CHRISTIAN UNITY

Press, Volume C, Issue 29504, 4 May 1961, Page 13

CHRISTIAN UNITY

Dr. Fisher’s Plea

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON. May 2. Anglicans must pray with Roman Catholics for Christian unity, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr. Geoffrey Fisher, said yesterday at his last opening of the Convocation of Canterbury. According to the “Daily Express” the retiring Archbishop said: “The Pope has asked members of his church to pray especially for the second Vatican Ecumenical Council, the exact date of which is not yet known, during the days between Ascension Day and Whit Sunday. “I hope that many in the Church of England will pray at that time, along with their brethren of the Church of Rome, that this Vatican council may be used of God not to hurt but to help, and to increase unity of spirit among all the churches that they may co-operate the more in spreading abroad the Gospe) of God. the glad tidings of reconciliation with Him.” Dr. Fisher announced that the Church of England Council on Inter-Church Relations had been invited by the Archbishop of Canterbury and York, through a committee, to make plans for the renewal of AnglicanScottish discussions. The report of the Church of Scotland’s special committee on AnglicanPresbyterian relations published today, however, gives no indication of any resumption of unity talks between the kirk—with its 1.300.0001 members—and the Church of England. The 50-man committee was! set up last year following the! rejection in 1959 of the “bishop’s report” of 1957 which proposed the appointment of bishops in the Church of Scotland. The Church of Scotland General Assembly said the 1959 proposals implied a denial of the catholicity of its church and of the" validity and regularity of its ministry within the Church Catholic. The committee have begun preliminary studies of the four “central issues.” They included the meaning of unity as distinct from uniformity in church order, the meaning of "validity” as applied to ministerial orders, the doctrine of Holy Communion and the meaning of "apostolic succession” as related to all these matters. Another committee was set up by the inter-church relations committee to clarify the Church of Scotland’s recognition of the ministers of other churches. It will ask the general assembly later this month to let it continue its investigations. Prison For Bookmaking.— Albert James Donnelly, aged 42, a butcher, of Hastings, was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment by Mr W. A. Harlow, S.M., in Hastings today after pleading guilty to a charge of bookmaking at Hastings on April 22. He had twice previously been convicted of bookmaking.