The brand-new, 2,000,000-member United Church of Christ came officially into being in Philadelphia last week. The infant church, composed of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church, elected as its first president Dr. Ben Mohr Herbster, 56, pastor of the 925-member Zion Evangelical and Reformed Church of Norwood, Ohio, for the past 30 years.
Long active in the negotiations that led to the merged United Church, and onetime president of the Cincinnati Council of Churches as well as exchange preacher with the British Council of Churches, Dr. Herbster is optimistic about the future of church union. Said he last...