accepting the award. Dr. Richards
paraphrased the Apostle Paul and
claimed to be a Southerner of Southern-
ers. He recalled his ties to the South and
said that he longed "to see the South
move out in moral leadership and solve
the problems facing the world. Our area
has been called the Bible Belt in derision
but this is a term which we should honor
and cherish as we try to put the message
of the Bible into practice as strongly as
we have accepted its message in theory."

Students Completing Three Year Program
Will Receive Master of Divinity Degree

VACATIONS FOR STUDY

Sixty five-day "Vacations for Study"
will be available for ministers this sum-
mer at Columbia. These short study pe-
riods, designed to give the busy pastor
an opportunity to plan for the year
ahead or to catch up on reading, are a
part of the seminary's Continuing Edu-
cation Program. The five-day periods of
study will be made available without
cost to pastors in the five supporting
synods through gifts from the Columbia
Friendship Circle.

Four five-day periods from July 22nd
through August 17th have been desig-
nated for the program. Fifteen men will
be able to participate each week. Room
and Board will be provided wtihout cost
and study facilities will be available in
the Library.

Mr. Harold B. Prince, Director of
Continuing Education and Librarian, will
be working with the visiting pastors in-
dividually and in groups. Applications
for participation in the program and ad-
ditional information can be obtained
from Mr. Prince.

Dr. Richards called the award a tribute
to those with whom he had worked
through the years and said that he felt
it was a "testimony in our day of the im-
portance of training men for the minis-
try and to the importance of preaching
the Word of God."

The Master of Divinity will become
the standard degree awarded to students
completing the basic three year program
of study at Columbia. The change from
the B.D. to the M. Div. will take effect
with the Class of 1969, the first class to
complete their studies under the new
curriculum.

In announcing the action of the Board
of Directors, President Richards said
that "the action was taken in accord with
new policies of the American Association
of Theological Schools. In making their
change in policy the AATS took into
account the pattern of degrees in other
disciplines and the changes being made
in curriculum at seminaries throughout
the country."

Columbia's action enables it to work
more closely with the Candler School of
Theology and the Interdenominational
Theological Center in planning advance
degree programs. The other institutions
are presently offering the M. Div. de-
gree. Plans are currently being made by
the three institutions to offer a co-
operative program of graduate studies
leading to the S.T.D. degree.

"It is our intention," Dr. Richards
said, "that the new doctoral program
lead to a professional rather than a re-
search degree, having as its goal the bet-
ter preparation of men for the practical
tasks of the pastorate rather than for
teaching." An announcement concerning
the S.T.D. degree will be made later this
spring.

L-R Dr. Philips. Dr. Richards, Mr. Lee, Dr. Gear, and Dr. Miller.

Living Endowment Gifts

Equal investments

Of One-half Million

The Seminary's first request for Living
Endowment resulted in gifts totaling
$24,913 from 219 friends of the Sem-
inary. These gifts to help meet the an-
nual expenses of operation for the Sem-
inary are equal to the income from ad-
ditional endowment of SVi million.

The Living Endowment Program was
authorized by the Seminary Board of
Directors in November as a way of plac-
ing the needs of the Seminary for in-
creased annual operating revenue before
the Seminary's friends and supporters.
The response to the Living Endowment
appeal was much greater than the re-
sponse to end-of-the-year appeals con-
ducted by the Seminary in former years.

Wright Takes Pastorate

Harold V. Wright, Columbia's Super-
intendent of Buildings and Grounds, has
resigned in order to accept a pastorate.
In March he will become pastor of the
Ellenboro and Duncans Creek Presby-
terian Churches near Shelby, North Car-
olina in Kings Mountain Presbytery. Mr.
Wright came to his present post in 1960.

