The Grey Book / A collection of protests against anti-semitism and the persecution of Jews issued by non-Roman Catholic churches and church leaders during Hitlers rule

by Johan M. Snoek

Switzerland

The Protestant Churches of Switzerland are cantonal Churches, distinct and independent from one another. In most of the cantonal Churches, the legislative body is the Synod and the executive organ the Synodal Council. <305> The Federation of the Protestant Churches of Switzerland at first consisted only of National Churches, but it soon admitted the Free Evangelical Churches, the Methodist Church and the "Evangelische Gemeinschaft". The Federation has 2,888,122 baptized members.

The United States

The following are some of the greatest Churches affiliated to the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America in the year 1942 with their membership for the years ending in 1941-1942.

Northern Baptist Convention 1,538,871
National Baptist Convention 3,911,611
Congregational Christian Churches 1,052,701
Disciples of Christ 1,655,580
Protestant Episcopal Church 1,074,178
United Lutheran Church (consultative) 1,709,290
The Methodist Church 6,640,424
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. 1,986,257

The total membership was 25,551,560

The Federal Council of Churches united with 11 other national inter- denominational organizations, to form the National Council of Churches, in 1950. Its 34 member Churches have a total membership of about 42 million persons. The most important Protestant denominations which are not members of the National Council of Churches are: Southern Baptist Convention (present membership 10,770,573); the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (present membership 2,692,889); the American Lutheran Church (present membership 2,541,546).

Yugoslavia

The greatest non-Roman Catholic Church is the Serbian Orthodox Church which has about 8,000,000 members. Other Churches are: the Reformed Christian Church of Yugoslavia (30,000 members) and the Slovak Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Yugoslavia.

The World Council of Churches <306> The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of more than 200 Churches of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox and Old Catholic confessions. It includes in its membership Churches in more than 80 countries. In 1961, the Orthodox Church of Russia also joined the World Council of Churches. A number of large Churches, however, are not World Council members. These include the Roman Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention (U.S.A.), the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and the majority of Pentecostal Churches. Many of these Churches regularly send observers to the World Council meetings and there were five Roman Catholic observers at the World Council's Third Assembly at New Delhi in 1961. <307>