WELFARE STATE SERVICES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29238, 23 June 1960, Page 17

WELFARE STATE SERVICES

Impersonal Nature Held As Problem

“Is there some way of making the services within a welfare state more personal?” This is one of the problems which Mr F. Engel, secretary in East Asia for the World Student Christian Federation, says is confronting the Christian Church.

Mr Engel is on a tour of New Zealand visiting branches of the Student Christian Movement, the local organisations of the federation within the universities. Mr Engel arrived in Christchurch yesterday. He lives in Melbourne and the headquarters of the federation is in Geneva.

“It is part of the question. ‘What is the function of the church in the welfare state?’,” said Mr Engel. “Many things, once done by the church, are now done by the state. We have to find out if anything is being missed by the state and if there is some way of removing the impersonality of many state services.” Mr Engel also said that a major problem of the church was to give its message so that it was understandable and relevant to industrial and to professional workers. He expects that some of these questions will be discussed at a conference he will attend in Strasbourg from July 15 to July 31. About 550 persons from 60 countries will attend the conference. The theme of the conference is “Christ’s Ministry to the World and Our Calling.”