EDITORIAL

Late in May ONE received an invitation to send a representative to a meeting on June 1st sponsored in Los Angeles by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, of San Francisco. This body of clergymen and others representing a wide spectrum of faiths was on that date celebrating its first anniversary of formally organized effort in the Bay area. Feeling that to be an appropriate time to do so they issued invitations to clergymen and representatives of homophile organizations in Los Angeles to meet together and hear a report of what had been accomplished in San Francisco.

Eight or ten clergymen and a representative each of the Daughters of Bilitis and Mattachine Society flew down for the occasion. A representative each from Daughters of Bilitis and ONE, Incorporated, with Los Angeles clergymen, brought the total meeting to approximately twentyfive from the two cities.

Chairman for the day was Council Secretary Clay Walker, a Methodist clergyman from San Francisco. Principal address of the morning was given by the Rev. Ted McIlvenna, Director of the Young Adult Project which is sponsored jointly in San Francisco by the Methodist Church and the Glide Foundation of that city.

The Rev. McIlvenna's talk was both stirring and informal, giving vivid evidence of his awareness of the delicate nature of the confrontation between the church and the homophile community. He spoke wittily and from ample background resources of the church's fear of the present-day sexual revolution, of the quest for a new ethic of sexual morality now under way in many circles and of the radical social changes now taking place as the inevitable result of the impact of cybernetics upon industry and economics.

The afternoon sessions featured a recounting by Don Lucas (Mattachine Society) of the way the Council on Religion and the Homosexual came about and of the organization of its working committees (theology, public relations, social action, orientation) which now are active in San Francisco. He then proceeded to call upon each person present, in his capacity as Chairman of the Orientation Committee, to explain why he had come to this meeting and what he thought it might accomplish.

By the time he had gone around the circle and each individual had freely expressed himself it was clear that a Los Angeles group was interested in continuing the discussion. After attorney Herbert Selwyn outlined in brief the legal situation and police practices in Los Angeles the meeting dispersed just prior to the dinner hour, leaving a committee of four (two clergymen and two homophile representatives) to implement Los Angeles' further activities concerning religion and the homosexual.

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