Foreign Mission Board
December 11, 1958
The Foreign Mission Board met in regular monthly session at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday,
December 11, with Mr. Jenkins presiding.
Present: L. Howard Jenkins, J. Levering Evans, J. E. Boyles, Horace Ford, Emmett
Y. Robertson, Oscar L. Hite, Howard Arthur, James P. Todd, Garis T. Long,
Г.
Earle
Wood, Lawrence Bradley, Baker J. Cauthen, Cornell Goerner, Frank K. Means, E. L.
Deane, Elmer West, Bill Cody, E. L. Hill, E. L. Wright, Fon Scofield, Rogers M.
Smith, Floyd North.
Dr. Ford led in prayer.
Dr. Cauthen made a very brief report, stating that 1958 has been one of the best
years in the history of the Foreign Mission Board, both in the number of appoint¬
ments and in receipt of gifts. We have appointed a total of 137 missionaries
this year, the largest number ever appointed, and gifts through the Cooperative
Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering were the largest ever received.
It has also been our best year in terms of fruitfulness on the mission fields.
Dr. Cauthen stated that if present plans carry through, the next meeting of the
Board will be held in our new headquarters building. He expressed appreciation
to all the members of the Board who have worked so faithfully on the various
committees in connection with the new building.
Dr. Cauthen reported that Mr. Elton Phillips is recovering from his operation
and that Rev. James Stertz is also recovering from surgery. Rev. C. Bailey Jones
drove up from Suffolk for this meeting, but decided to return home when the heavy
snow seemed to be getting worse.
Dr. Goerner filed the following report:
REPORT OF SECRETARY FOR AFRICA. EUROPE AND THE NEAR EAST
On November 24, 1958, the Constitutional High Court of Italy, a fifteen-man tribu¬
nal modeled after the Surpreme Court of the United States, passed down a historic
decision. Ruling upon the case of an elder of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God
who had been charged with acting as a minister and operating a church without a
proper permit, the High Court of Italy dismissed the case against the elder and
upheld the right of all religious communities to open and operate houses of worship
without police authorization. This ruling had been anticipated, since the new
constitution of Italy adopted in 1948 clearly guarantees the rights of evangelical
minorities to carry on their religious activities without police permits. The law
under which the Pentecostal leader had been prosecuted was an outmoded law dating
back to the Mussolini era. It was obviously contrary to the new constitution,
but Catholic authorities had sought to use it as a means of checking Protestant
growth. The ruling of the High Court is hailed as a significant victory for re¬
ligious liberty in Italy.
It is to be hoped that this ruling will have an immediate bearing upon the case of
the Baptist church of Sant'Angelo in Villa. It will be recalled that in this
Italian village the construction of a new Baptist chapel was halted last March
on the grounds that the pastor, Graziano Cannito, was not a minister approved by
government, and because the construction of the building had not received the
proper permit. While the cases are not exactly parallel, it is believed that die
decision of the court with reference to the Pentecostal minister and its sweeping
ruling concerning the rights of religious minorities will have a salutary effect
upon local courts in which the case of Sant'Angelo in Villa is now pending.
There is a certain appropriateness in the fact that at the first meeting of the
Foreign Mission Board following this momentous victory for religious liberty in
Italy, two new couples are being appointed for Italy. These are the first new
appointees for Italy since 1952. Not only so: these are the first missionaries
appointed for Italy specifically for evangelism in new areas, rather than for
theological education or publication work. As a result of a growing consciousness
of evangelistic opportunity in Italy and the realization that the number of pastors
and evangelists from within Italy is far from adequate to meet the existing challenge,
the Italian Baptist Union appealed two years ago to the Foreign Mission Board to
send additional missionaries for the purpose of establishing Baptist work in untouch¬
ed areas. Attention was called to the fact that there is no Baptist witness in 63
of the 92 provinces of Italy. It is hoped that these two newly appointed couples,