A student at Columbia in 1957-58,
Mr. Wright had then gone to work in
Guerrant Presbytery for three years. He
returned to the Seminary to continue his
preparation for the pasorate, but was re-
quested to join the Seminary staff. While
on the staff he has regularly served
churches in East Alabama Presbytery.
With his pastoral leadership the New
Harmony Church in that Presbytery,
which had been scheduled to be dis-
solved, has been reactivated.

Introducing New Professor . . .

Person

Students Take Part in "Operation Understanding'

Left to Right President Richards, Phil Gehinan, Lee Carroll, and Dr. Harry Fifield.

President J. McDowell Richards and
two members of the Seminary's senior
class, Phil Gehman of Tyler, Texas and
Lee Carroll of Laurel, Mississippi,
joined with other Presbyterians from the
Atlanta area and traveled to New York
for the week-end of February 10th as
guests of the Presbytery of Long Island
(UPUSA) and the Reformed Churches
in Nassau County. They were entertained
in, and preached to, a variety of Island
parishes and shared in a Service for
Christian Unity.

This was the first step in "Operation
Understanding", dreamed up by the Rev-
erend Edwin G. Townsend, a Long Is-
land native who studied for the ministry
at Columbia and returned home to be-
come pastor of the Middle Island Pres-
byterian Church, which he has served
since his graduation in 1958.

The coordinator in Atlanta for the
program was Dr. Harry Fifield, pastor
of Atlanta's First Presbyterian Church

and a Director of the Seminary. Others
participating in the program were At-
lanta pastors. Dr. Arthur Van Gibson,
Dr. Chilton Thorington (CTS '56), Dr.
J. Davison Philips (CTS '43), Rev. Rob-
ert McBath, and Rev. T. W. Tucker.
Four laymen from Atlanta Churches,
Mr. and Mrs. F. Burt Vardeman (North
Decatur Church), Raymond Turpin
(First Church, Atlanta), and Ralph Bird-
song (Decatur Church) were also mem-
bers of the group.

On Sunday evening following a Pres-
byterian-Reformed Service of Unity,
where Dr. Fifield led the worship, Presi-
dent Richards joined President James I.
McCord of Princeton Seminary and the
Rev. Howard Hageman of North Re-
formed Church, Newark, N. J., in a
panel discussion on Church union.

On Monday there was an opportunity
for laymen to join the clergy in a break-
fast discussion on contrasting approaches
to current issues.

To Teach
Church
History

The Reverend Ralph E. Person has
been named Associate Professor of
Church History by the Board of Di-
rectors. Mr. Person is completing his
Doctoral studies at the University of
Basel, Switzerland, and will begin his
teaching responsibilties during the
1968-69 academic year. A native of
Texas, he is a graduate of the University
of Texas and Austin Seminary. He re-
ceived a Rotary Foundation Fellowship
which enabled him to take his middle
year of seminary training at the Univer-
sity of Aberdeen in Scotland.

While a student at the University of
Texas, Mr. Person served as President
of the Student Body and participated in
activities of the Presbyterian Campus
Ministry. He was on athletic scholarship
and was the National AAU Champion
in the Low Hurdles. In 1952 he was the
representative of the Presbyterian
Church, U.S. to the World Student
Christian Federation Conference in
Austria.

Mr. Person has veen involved in the
work of the church in many parts of the
world. As a seminary student he spent
the summer of 1954 as director of a
work camp in the slums of Rio de Ja-
neiro, Brazil. After completing his sem-
inary studies he went to Jaffna, Ceylon
where he worked for one year with Dr.
D. T. Niles. Seven months of work with
the Student Christian Movement of India
followed. During this period he traveled
some 40,000 miles across India with
SCM groups, preaching, leading Bible
studies and directing work camps.

In 1958 he began a five year period
of service as the Presbyterian Campus
Minister at the University of Texas.
Since 1963 Mr. Person has been involved
in studies in the areas of Church History
and the History of Christian Thought at
the University of Basel. His dissertation
topic is "Scripture and Tradition at the
Early Ecumenical Councils of the
Church." He has been elected a Kent
Fellow by the Danforth Foundation and
is a member of the Society for Religion
and Higher Education.

