Christmas Appeal By Council Of Churches

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29378, 3 December 1960, Page 16

Christmas Appeal By Council Of Churches

The National Council of Churches has issued a Christmas appeal for £35,000 to the 1400 congregations of its member churches, the money to be used as a gift to Asia. The appeal is for gifts additional to the much larger sum which the churches give to their regular missionary programmes —about £250,000 a year.

The members of the council are Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Associated Churches of Christ, Baptist, Congregational, Society of Friends, Salvation Army, and the Cook Islands Christian Church. The church authorities of all member churches have commended the appeal, and, already, 1000 congregations have ordered posters and leaflets to publicise it. The money raised will be given tor service projects in many Asian countries, and administered without any reference to denominational loyalties. It will be sent simply on behalf of the Christian churches of New Zealand. Funds will be distributed as follows: To Indonesia, to maintain a New Zealand couple who are training teachers. To Infiia, to give Calcutta refugees training classes, and to provide beds for 20 tuberculosis patients. To Japan, to help establish a rehabilitation centre for former prostitutes in Tokyo. To Burma, to provide rehabili-

tation for Christian farmers suffering from ’famine. To Formosa, to assist a team of 80 Christian pastors and doctors who personally provide a daily mobile clinic. To Ceylon, to expand a home for mentally retarded children. To Hong Kong, to employ students in social service, to help tuberculosis patients, and to provide trade training. To Vietnam, to keep 10 students of the church in college. To support the refugee and service programme of the World Council of Churches, and the mutual assistance of the Asian churches. “Money Goes a Long Way” “Because this is an operation conducted through experienced persons in each country—those whose support does not come from the programme—the money goes a very long way,” said the Rev. A. A. Brash, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, in Christchurch yesterday. “We can guarantee, for example, that £5O will do any one of the following: feed four children in Hong Kong for a year; operate the Formosan medical clinic for two weeks in an area where there is no medical care whatsoever; provide a trade training for a youth in Calcutta; keep an Indonesian student in teacher training or theological college for a year. “This appeal is New Zealand’s participation in a world-wide programme of mutual help and service to human need called Inter-church Aid,” said Mr Brash. “For this programme, churches related to the World Council of Churches contribute upwards of £2om in goods and money each year. “Since 1947, the New Zealand churches have given more than £150,000 to Inter-Church Aid. Last year, more than £30,000 was given. In addition to support of particular projects in most Asian countries, emergency help was given, on behalf of the New Zealand churches, totalling £6600 to the disasters in Mauritius, Agadir, Japan, Chile, the Cameroons, the Congo, and East Pakistan. “Some congregations will take special offerings on Christmas Day, some will encourage their people to use an offering bowl on the Christmas dinner table, and others will simply encourage the sending in of individual gifts to the National Council of Churches, Box 297, Christchurch,” said Mr Brash.