Word: pastors
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...kindly grant the request." There were a few frowns and compressed lips, but the congregation showed no rancor. In Houston, no Negro had ever asked to join Augustana Church, even though it is perched on the edge of an expanding Negro district. Few parishioners seemed to feel that the pastor's words boded any real change...
Though he had been their pastor for six years, the congregation had a lot to learn about Massachusetts-born Pastor Seastrand, 40. Many a Southern pastor who thinks church segregation un-Christian is afraid to buck his all-white flock to abolish it. Not so Paul Seastrand. "God and one," he said, "is always a majority." Amid some ominous grumblings, he began a persistent campaign to persuade his congregation to "meet the challenge of integration." He preached the Christian view of equality. "It is not my purpose to force on you my own convictions," he said, "but to endeavor...
...Pastor Seastrand was bitterly criticized for his attitude, and some angry talk broke out at church meetings. There were dark rumors-half the congregation would leave; the church would not get financial support. To every protest, Pastor Seastrand gave a gentle but firm rejoinder. When his congregation talked of moving the church, he warned: "We can't move ourselves away from moral and spiritual responsibilities." Meanwhile, more Negroes came to church each Sunday, and several Negro children enrolled in the Sunday school. By last summer half of the 70 children in the church's vacation Bible school were...
...gold medal for his "devoted . . . struggle for peace and friendship of all the people." From Brooklyn's Appellate Division he won another legal victory in his hassle with Holy Trinity's vestry and the bishop of Long Island over whether they can replace him with a permanent pastor...
...Ph.D., and a year later was called to Manhattan. There he performed a bewildering array of duties as pastor and prior of St. Catherine of Siena Church, national director of the Holy Name Society, editor of the Holy Name Journal, national director of the Third Order of St. Dominic, founder-editor of the Torch. He not only could get along on five hours of sleep, but he also developed a flair for handling his delinquent parishioners. On Saturday nights he would make the rounds of the neighborhood bars, eye a backslider and say: "Shouldn't you go to confession...