AMERICA'S WESTMINSTER ABBEY By ANGELA MORGAN The hills of all the world their witness bear So let us build this temple of our land. Thus shall America defeat the sword, BROADCASTING RELIGION P REACHING in the Bethlehem Chapel of Washington Cathedral on "Creeds and Christianity," Bishop Rhinelander asserted that there is a growing interest in religion and a growing dislike in creeds. Canon Stokes points out that the radio listeners are members of different churches. The Reverend Ernest M. Stires, D.D., rector of St. Thomas' Church, New York, greets his radio listeners as members of his "radio parish." Responsibility for this increased interest in religion is shared by the radio and the press, but the reason for it lies in the alertness of the church which is availing itself of these media to reach Christ's multitudes. Sunday afternoons Bishop Freeman speaks to a nation-wide congregation, for his sermons are broadcast by WCAP. In his recent addresses before Chambers of Commerce and Women's Clubs in St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles the newspapers broadcast his remarks to their endless millions of readers. Without the news interest of the New York newspapers and the cooperation of the press Bishop Manning would have been immeasurably handicapped. "A House of Prayer for all People" in that vast metropolis needs the press as much as the press itself needs the influence of a Cathedral. But the fact remains that the quickening recognition of the values of religion among the people is not due to the radio, or to the press, but to the church, and, as a result of this renaissance of religion, there will be a revival of interest in the creed because, as Bishop Rhinelander so aptly declared, the creed is the pathway to a full Christian life. There are radio parishes throughout the world today and the seeds of Christianity are being planted by all churches. I CRIME S crime a necessary by-product of modern life? Speaking on the necessity of religious education at the Central Congregational Church in Brooklyn, N. Y., Arthur S. Somers, member of the New York City Board of Education and President of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, declared: "It would be fallacious to assume that present day educational methods and devices are responsible for the increase of crime that is so alarming, that it is responsible for the fact that homicide has increased to ten thousand murders a year. According to the New York Times in a recent editorial, these atrocities have more than doubled in twenty years. What is responsible for the condition referred to by former Governor Whitman speaking before the Bar Association last June, when he said, "The number of criminals in this country is increasing steadily'? Another speaker at the same meeting said, 'Life and property are less secure here than in any other country on the globe that is not in a state of barbarism.' Upon what does Judge Talley of New York base the Judge Talley of New York base the statement made last August, that this is the most lawless country in the world'? The New York Evening World commenting on this statement editorially, said, "This assertion will not be ascribed to a tendency of sensationalism. The tragedy of it is, that no one will challenge the assertion.. "It is not for me to suggest that education without a background of religion is responsible, but education lacking that background does not, will not, cannot combat this lowering Cathedrals mothered education centuries ago, just as they gave birth to philanthropy and cooperative effort, but our educational aim today, Mr. Somers continued, "is to give them (the students) the tools with which they may get on in the world while here; the power of control over things that can be controlled, the power to lead, to accumulate without limit from the world's vast storehouses of wealth, not only the wherewithal to clothe and sustain the body, but to give them social eminence, industrial bigness, political mastery, and all the other material attributes that make them conspicuous figures wherever they may appear." Modern emphasis is upon the last six Commandments: Honor thy father and thy mother, Thou shalt not covet. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT F IVE years ago the Library of Congress and the British Museum were asked whether they had a complete list of all the cathedrals in the world. When negative replies were received a private firm was asked to make a survey. After several months of research in England, France, Belgium and Italy the list filled 17 pages of foolscap paper. Because of the cost of the inquiry it was not extended to other countries. This list of 300 cathedrals built from the eleventh to the nineteenth centuries indicates that the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were the great cathedral building ages. Today great cathedrals are being erected in the United States, England and South America. The cathedrals in Liverpool, New York, Washington and San Francisco are evidences that the twentieth century is on the threshold of another cathedral age. Today this quarterly magazine, published in the Capital of the United States, dedicates its pages to this new world-wide cathedral movement. God speed this age! May the material prosperity of men be perpetuated in that great service toward Christian unity which cathedrals, as Houses of Prayer for all people, can perform. May the faith of the clergy and the devotion of women find their fullest expression in a more universal recognition of the first commandment of our Lord. THE CATHEDRAL AGE will be a cathedral newspaper. It will report cathedral news from all parts of the world. It will discuss and interpret the history, service, architecture and ideals of all cathedrals in the hope that as this cathedral building age progresses these great temples may be built by worshipers and not “contributors." "W THE NATION'S FAITH By the RT. REV. JAMES E. FREEMAN, D.D. Bishop of Washington HAT can a man do when he has been sitting between Jesus Christ and Napoleon Bonaparte?" This was the cynical observation of Clemenceau, the "Tiger of France," as he emerged from a session of the Peace Council. There is something more than cynicism in this statement. That the world today, perhaps as never before, is compelled to make choice between the principles these two figures incarnate, is quite evident. It was Mr. Elihu Root who in a remarkable speech during the War, declared that the choice must be made between Odin and Christ, and a distinguished Englishman made like observation when he cited the principles of the "man on horseback" and those of the "Man on the Cross," maintaining that our boasted civilization had come to the point where it must recognize the transcendence of the one or the other. of Christianity has played its conspicious part in the developed civilization of the modern world. However faith in the supremacy Christ's teachings may express itself, however strong or weak the Christian Church itself may be, the prevailing force of the Man of Nazareth is the largest single factor to be reckoned with in any true estimate of life's determining influences. To our outstanding leaders it is becoming increasingly evident that the one supreme thing needed to stabilize and strengthen our life today, is a more immediate and practical application of the teachings of Christ. Industrial as well as political leaders express in definite terms this conviction. Said President Coolidge to me some time ago, "the strength of a country is the strength of its religious convictions." Only the past spring, sixty members of the United States Congress cooperated with me in holding a great open-air service on Washing Cathedral grounds at which twenty thousand people were present. Even passing discussions of creed and church formularies do not hinder or embarrass the growing interest in religion, indeed, they but seem to accelerate it. The repression of religion in Russia has but intensified the zeal of the people. Notwithstanding these patent facts, we are confronted with certain subtle and insidious influences that conspire today, not only to defeat the high purposes of Christian faith, but if possible to destroy the foundation principles of our present civilization. From Russia, bold and defiant leaders hurl their anathemas at those institutions that we have come to believe are indispensable to an orderly and happy social and industrial life. Their validity is challenged and an assault made upon the conditions they have created. We hold no brief for those who believe that these conditions approximate the ideal, we are only too conscious that at best, they fall far short of perfection. That the agencies of consistent reform need to be eternally vigilant is conspicuously true, but thoughtful man and woman is, are the large question today for every we ready to substitute for our imperfectly realized Christian ideals, a system of life that makes a travesty of religion and seeks to destroy those institutions that it has produced? Only now and again in the dull routine of life do we feel as a people a great and common impulse. It took a world war to fuse together the diverse elements and interests of the great Republic. Heterogeneous and polyglot as we are, under the whip and spur of a mighty challenge, we suddenly found that there were bound us indissolubly together. Let ties of unity and fellowship that a threat be registered against that which we hold to be vital to our common life and we answer it with a solid and united front. However lightly we may sometimes hold our faith in God and country, however insular and selfish we may seem to be, let that faith be challenged and we become militant and aggressive in repelling the forces that would seek to attack our institutions. The bold challenge today is largely directed at that which has to do with our time-honored religious beliefs and |