U.S. Methodist Bishop Impressed With N.Z.

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30050, 7 February 1963, Page 5

U.S. Methodist Bishop Impressed With N.Z.

New Zealand and Australia were one of the most rapidly advancing sections of the world. The opportunities for youth, the dimaite, the type of land and the minerals all pointed to great future prosperity, said Bishop W. Angie Smith, the Methodist Bishop of Oklahoma, New Mexico and part of west Texas, in an interview yesterday. Bishop Smith, together with has wife, is spending a fortnight in New Zealand during a thiree-month tour of the Pacific to see the church ait work. He said that New Zealand had a great deal in common with the United States. “Friendship for each other is of great importance for freedom. I would lake to see closer ties of friendship between the two countries.”

Biahop Smirtih is aiso the president of the General Board of Evangelism of the Methodist Church. Dr. Harry Denman, the general executive of the board, would be

coming to New Zealand later in the year for several weeks to conduct a mission throughout the country, he said.

Although the Methodist church in New Zealand differs in some respects (there are no bishops here), the fundamentals of church government and theology were the same. - “The two Churches are very closely associated,” said Bishop Smith.

Included in Bishop Smith’s diocese, which contains 365,000 of the 10 million Methodists in the United States, are more than 10,000 American Indians representing 21 tribes. He has been adopted as a chief 21 times and his wife is an adopted princess.

AMlhouglh Indians had their own churches, there was no segregation. “They prefer them for social reasons. These days Indians are found in all professions and in all walks of life,” he said.