By Gretchen Keiser

Move involvement by Catholics and parishes in the work of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta is one of the hopes of the Council’s newly installed president.

Frank Broniec, a member of St. Thomas More parish in Decatur, assumed the presidency of the 102-year-old organization June 16, the first Catholic to hold that position.

The installation at St. Thomas More included a worship service representing many denominations. Among those taking part were Bishop John of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Atlanta, Archbishop Thomas Donnellan, Ed Brams, president of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Mrs. Theodora James of Friendship Baptist Church and the Reverend Harry Tisdale of St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church.

Even the music brought together the talents of many churches, from soloists, to choirs, to the native hymn of the Korean community centered at St. Thomas More.

Coming together for such a service is one of the specific ways to foster community among people of faith, Broniec said in a recent interview. Then such a community can reach out in a stronger way to the city and region as a whole. “There is so much fractionalism in Atlanta--city versus county, black versus white, even though overall we have fairly good black-white relationships,” he said. “The Council is trying to work with groups to see that this (division) really isn’t necessary.”

“And I think that religion is a good base to work together on--to look at it from our relationship with Christ.”

The work of the Council, believed to be the oldest and largest ecumenical organization in the South, includes emergency assistance to the poor and work with refugees and, from its inception, reflected a deep interest among founding members in those in prison, particularly the young. A concern 40 and 50 years ago about the effect of movies on morality has a contemporary counterpart: work by the Christian Council toward regulating material permitted on cable television.

The Council officers and its executive director, Dr. Donald Newby, serve as liaisons to municipal agencies and groups.

Currently the Council, working with the archdiocese and Atlanta’s Jewish community, is seeking support for an interfaith chapel at Hartsfield Airport. Seeing the project through to completion was one of the aims cited by the incoming president, who succeeded Dr. Lawrence Bottoms, a Presbyterian minister.

Other goals for the year include placing the Council, which has a deficit, on a sound financial footing and planning joint worship services, particularly at Thanksgiving and during the Week of Christian Unity. Among the long range questions facing the Council is “looking at how we relate to other faiths and where we should be” in relationships with non-Christians, Broniec said.

On a personal note, Broniec said, he would like to see every Catholic church become a member of the Christian Council, sharing in its activities and sharing information about ecumenical projects which may be occurring at the parish level.

Active in the Council since 1967, Broniec traced his own growing interest in ecumenical work to many factors, including his experience as an Army officer in Germany where he worked with a Protestant chaplain and shared the experiences of men in his unit who came from a variety of denominations. He and his wife, Shirley, a convert to Catholicism, met and married in Germany.

Their experiences as members of the Christian Family Movement, first in Chicago and later in Atlanta, also brought them together with Christian denominations working on community projects. The Movement, which began in Chicago in the mid-1940s, was based on small groups of couples who met regularly to read Scripture, pray and consider possible action within the larger community based on their study.

From 1968-69, the Broniecs were co-presidents of CFM at St. Thomas More. The organization initiated the first Thanksgiving ecumenical service in the parish. The Broniecs, who have four children, are also former co-presidents of the Fernbank PTA, and as a family, sponsors of a North Vietnamese refugee family through Catholic Social Services. Since 1979, Frank Broniec has represented St. Thomas More on the Archdiocesan Religious Unity Commission.

“I think ecumenism has to be constantly brought out to people, in sermons, in newspapers, in services,” he said. “I’m a man of action and I believe in participating and getting others to participate too.”