Appeal To Y.M.C.A. Leaders To Foster World Youth Contacts

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27986, 5 June 1956, Page 7

Appeal To Y.M.C.A. Leaders To Foster World Youth Contacts

*ln my judgment it is imperative that New Zealand youth becomes not only informed, but also related to other young people in fri -ndly contact that generates understanding and appreciation." said Mr W. A. Bascand in an address to the Young Men’s Christian association leaders’ conference yesterday afternoon. A former member of the board of directors of the association in Christchurch. Mr Bascand has attended international conferences of the movement in Denmark and Paris. Mr Bascand, who was discussing the ►world outreach” of the movement, said he believed that education in international relationships was .an essential task of youth training in New Zealand. That education was. however, much more than knowledge—it was shared experiences.

It was not open to many to travel, he said, suggesting some means bv whi- h international understanding tnieht still be usefully fostered. Every Young Men’s Christian Association, he said, should have a map of the world. “In London the great export houses have them with little fags or marker pins denoting where their branches, representatives or agencies are located. We should have the Young Men’s Christian Associations of the world so flagged upon our world maps in every .association.

“Yet even this can be like a statistic —rrost impersonal. Could not a local association in New Zealand set out to be brother to an association, preferably lomewhere on the Pacific perimeter, and share photographs, 35 millimetre colour transparencies, eight millimetre colour films, picture books, snaps of boys’ camps and institute penfriendships? ... If we let our imagination get hold of the idea, we can span oceans to friendship—it requires no government agency or help—and members of the association become no longer records in some annual return, but people with whom we share our way of life; with whom we exchange ideas or hobbies, crafts, sport, or association programmes.

“It is a picture age. The camera is as universal as the bicycle. As a means of communication it is far more effective. Could not we develop swap clubs for the exchange of pictures? Could not we enlist the help of film societies to take films of our associations, our boys and our activities and swap them with other associations overseas?” he asked.

Mr Bascand appealed to leaders in the movement to lift the eyes of members to the world scene and to God’s plan for the world. “It would be supreme folly,” he said, “to confine the spirit, mind and body of those under your leadership to a circle of interests no larger than that in a game of tag.” Youth must learn to know youth so that they might be ready for the larger relationships which were inevitable in the next two or three decades.

Wendell Wilkie had coined the phrase “one world,” said Mr Bascand. “Let no-one think that one pattern is the purpose of God. Diversity is His design and we should delight in it both in nature and in man. People who are yellow, brown, black .or white should give us as much delight as roses that are yellow, red, gold or white. All have their place, all can be together in harmonious relation-

ship if they tolerate one another and recognise their right of growth and aeveionment. At the centennial conference of the association in Paris last year Mr Bascand said he had seen 7000 persons ;5 om 70 countries answer the roll call faith in one Lord and one

TASK OF Y.M.C.A.

ADJUSTMENT OF PROGRAMME VIEW OF NATIONAL SECRETARY The Young Men’s Christian Associa“O. n continued to exist only as it was able to adjust and adapt i.s programme to the changing needs of people in the environment in which it worked, said the national secretary of the association in New Zealand (Mr G. F. Briggs), speaking uO the conference of voluntary leaders of the association in Christchurch yesterday morning. Effective work by any organisation depended on well-defined goals and descriptions of what it should accomplish in the comunity, he said. The association as a whole had defined its, job as the development of Christian personality and the building of a Christian society. From the outside, the association’s objectives might appear to be to help its members to play basketball better to develop finer skills on physical training apparatus, or to provide a fine campin gexperience, but this obviously was not enough because activities had to serve as a means to an end and not an end in themselves, said Mr Briggs. The fundamental task of the Young Men’s Christian Association groups was to help their members deve’op Christian personalities which acted without selfish interest and in a spirit of partnership with God, through applying the teachings of Jesus to everyday human relationships, he said. The conference, which concluded late yesterday afternoon with a farewell tea, had been a highly successful experiment, said the secretary of the Christchurch Young Men’s Christian Association (Mr M. M. Betts).

It • was considered that this type of conference, which was a feature of Young Men’s Christian Association life overseas, did a great deal to stimulate thinking, develop a sense of civic responsibility, and an acceptance of spiritual values as a foundation for Christian living and the development of a Christian society.