Faculty Group Submits Petition on Mem Church

A delegation of prominent faculty members presented a petition yesterday afternoon to President Pusey in his Massachusetts Hall office. The group was in Pusey's office for nearly an hour, and upon leaving would not divulge the exact nature of either their conversation or their petition to the President.

However, it has been learned that the essence of the petition was based on a letter written to the CRIMSON several days ago by Jerome S. Bruner, professor of Psychology. The document, which quoted William James in defense of the group's position, asked that Pusey open Memorial Church to all religious denominations and that both Christian and non-Christian services be conducted there. Although the statement is directly concerned only with Memorial Church, a source has revealed that it implies the larger issues of a sectarian university.

Among those presenting the petition were Perry Miller, professor of English, Mark DeWolfe Howe, Jr., professor of Law, I. Bernard Cohen, professor of the History of Science, John H. Finley, Jr. '25, Eliot Professor of Greek Literature, and Morton G. White, professor of Philosophy.

A very strong sentiment on the part of a large number of faculty members has developed against the President's policy, although the opposition is far from unanimous. The feeling of a portion of this group is that expressed in Bruner's letter, namely, that the Church has been destroyed as a symbol of academic unity, as a place "where the diversity of religious impulse can be communally expressed."

Opposed in approach to this view of the non-sectarian University but identical in conclusion is the attitude held by others in the group opposed to Pusey's policy. It is expressed by Frank W. Cross, Jr., associate professor of Old Testament in the Divinity School, who, however, did not sign the petition: "The issue is whether or not the Protestant tradition established in Sunday Services at Memorial Church requires that Jewish or Catholic services be excluded from its edifice."

He interprets the Protestant tradition as requiring "precisely that we not exclude but rather that we welcome those of Jewish or of Catholic faith who wish to celebrate marriage or funeral rites or hold like divine service in Memorial Church."