In a precedent-breaking move, the Brooks House Committee--consisting of various deans and professors--appointed Cornelius deW. Hastie '52, a first year student at the Episcopal Theological School as the graduate secretary, with the Corporation's approval. His appointment came in the face of earlier assurance by Provost Buck that the new secretary would not have any denominational affiliations, having been nonsectarian in the past.

The Brooks House undergraduate cabinet and the CRIMSON attacked Hastie's appointment--not objected to him personally, but disapproving or breaking long PBH precedent of non-sectarianism. But their efforts were in vain.

In Hastie's particular case the fears proved exaggerated, for he has kept all sectarianism strictly out of his work at Brooks House, even though showing a more active interest in religion.

After almost a year as graduate secretary, Hastie expressed last week his opinion of the relation of Brooks House to Memorial Church. He suggested that Memorial Church, under the new Minister, when he is appointed, be a center for Protestant Christianity in the University--combining preaching and counseling, chapel, and other specifically Christian work. Brooks House, on the other hand, would be an interfaith center for Jew and Gentile alike, with emphasis on social service. Hastie also hopes to start specifically non-sectarian debates and forums on various problems of religion at PBH.

Many of the churches in the square work quite closely with Brooks House. Some of the individual denominational social projects count for membership in The House through special arrangements.

Memorial Church has in the past few years been used almost exclusively for Sunday and daily morning, services. According to present plans for the future, a new professor of Christianity will act as Chairman of the Board of Preachers and Paster of the Church, as well as teaching in the college.

Many feel that the job at the church is enough for one man and that the professor should be a different person, Although President Pusey is considering this objection, nothing specific has been decided as yet.

Much of the church's future function will depend on the man chosen to fill the post. It has been open for over a year since former Dean Willard L. Sperry retired. President Pusey expects to work at filling the position this summer and hopes to have chosen a man by next September.

The Divinity School, under the leadership of acting dean George II. Williams, is undergoing a complete rejuvenation.

After the last war the school was practicaly dead. Most of its faculty were ready for retirement; the capital funds had remained practically stationary for 50 years; and the student body had increased by only six since 1920. A committee of educators and alumni, headed by John Lord O'Brien '96, was appointed by President Conant to consider whether the school could be salvaged.

Complete Renovation Needed

They recommended that the school not be abolished, that patching it up wasn't enough, that it must be completely revamped, and that Harvard must become a new center of religious learning.

Many were skeptical about the plans. The proposed endowment of $7,000,000 looked impossible. Other schools--especially Yale Divinity School, Union Technological Seminary at Columbia, and the Federated Theological Faculty of the University of Chicago--had money, top students, fine reputations, and famous teachers. Harvard Divinity School had become a virtual non-entity. Some suggested that the school be dropped altogether and that a sort of graduate study program in theology--similar to the Nieman Fellows in journalism--be set up in its place.

Yet, with Harvard's libraries, prestige, faculty, proximity to cultural and metropolitan Boston, and relations with nearby denominational schools of theology, the Divinity School had the potential to rival, if not surpass these other schools, and also to regain equal footing with the other graduate schools of the University.

The University decided to go ahead with the Committee's plans, and the present activity at the School is an indication of the result.