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264 SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION
Federal District. The Federal District now has fifty-five churches organized
with 8,851 members, and last year baptized 795 new members. Missionary
pastors in Rio are: A. B. Crabtree, T. B. Stover, W. E. Allen, J. J. Cowsert,
and E. F. Hallock.
EDUCATION
Shepard College. This Baptist institution was established in 1908 and now
has an annual enrollment of nearly 2,000. About five years ago Mr. Paul C.
Porter was called by the college board to serve as director. The school was
then passing through a crisis which could have compromised its future usefulness.
That crisis has now passed, however, and Colegio Batista Shepard is
firmly on its feet. Mr. Porter asked permission to go back to evangelistic work
in the state of Sao Paulo. Mr. Edgar Soren, Brazilian Baptist of proven ability
and worth, is now president of the College.
Girls' School. This school functions as a part of Shepard College and is,
at present, directed by Miss Edith A. West, while Miss Bernice Neel, permanent
director, is on furlough. Working with Miss West are: Miss Ruth Randall,
Mrs. J. J. Cowsert, Mrs. J. L. Riffey, Mrs. L. M. Bratcher, Mrs. A. R. Crabtree,
Mrs. E. F. Hallock, Mrs. Edith Allen, Miss Minnie Landrum and Miss Dorine
Hawkins.
These missionaries are maintaining in the school the religious courses for
women until the new Baptist Training School for Women can be established.
Finances for the building of the Training School have already been provided
in part by the Woman's Missionary Union of the Southern Baptist Convention
but war conditions have delayed the beginning of the construction.
OTHER BAPTIST COLLEGES
Within the bounds of the South Brazil Mission there are five other offici
Baptist colleges, that is, schools which are maintained by the denomination.
These are located in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul; city of Sao Paulo; Belo
Horizonte, Minas; Campos, State of Rio; and Vitoria, Espirito Santo.
At the present time only two of these are being directed by missionaries.
Dr. W. C. Harrison and Mrs. Helen Bagby Harrison are directors of the school
in Rio Grande do Sul, and Rev. and Mrs. J. A. Harrington have recently been
elected to direct the school in Belo Horizonte.
Besides these schools which are fostered by the denomination, there are
various schools and colleges which are sustained by churches and individuals,
whose students number into the thousands each year, but of which the statistics
we have in hand do not permit an adequate appraisal.
Rio Theological Seminary. This last year the Rio Seminary, directed by
Dr. John L. Riffey, has been unusually successful and, although only beginning
to function in 1940, this department has already enrolled 121 students in the
different states, and has graduated thirty-three.
Dr. A. R. Crabtree has recently been elected the permanent director of the
Seminary, and Dr. W. E. Allen gives the major part of his time as a professor.
Dr. E. F. Hallock is also one of the temporary professors.
The National Convention, at its annual session in Sao Paulo last January,
launched a campaign to raise a million cruzeiros among Brazilian Baptists for
new buildings and equipment. Dr. A. B. Oliver was chosen manager of the
campaign now in progress.
NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
It has been through the process of freedom in discussion, individual ente
prise in the opening up of new work, and majority rule in the establishment
of their churches and denominational institutions that Brazilian Baptists have
arrived at their present state of growth and development. The triumph of
these principles among a people whose religious background has been hostile
and contradictory to these ideals represents the first great victory. Brazilian
Baptists have become exemplary Baptists for the world. Their understanding
of these principles in their purest form is reflected in their conventions, in their
churches, in their financial, beneficent, publicity, and educational institutions.
In these institutions the basis is set for a "century of progress," the first part
of which will still need the close co-operation of the Board in Richmond and