Oxnam Asks for Hope, Leaders in Worldwide Crisis

In his sermon yesterday at Memorial Church, Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam called for hope and leadership in a world that seemed to be discouraged in the face of international and domestic problems. He said that both the problems of effective international organization and social and economic justice would have to be faced if we are to work for the brotherhood of man.

Taking the courage in the face of adversity displayed by Christ's disciples as the basis of his sermon, he appealed to the student congregation to give the fighting leadership needed in the world today.

A prominent figure in many public undertakings and a leader in the Methodist Church, Bishop Oxnam returned only recently from Europe where he served with John Foster Dulles on the Commission for a Just and Durable Peace of the Federal Council of Churches in America.

Attacked by Knoxville

Bishop Oxnam has figured widely in the news recently in the dispute in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is scheduled to address a teachers' convention of the East Tennessee Education Association. Shortly after the announcement of his intended visit, the Knoxville Journal started a protest movement against his reception on the ground that he was communistic.

Attacks in the Journal's columns were of a threatening nature and attracted wide public attention. Both the Bishop and the local Methodist organization in Knoxville denied the charges and said that he intends to keep the engagement on October 31 and November 1 this fall.

Also protesting against the charge was the Education Association which replied publicly that if they were not assured of courtesy and "freedom from interference" that they would hold the convention elsewhere or cancel it altogether.

Bishop Oxnam, a native of California and graduate of the University of Southern California, has held posts in many American colleges and has preached and lectured all over the world. His home is now in Brookline.