CHURCHMAN TO VISIT

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30144, 30 May 1963, Page 7

CHURCHMAN TO VISIT

Father Paul Vergtiese

A churchman with a varied career and a colourful personality, the Rev. P. Verghese, will visit New Zealand next February for the faith and order conference organised by the-National Council of Churches. Father Verghese is associate general secretary of the World Council of Churches, and an Orthodox priest who is the director of the division of ecumenical action.

Father Verghese was private secretary to Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia from 1956 to 1959. An Indian, he belongs to the Syrian Orthodox Church of South India. His early education took place in India, and later he obtained the degrees of bachelor of divinity from Princeton, and master of sacred theology from Yale. In 1958 to 1959 he was chief adviser to the Haile Selassie Welfare Foundation and executive secretary to the Ethiopian Government Committee for the distribution of relief aid. During this period he was chief lecturer in religion at the University College at Addis Ababa.

Earlier, he had been general secretary of the Orthodox Student Christian Movement in India. In 1960 he lectured at (Oxford University and in 1961 was ordained priest. The Rev. D. M. Taylor, associate general secretary of the National Council cf Churches in New Zealand, gave the reasons the council had invited Father Verghese, recently. “Firstly, we needed some- ; one to lead us daily in Bible ! study,” said Mr Taylor. ■ “Secondly, we could not have all the continents of the world represented, but we felt we specially needed to be aware how our thinking appeared in the eyes of an Asian Christian. Thirdly, since the largest section of the church within the W.C.C. is the Orthodox section, and since this is least known and understood in NAv Zealand, we needed the corrective of a leading Orthodox thinker. Father Verghese will fit these needs perfectly.”