The traditional and somewhat theatrical custom of clergymen opening or closing a political convention was carried on at Los. Angeles and Chicago, among others by Methodist Bishop Gerald Kennedy, Roman Catholic Bishop Hillinger, and Rabbi Hillel Silver. The familiar scene inevitably raises a question: Should different denominations of Christians pray together—or alongside members of other faiths—and if so, under what circumstances?
The Roman Catholic Church is notoriously chary of permitting prayer with non-Catholics; so are conservative Protestants such as the Missouri Synod Lutherans (membership: 2,387,292). At a Lutheran conference on doctrinal unity...