Atlanta Daily World

Methodist Education Executives End Meet

NASHVILLE, TENN.--Executive secretaries of annual conference boards of education of the Methodist Church ended a seven-day meeting with the staff of the Methodist General Board of Education here, Friday, December 3 at noon and returned to their homes in all parts of the nation.

Nearly 100 men and women, responsible for the direction of the church's total program of Christian education for its members and constituents of every age in 107 annual conference territories met with members of the General Board staff in day and night sessions of intense study and discussion of the many and varied phases of their mutual tasks and responsibilities.

Considerable time was devoted to orientation on matters of procedure for the benefit of those executive secretaries who have only recently begun their work.

Early in the week the executive secretaries gave their attention to the work of the Editorial division of the General Board, which, under the direction of Dr. C. A. Bowen, executive secretary of the division, prepares all Methodist church school literature published and distributed to local churches by the Methodist Publishing House. A report on circulation trends revealed that with the receipt of orders from local churches for 5,347,383 pieces of literature during July, August and September circulation reached an all-time high. Most significant, however, according to this report, was the marked increase in the ordering of materials to aid church school teachers in developing teaching skills.

In consideration of the work of the General Board's Division of Educational Institutions headed by Dr. John O. Gross, the executive secretaries discussed their relationship to the 125 colleges and universities related to The Methodist Church and its ten theological schools. They heard brief reports on the work of the division's departments of student work, loans and scholarships and public relations, the University Senate and the Commission on Ministerial Training.

Dr. M. S. Davage, top administrator of Methodism's 14 church-related institutions of higher education for Negroes, emphasized the tremendous increase in the enrollment of Negroes in colleges and universities in recent decades—120,000 at present as compared to 776 in 1900—and reported that 10,000 of these are enrolled in Methodist institutions.

The Rev. Major J. Jones, Atlanta, Georgia, attended this meeting. Mr. Jones is executive secretary of the Atlanta Conference, Central Jurisdiction of the Methodist Church.