THE
CLARION
THE
VOICE
Of BREVARD COLLEGE CAMPUS
Volume 43
Tuesday, March 2, 1976
Christian Encounter Week
Is Observed At Brevard
Reverend Stephen W. Brown; speaker for Christian
Encounter Week at Brevard College.
College To Participate In
Bicentennial Forums
Brevard, N. C. — Christian
Encounter Week is now being
observed at Brevard College
through March 3. This period of
special study and personal
rededication is sponsored each
year by the Brevard College
Christian Council. That student
group works throughout the
school year with College
Chaplain C. Edward Roy to
coordinate the activities of the
several religious organizations
on campus.
The Reverend Stephen W.
Brown, Pastor of the Key
Biscayne Presbyterian Church at
Key Biscayne, Florida, has been
selected as the keynote speaker
and resource director for the
week. Mr. Brown recently wrote
Brevard College Chaplain C.
Edward Roy that he was very
much looking forward to being in
Brevard the first week in March.
A native of Asheville, his first two
college years were at Brevard.
After graduation here in 1960 he
went on to receive the B.A.
degree in Philsophy and Rehgion
from High Point College and the
STB. degree from Boston
University School of Theology.
Bicentennial forums and
discussion on America Past,
Present, and Future will be held
three Tuesday evenings in March
at Transylvania Court House.
Meetings will begin at 8:00 p.m.
There will be no admission
charge.
A committee headed by George
T. Spicer, President of the
Friends of Library, has recruited
interested Transylvania County
citizens and members of the
Brevard College community to
serve as moderators and
panelists.
Subjects and speakers include:
March 2 - “The Idea of
America” with Dr. Richard Reed
of UNC-A as speaker and Colonel
Pual B. Welch (retired), as
moderator. Mildred Webber, a
student at Brevard College will
serve as a member of the panel.
March 9 - “The American
Reality” with Dr. Max Williams
of Western Carolina University
as speaker and Mr. J. E. Driscoll
as moderator. Mr. Burger, a
member of the Brevard College
faculty, will participate as a
member of this panel.
March 16 - “An American
Agenda for the Beginning of our
Third Century.” ^r. Mich^e
Gillum of UNC-A wil be he
speaker. Moderator will be the
Reverend C. E. Roy of Brevard
College. Panel members will be
individuals from the community.
All three forums are planned to
encourage audience P^^
ticipation. Audience questions
and or comments on all three
topics will be answered by either
the speakers and or the panelists.
The forums are sponsored by
the Friends of the Library a
the Transylvania County Library
‘J'coniJction with the N. ^
Carolina Bicentennial and the
North Carolina Humanitie
Committees.
Brevard College faculty and
crevaiu attend
students are urgea w
these sessions . . •
Before his present assignment
with the Key Biscayne
Presbyterian Church in Florida,
Reverend Brown was minister ot
churches on Cap Cod and Quincy
Massachusetts, for a time was
disc jockey and newsman at
radio stations in Boston and
North Carolina, and traveled
extensively throughout the
United States conducting
preaching missions and as a
keynote speaker and Bible
teacher. Mr. Brown has authored
two books: Where The Action Is
(1971) and So Now You Are A
Christian (1972).
Of Mr. Brown and his writing.
Publisher Fleming H.
gives the followng account. He
is voung. He is deeply committed.
He has unUmited enthusiasm.
What better
Sed to make a topnotch
rlterofthe Gospel? Stephen
W Brown is all these thmgs, and
Le. He is a preacher 0 today
for today. He is spreadmg the
Wor“ith a vitality and honest,
that are refreshing and dynaniic.
ffis God is notdead; his Church .s
“ dying. He has dl^over^
sletLg real and wonderf^ m
Jesus and feels inspired, com
nelled to confess his fait an
explain exactly what the ministry
means to him . ■
Mr. Brown and his wife, Anna
Louise Williamson Brown, met
while both were students at
Brevard College.
Sophomore Bill Haire, co
president of the Brevard College
Christian Council, released the
following schedule today for
Christian Encounter Week ac
tivities:
Tuesday, March 2: Informal
lecture by Reverend Mr. Brown,
Citizens Of The Kingdom,
Student Union, 6:30 p.m. Brevard
College students only.
Wednesday, March 3: Break-
fast-lecture. Reverend Mr.
Brown will speak on The Growth
Of The Kingdom. A. G. Myers
Dining Hall, 8:00 a.m. Brevard
College students only.
Setting aside a period each
year for special reUgious em
phasis has long been practiced in
communities throughout the
nation. The designation given
these observances has varied
over the years and from place-to-
place. Perhaps that name most
frequently heard has been
Religious Emphasis Week.
Several years ago students at
Brevard College chose to call
their observance Christian
Encounter Week.
Brevard College has been
especially privileged for the past
several years to have the
assitance of the Thomas F. Staley
Foundation in bringing to the
campus eminent churchmen to
lead study and services during
Christian Encounter Week. Since
1972 Staley Distinguished
Chrikian Scholar Lecturers at
Brevard College have included
such personages as Methodist
Bishop Ole E. Borgen, Episcopal
leader of some 43,000 United
Methodists in Northern Europe;
Dr John A. Huffman, Jr., pastor
of the historic First Presbytenan
Church in Pittsburgh, Penn
sylvania and many others.
By 1972 the Staley program has
becoming active on more than 125
college campuses in 41 of 50
states. An article from the
bulletin of King College in his
native Bristol, Tennessee, told ot
Mr. Staley using drawing pins
and a map in his Delray Beach,
Florida office to mark the
development of the program as it
expands across the nation^
Although chairman of the board
of one of the largest investment
firms in the country, he once
remembered to an interviewer,
“Wall Street is my avocation
these days - my vocation is the
Staley Distinguished Christian
Scholar Lectures Program.”
Through widely observed,
knowledge of exactly how and
where the idea of an “emphasis
week” began may be lost in
history. In discussing this, Dr.
Robert G. Tuttle of the First
United Methodist Church of
Brevard made the following
observations on religious life in
America. “The first spiritual
‘great awakening’ in America
began among the Dutch Refor
med in the Middle Colonies in the
1720’s and, shortly after, in New
England with the revitalization of
Calvinism under Jonathan Ed
wards. The ‘awakening’ then
spread rapidly throughout the
colonies and many thousands
came to accept the living ex
perience of a judging, redeeming
God, with a lessened emphasis on
the importance of the traditional
denominations. The impetus
given religious life during that
early time was to have a great
impact and give character to the
early institutioal life of our
country. By having an influence
on the original documents of our
nation it gave a high moral tone
to the development of our early
institutions.”
“After some generations of ebb
in religious ferver in America, a
second ‘great awakening’ came
as Americans began to emerge
from the rough lite of the trontier
into a more comfortable con
dition. The imprint of this
religious resurgence was to
remain on our national life and
lead to the advancement of our
schools and colleges.”
“In frontier days, after the
harvest, farmers were often able
to take some time for rest. Then,
there would be time for more
activity in the churches and for
revival meetings. One of the
expressions of this was the an
nual ‘camp meeting’ where farm
families would come together for
a week or more for camping and
preaching. Eventually this way
spread to churches in towns and
cities. For a week or longer
special preachers would be called
to come into the community to
lead services during this time of
rethinking and rededication.”
Dr. Tuttle said that observers
believe there has been a wane in
the religious life of the country
over the past half-century, but
that there has also been seen,
coming out of the almost total
materialism of recent years, a
hunger in young people for a first
hand encounter with God. He
feels this might come to be of the
magnitude of the third great
awakening’ which could bring
new direction to the nation.