Mrs. Person is also a graduate of the
University of Texas where she studied
education and sociology and has a grad-
uate degree in education. The Persons
have three children, Karen, 8; Amy, 5;
and Kathleen, 7 months.

Seminarian in Africa

"The last trip I took was a three day
road trip south which took us right into
the center of the old cannibal country,"
writes Columbia intern student Richard
Caldwell. Richard, who completed his
second year at Columbia last year, is
serving an intern year with the Board of
World Missions in the Congo.

"The team," he continued, "consisted
of a missionary, a Congalese pastor, a
Congalese evangelist and myself. We
stopped at villages where drums or run-
ners told the people to come to worship.
We would have an outdoor service right
there. I might add, we were in the coun-
try where topless (and almost bottom-
less) styles started and are still in
vogue."

Each year the Board of World Mis-
sions sends one student from each of
our denomination's seminaries to the
mission field for a year's internship.
Richard's year with the Board of World
Mission began last summer in the mis-
sionary training school at Montreat. In
the Congo he has worked with various
missionaries in itineration and is now
working with some of the Congalese
Christians.

Writing to fellow Columbia students
in answer to their questions about his
work, Richard said, "The basic aim of
the mission is, of course, to proclaim
Jesus Christ. They are especially trying
to train the Congalese people to carry
on the work themselves. It is not at all
improbable," he wrote, "that some day
(maybe in the not-too-distant future)
the missionaries will have to leave.
So it is a matter of prime importance
to train native leaders."

Richard will return to this country this
summer and resume his studies at Co-
lumbia in the fall. Theological intern-
ships of nine to fifteen months are avail-
able for Columbia students between
their second and third years of study.
These periods of off-campus study and
practical experience give students a fur-
ther opportunity to relate their theologi-
cal studies to the life and work of the
church.

Faculty Profile . . .

Ludtvig R. Detvitz

According to the anti-Jewish publica-
tion, "Sturmer," five buckets of bap-
tismal water could never make a Jew
into a Christian.

In the Berlin, Germany of 1933, this
was of no great personal concern to
young Ludwig Dewitz. He was already
a Christian bent upon becoming a min-
ister in the Reformed tradition.

He also was not Jewish, or so he
thought, until the day his mother was
forced to give written proof of this. It
was the first time Ludwig learned he
was the adopted Jewish son of non-
Jewish German parents.

"That I was not overcome by this,
with all that it meant in Nazi Germany,
was due only to my faith in Christ," the
Columbia professor said.

A short time before at a Christian
retreat in the Black Forest, Dewitz heard
a sermon based on John 8:36: "If the
Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye
shall be free indeed." It was that kind of
freedom Dewitz had asked God to pro-
vide.

In 1936 he was offered a job with the
Mildmay Mission to the Jews in London,
and to this day he does not know how
the mission came to know of him. His
acceptance of the job spared him from
almost certain imprisonment and death.

Within two years he was witnessing
and working with thousands of Jewish
refugees pouring into English detention
camps. As a German national Dewitz
was himself technically under detention,
but as a Christian he found the fields
white unto harvest. He continues to hear
from some who were converted during
that period.

Toward the end of the war he was
transferred to work in Sheffield, Eng-
land near Prisoner of War camps for
German soldiers. There, working among
those who had persecuted the Jews so
terribly, he came to be known as Joseph,
the rejected brother who continued to
love and help them.

In 1948, under the auspices of the
Jewish Missionary Society, he began a
work in Milan, Italy, the springboard
for Jews getting out of Europe enroute
to Israel. Italy became one of his favor-
ite parts of the world.

Although he received his B.D. degree
from the University of London, he came
to America in 1950 to work and study
at the Presbyterian Center for Jewish
Evangelists, Baltimore. At Johns Hop-
kins University he received his Ph.D.
degree.

