Gesork Defends Russian Church Entry Into WCC

The President of Andover-Newton Theological School last night defended the admission of the Russian Church to the World Council of Churches, saying, "There is no proof whatever that the leaders of the Christian church in Russia are communists, or that they take their orders form the Kremlin."

The Rev. Herbert Gesork said, "It ought to be realized that much good has come to be realized that much good has come and will come from the free exchange of thought which is now opening up between churches on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Gesork addressed a statewide gathering of Protestant clergy and lay leaders in the Massachusetts Council of Churches in Boston.

He said, "For the World Council to reject the Russian Church would mark it as a political organization--an institution of the Western world--and would men the end of the Council as such."

Pusey's Views

President Pusey, another speaker reporting on the Council's third world meeting in New Delhi last November, commented that the presence of the Russians "did not inhibit in any serious way" any discussion within the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, of which he was a chairman.

The Commission's function is to "state Christian principles on various world affairs and to work within church group interested in international affairs." Every six years, when the World Council of Churches convenes, this Commission reviews past stands on world issues and sets guidelines for the future.

President Pusey listed three main topics that leave the members asking, "What does the Christian do or say about this, and how does he help?" These issues, he said, were "the sudden independence of several nations unequipped know-how to run their own affairs;" the East-West conflict and the presence of nuclear weapons; and the frail development of international law organization.