Words & Works

P: Church membership in the U.S. climbed to a record 97,482,611 in 1954, a gain of 2,639,766 over 1953, according to the Yearbook of American Churches. Today 60.3% of all Americans are members of religious bodies.

P: Membership in Lutheran churches of the U.S. and Canada increased by 248,840 last year, to reach a new high of 7,117,906, the National Lutheran Council reported. Area of greatest growth: the powerful (2,001,135) Missouri Synod, which gained 84,625 baptized members (4.4%) in 1954.

P: The Socialist-controlled city council of Nuernberg, Germany decided to ignore protests of religious leaders, voted to rebuild a monument (destroyed by the Nazis in 1933) to 19th century German Atheist-Philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach, one of the thinkers who influenced Karl Marx. The council also decided to restore the old inscription: "Man created God according to his image."

P: Clergymen should emphasize that "God has just as much of the mother nature as the father nature," said the Rev. M. Madeline Southard of Topeka, Kans. at the 36th annual assembly of the American Association of Women Ministers. "Jesus, God incarnate, is so different from others who told of God and explain God because he brought forth not the masculine traits of divinity but . . . the feminine traits . . . What the world needs is an understanding of ... the feminine element of God."

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