He began teaching at Columbia in
1959, taking his Sabbatical last year
to study in Europe and the Near East.

Dewitz is active in many church and
community affairs. At Columbia he is
professor of Old Testament language,
literature and exegesis.

Students From S.E. Attend College Conference

Seventy-one students from 31 col-
leges and universities in the Southeast
attended Columbia's annual college con-
ference in January. This is the largest
group of students who have ever attend-
ed a college conference here. The theme
of the confernce was "1988 A Look 20
Years Into The Future."

In the opening address Charles L.
Weltner, Atlanta attorney and former
congressman spoke of the future of poli-
tics. Mr. Weltner told the students that
twenty years of politics could bring "a
return to Eden or a return to the cave.
Politics will be what the people demand."

Abundant productivity and the grow-
ing managerial skill of business leaders
offer "an opportunity to humanize the
world," Mr. Jerry Achenbach told the
students on Saturday morning. Mr. Ach-
enbach, president of Piggly-Wiggly
Southern, spoke of the future of business.

The role of the Church in 1988 was
considered in an address by Professor
Milton Riviere on theological education
and in an afternoon long presentation by
the staff of the Board of National Min-
istries which made use of numerous
audio-visual media.

On Saturday evening the students con-
sidered the future of the city. The pro-
gram included a presentation by Merle
C. Patterson of the Model Cities Staff
of the U. S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development, and visits in
the city to see what the church and gov-
ernment agencies are doing today. The
problems and possibilities of the urban
power structures were considered in an
interview with Atlanta Alderman Rodney
Cook. The conference concluded with a
community worship service on Sunday
morning.

Team Takes to Road

Alumni officers hold spring planning meeting. L to R Steve Bacon, Trent Howell,

John Law, and Donald Bailey.

Spring Speakers Announced

A college president, a seminary presi-
dent, a pastor and a missionary will be
speaking on the Columbia campus this
spring. Dr. Harry V. Richardson, Presi-
dent of the Interdenominational Theolog-
ical Center, will be the speaker at the
Honors Day program April 2nd. Dr.
Edwin D. Harrison, President of Geor-
gia Tech, Dr. Arnold Poole, pastor of
the Pine Shores Church of Sarasota,
Florida, and the Reverend J. Richard
Bass, missionary to Mexico will be the
featured speakers on Commencement
week-end, June 1-3.

Hughes Speaks to Catholics

A Columbia Seminary professor has
presented his views on the Second Vati-
can Council to faculty and students of
one of the nation's best-known Roman
Catholic seminaries.

In December Dr. Philip E. Hughes,
Guest Professor of New Testament, ac-
cepted an invitation to speak at the Uni-
versity of San Diego Seminary in Cali-
fornia. Dr. Hughes' dinner address was
followed by an open, free discussion.

He also spoke in Los Angeles where
his host was the Cathedral Church of
St. Paul.

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Columbia Seminary's basketball team
has taken to the road this year. Last year
the team won local and district cham-
pionships in adult recreation leagues.
Strengthened by members of the entering
class the team has revived a tradition of
former years and traveled to several
colleges for games with varsity teams.

This fall the team lost close contests
at King, Belhaven and Southwestern.
The spring schedule includes games at
St. Andrews and Presbyterian College in
South Carolina. In addition to their en-
deavors on the hardwood court the sem-
inarians have had the opportunity of
participating in chapel worship services
and meeting with college students in
small groups.

Back home, seminary students have
formed two teams in separate local
leagues and in each case are leading
the league.

COLUMBIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

BULLETIN
P.O. Box 520 Decatur, Ga. 30031

Return Requested

Second Class

POSTAGE

Paid at

Decatur, Georgia

Vol. 61, No. 1 / January, 1968
Published five times a year

Prof. C. Benton Kline
Agnes Scott College
Decatur, Ga. 3OO3O