Religion

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29744, 10 February 1962, Page 3

Religion

Delhi, 1961. By Alan A. Brash. Presbyterian Bookroom ' 56 pp.

Thirteen years ago the World Council of Churches was formed The third assembly of this cosmopolitan body was held in New Delhi last year from November 19 to December 6 It was a unique assembly if for no other reason that for the first time the Roman Catholic Church sent official observers. Thirteen other churches joined, including the Russian Orthodox Church. Alan A. Brash. General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in New Zealand, gives in this lively booklet an account of the proceedings and much information that brings the assembly into foeus for many with only faint knowledge of what it is all about. The writing is fluent and the interest is sustained as Mr Brash makes pointed observations and draws conclusions For a popular description of a world event this work could scarcely be bettered. The Christian Year. By H. W. Dobson. Bles. 312 pp. Written to prepare the mind for Holy Communion, this book will be welcomed by many. It contains the Collects and Gospels for each Sunday and Holy Day in the year. It has the very decided attraction that the Gospels and Epistles are taken from the J B Phillips translation which will prove a boon to many who find the language of the Authorised version, in places, difficult to understand. Canon Dobson edits the work and provides notes on each section.

The Eagle’s Word. By Gerald Vann. Collins. 247 pp.

Gerald Vann is a Roman Catholic monk who has a great following in the world of letters and in the church, both Catholic and non-Catho-lic. His latest book is a study —or as he modestly says, an essay—on the meaning of the Gospel of John, with an adaptation of the text—not a new translation —which is rich in figures of speech Father Vann bases this searching and delightful work on the belief that the Gospel of John, written by the disciple whom he calls “the Eagle” and who seeks to interpret the Word, that is, Christ the Word, is a record of symbols, signs and paradoxes He holds that historical data is symbolical, that events in time are symbols and that through symbols Christ is communicated to man.

The Collects. By L. E. H Stephens-Hodge. Holder and Stoughton. 184 pp. Index.

As an introduction and exposition. this work should prove an excellent guide not only to those who are familiar with the Anglican Prayer Book but to those overfamiliar with it. The Collects —groups of individual prayers brought together for public worship—are an integral part of Anglican worship For felicity of language and devoutness they are unmatched by anything of a like nature in the Protestant form of the Christian religion. The expositions are sound and helpful, while the historical background links the prayers of the Church with the Church’s long history.

But God Comes First. By Dewi Morgan. Longmans. 96 pp. Also in a paperback -dition.

Dewi Morgan has a pleasant style allied with a fervent spirit This meditation on the great and familiar hymn of the early Church, the Te Deum. will be most acceptable to church people to whom the hymn has perhaps become stale through repetition.