ALL-ASIA CHURCH POSITION

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28250, 11 April 1957, Page 7

ALL-ASIA CHURCH POSITION

Nomination Of The Rev. A. A. Brash

The Rev. Alan A. Brash, general secretary of' the New Zealand National Council of Churches, has been nominated by the Sumatra Conference of Asian Churches as an associate secretary of its allAsia Christian organisation. The conference nominated the Rev. Dr. D. T. Niles, of Ceylon, a general secretary, and Mr Kyaw Than, of Burma, as associate secretary, with special responsibility for the witness of the Churches in international affairs. Mr Brash would be charged with special responsibility for the vast work of inter-church aid carried on in Asia by the World Council of Churches, and with the integration of that work with the missionary enterprise of the churches.

He would be required to travel extensively in Asia in the years 1958-60, assisting the churches in the area to share in the worldwide mutual assistance programme, arrange the exchange of workers, and decide on their major needs as they face their tasks of evangelism. He would also act in liaison between the Asian churches and the inter-church aid division of the World Council of Churches, with headquarters in Geneva. “It is of tremendous significance,” said Dr. W. A. Visser ’t Hooft, general secretary of the world Council of Churches, recently, “that the Asian churches, in setting up an Asian area organisstion, have felt led not only to include the churches of New Zealand and Australia in full membership, but have nominated a New Zealander as one of the secretariat.”

It is implied that the work of the new secretariat would be developed gradually within the next four years, and that Mr Brash might remain in New Zealand for a considerable part of his time, and be able to continue in at least some of his service to the New Zealand Council of Churches. The nomination is subject to confirmation by the World Council of Churches and the International Missionary Council, and by the National Council of Churches in New Zealand, which has not yet had the opportunity to consider it. The executive of the National Council of Churches will meet on April 16. and will be attended by Bishop E. J. Rich, of Wellington, president of the council, who was present at the conference in Sumatra.