Occasionally, when an article appears in a national periodical proclaiming the completion of a long-sought-for theological union of two Protestant sects, it is hailed as a sign of the times: the beginnings of a great post-war religious revival and consolidation. Just as often, though not so well publicized an occurrence, new seets are breaking off from old ones. A part of the congregation of a Holy Roller church in a southern community may disagree with the majority on some such issue as the permissibility of smoking and a new seet is born, perhaps under the name Holy Jumpers or Holy Scramblers.

Between Protestantism and the other great religions the barrier to theological unity is even less surmountable. An agnostic would say that, just as there are different sizes in clothing, it seems necessary to have many different theological in order to approximate the various specifications of different human souls. From the point of view of a church goer of more rigid beliefs the divergency is accounted for by the fact that God has divided humanity into saints and sinners.

Whatever the reason for this heterogeneity, all creeds lament it. As a matter of act, they have been lamenting it off and on for more than half a millenium, but now, with the interest of the cloth in the course of world history intensified by the advent of the atom bomb, lamentation alone is no satisfaction. In all religions the two principal aims are the same. The discovery of truth is one, the improvement of the world the other; and though there will probably never be unity in the pursuit of the first, American churches are finding that there can be cooperation in the pursuit of the second.

Though it is only one of many attempts at religious cooperation and is primarily limited to the inter-Protestant sphere, the Massachusetts Council of Churches may serve to illustrate the modern trend. Almost all of the Protestant seets which do not belong to some other similar seet are members. The Council is part of a much larger Federal Council, and is itself the unofficial headquarters for several smaller municipal organizations. Although extensive, its fields of activity are primarily social. It appoints chaplains to state institutions, coordinates social and clerical work, forms and publishes opinions on current legislation and provides religious educators for public schools. Part of the Council's energy is channelled off to aid and abet the Church World Service Center, which is itself an interdenominational organization devoted to the dispensing of overseas relief. It also runs a weekly radio program of discussion on international relations called "One World" which until his departure was under the aegis of Harvard's Dr. Carl Friedrich.

As a venture in the field of religious cooperation this council is a decided success. It has achieved a large measure of concerted action, thus considerably increasing the effectiveness of Massachusetts Protestanism in the sphere of social betterment. In fact, the success of the Council indicates a broad and bright future for cooperative religious effort in general, even without the prospect of theological unity.