Thornberg says Church members had been in thehabit of signing into B.U. residence halls tovisit particular students, and then goingdoor-to-door once they gained entry to thebuilding. B.U. proctors, like their Harvardcounterparts, also have reported many instanceswhen students complained of being harassed byChurch members to attend meetings.

While no such drastic action is contemplated byHarvard, administration officals, such as Dean ofFreshman Henry C. Moses, say they will actstrenuously to protect individual students' rightto be free from coercion.

The United Ministry at Harvard has disavowedthe Church, which occasionally holds services inPhillips Brooks house, on the grounds that itrefuses to conform to the Ministry's officialpolicy against all religious proselytizing oncampus. The administration and the United Ministryboth say, however, that they do not oppose theright of Church members to freely express theirreligious beliefs on campus.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III says theBoston Church of Christ has received no officialpermission from Harvard to conduct ministry oncampus. But he plans no specific measures againstthe Church.

Administrators at B.U. say official restrictivemeasures against the church and otherproselytizers are necessary because students arenot equipped to deal with high pressure religiousrecruiting.

"Students, particularly those who have justleft home, are ultimately vulnerable in that theyare in an unfamiliar and often hostile world cutoff from their usual sources of support such asparents, friends, and home churches," Thornbergsays. "When duplicitous, high-pressure recruitingtactics are used by religious groups, the basictrust of education is violated."

"Students need to be protected not fromideas--for they can make up their own minds givensufficient evidence--but from manipulativeproselytizing," Thornberg says.

The Harvard congregation is small but growing,with between 40 and 50 baptized members, 30 ofwhom are undergraduates. At a recent Harvardchurch service in Phillips Brooks House, fullyhalf of the group had joined in the past year.

McKean is still the spiritual leader andprimary preacher, but most of the day-to-dayoperations of the worldwide church, drawing onmembers from more than 75 different countries, areentrusted to a group of church Elders led by AlBaird, who holds an M.I.T doctorate. Contributionsfrom members make up the Church's finiancialholdings, which total approximately $3 million.Most of the money goes to support new church"plantings" in climes as exotic as Johannesburgand Bombay.

Churches of Christ dot the country; religiousexperts say they are the inheritors of the 19thcentury Campbellite Fundamentalist reform movementin America. The Church of Christ should not beconfused with the United Church of Christ, a muchmore centrist descendant of the New EnglandCongregationalist tradition.

But the Boston Church of Christ is unique inits agressive prostelytizing efforts. The Churchbulletin publishes weekly service attendance,contribution and baptism figures, and sermonsoften stress the absolute importance of themembers being "fruitful," both in terms ofrecruitment or "discipling," and in personal cashcontributions.

During the Sunday service in PBH, a youngmember got up and discussed a passage from theBook of Malachi, which stated that the Lorddisdains people who bring him inferior offerings.Immediately afterwards, a collection plate waspassed around amongst the student congregation,which promptly filled it with five and 10 dollarbills.

According to Thornberg, the leading Boston areaexpert on the Church, the average weeklycontribution per member is $22. Thornberg alsoclaims that the Church bills members for"voluntary" contributions, and that these accrueif not paid week to week. Church officials denythis.

They freely admit, however, that members arerigorously expected to "fellowship," or spread theword, outside the Church community. Indeed, somesenior members such as Shepherd left ministerialposts in other denominations because they weredissatisfied with the slow conversion rates.

"I was frustrated by the non-growth of otherchurches, the sense that they were all preachingthe same tired, mellowed out Christianity and thatthey had departed from the Scriptures," Shepherdsays. Shepherd went on to stress that evangelizingwas "a direct command of Christ," and that memberswho did not evangelize were by definition badChristian in the Church's view.