Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

ARE YOU GETTING DIZZY?Reading our News Briefs, I mean.They do remind one of the homemademerry-go-round that we used to ridein the vacant lot. The circle is sosmall you pass the same point so often,and when you are through reading themall you sometimes wonder, where haveyou been? The Editor accepts full responsibility for the result we have nowobtained. The purpose of the presentsystem was first of all that we wouldreduce our news space. We felt thatfour pages at the most would be sufficient to satisfy those who liked thenews best of all; and there are someand probably too many that read thatnews section only.We still want tosatisfy them but the system seems tohave outgrown its limits and that isbecause you have just adapted the oldsystem to the new. Correspondentswrote as though a small space assignedto their congregation would be an evidence of inferiority and consequentlythey sent enough to fill as much spaceas before.The second object in using the presentmethod was to have everything up todate as close as possible and nothingheld over from one week to the next.Here again the news space has outgrownitself and we have items left over fromweek to week as we did before.The main object in the present systemwas that we should have only items ofimportance as soon after they happenedas possible and we did not feel that thecongregations would have more thanthree or four events in a week worthyof record. We mean worthyof nationwide note. Some have felt they weredoing their duty toward this departmentif they sent us their monthly bulletinto select from, and this has the difficulty that the items at the first of thebulletin are at least six weeks old before they reach our reader public andthe congregation that they concern hasalready received them two or threeweeks ahead. But that system is a lazyman's way, to put it bluntly, and isquite unsatisfactory to the Editor here.A fourth difficulty isthat some feltthat if they only have a few itemsthat theyshould lengthen the comments so that our space would be occupied, but we always have had plentyof material of other kinds that wouldbe more profitable spiritually than inflated news. There is a tendency tooto sendus the items you would sendDecember 1, 1954for a small town paper where the editor wants to give you proper prominencebut there is not the freshness that thetown paper can furnish because whatyou send to them is printed within theweek that you write it.Have people been satisfied? We havehad many favorable comments but wehave found some who dislike the present system, although at first it didaccomplish the limitations of space andthe limitation of items that were considered important enough for the national distribution. As was said above thisoriginal aim seems to have been forgotten. It was an improvement for thetime, but has ceased to be an improvement and the number of dissatisfied hasbeen growing. We do not want anyone tofeel the criticisms we make here are personally aimed. We have all due respectfor the missionary societies; we feelthey have a right to space and we wantyou to have space but with 80 missionarysocieties to publish their leaders,their devotional leaders, the missionaryprogram leaders, etc., etc., it seems alittle unfair to burden the paper withthese leaders whose names will notremain in the minds of the reader ofthe Witness.Now your fickle editor is going tochange the system again, back to theold one if we can attain the aim wehad in mind at first. Beginning withJanuary 1 and thereafter we will continue to put all items of your congregation together in one spot, but please,please, PLEASE make them fresh; wemean recent. We feel from one to threeinches in a week is sufficent from anyone congregation. We do not want todiscourage folks in writing or reading.Where the congregation has but oneitem we will continue to use the NewsBriefs system but where it ismorethan two inches we shall put your itemstogether and those who wish to skipyour locality can do so but I think theywill not if the space occupied is brief. Iam askingagain for your cooperationto make this part of our paper interesting, important, satisfying and worthwhile.This is about the onlypaper I findamong our exchanges that takes anyaccount of the life or death of anybodyless than an elder but we are a smallgroup and we still want ours to be afamily letter.Don't criticize the editor if he turnsin a two page article occupying toomuch space. That privilege is a partof his annual salary and he lacks thatsoul of wit brevity.Well, let's try it for awhile anyway.D.R.T.HOT SPRINGS: Licentiate W. W.Weir ably assisted in ourSpring Communion services. It was good to hear ofthe progressof our Cyprus AmericanAcademy. While with us, Mr. Weir was aguest speaker at aRotary noon-dayluncheon.MORNING SUN: Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Sanderson filled the pulpit the evening of October 24;she was the speakerat the joint Thank-offering meeting ofSHARON and MORNING SUN. OrlenaLynn and her mother of the Chicago congregation visited Mrs. McMurtryand Orlena showed slides of Japan one evening.NEWBURGH: On October 5, the W.M.S. packed their annual boxes for Selmaand Oklahoma. A birthday party was heldafter the meeting, in honor of one of ourmost faithful members, Miss Martha G.Henderson. Hostessess for the eveningwere Mrs. Irene Coutant and Mrs. E. D.Mclllwee.Rev. Willard McMillan preached at thepreparatory services of the WILKINSBURG congregation for the fall communion, held October 24. Because of his owncongregation'sCovenant-signing serviceon Sabbath morning Mr. McMillan couldnot be with us then, but on Sabbath evening he preached a stirringsermon on"Continuing Steadfastly in the Apostles'Doctrine."Our pastor led in the communion service, while Dr. R. J. G. McKnight brought the table address.HOT SPRINGS: As a Post-Easter vacation, Boyd A. and Dr. Edna W. White,and Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Cunninghamvisited friends and relatives in California.It was a real pleasure to visit ourchurches in Phoenix, Santa Ana, SgnDiego, and to share in Communion servivesin Los Angeles. On the returntripthey visited Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon,the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forrest. Miss Elizabeth Weeks, formerly ofour Mission in China, returned with themfor a visit in Hot Springs.Zenas Robert McMurtry was born Oct.31, 1894, and died August 16, 1954 atthe age of 59, 9 mo., 15 days. Funeralwas held at MORNING SUN. He was anelder for twenty years, and was a veryfine bass singer in the choir.NEWBURGH: The W.M.S. Thank Orferingmeeting was held onWednesday,November 10 with Miss Orlena Lynn asspeaker. Coldenham folks joined with usfor this meeting. A mostinteresting andinspiring message was given to us byMiss Lynn.349