Boston Clergy Organize Committee To Provide Information on Vietnam

Clergymen from the Boston area who say they are "troubled, concerned, and confused" about the war in Vietnam have formed an ad hoc committee to provide background information to clergymen on the war in Vietnam. The committee hopes to serve as a stimulus for action to help end the war.

The group is headed by the Rev. Harold Fray Jr., Minister of the Eliot Congregational Church in Newton. It will be an affiliate of the National Emergency Clergy Committee, which has concerned itself with protesting the war in Vietnam.

Its first plan is to invite John C. Bennett, president of the Union Theological Seminary, to speak at an open meeting of Boston clergy on March 14. Bennett is on the steering committee of the National Emergency Clergy Committee.

Catalytic Agent

Fray hopes his committee, which includes Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant clergymen, will act as a "catalytic agent" for local groups to organize discussions about the war. Members of the committee recently helped organize such a debate in Newton, sponsored by the town's mayor. The superintendent of Newton schools mediated the discussion before an audience of 600.

The Rev. Richard E. Mumma, Presbyterian University pastor for the Harvard community, was active in organizing the group and is on its steering committee.

He said that although the ad hoc committee would be an affiliate of the National Emergency Clergy Committee, its members would reserve the right to "speak in their own way in their own community." Both Mumma and Fray emphasized the fact that each member of the committee speaks only for himself, not for the organization or faith to which he belongs.

Mumma said he hopes the concern shown by the clergymen will "spill over into the community, and alert all citizens to the facts and responsibilities concerning our involvement in the Vietnam war."