Canadian Churchman On Visit To New Zealand

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30178, 9 July 1963, Page 9

Canadian Churchman On Visit To New Zealand

The “Englishness" of New Zealand and its early sunsets are among the impressions of New Zealand formed by the Rev. Dr. F. Archibald, of New Brunswick, Canada, during his short stay in the country. Dr. Archibald, who was in Christchurch on Sunday, is a minister of the United Church of Canada, which consists of the combined Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational Churches in the country. He and his wife are on a world tour after 20 years’ service to the church in Canada. Dr. Archibald is originally from Scotland and is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh. Though his tour is unofficial, Dr. Archibald has preached in a number of countries on his tour, including India and Japan, and will preach in Vancouver next Sunday. Dr. Archibald has visited the Scandinavian countries, Austria, East and West Berlin, Japan, India, and Hong Kong. In his travels, the unity of people in the church, and the

basic "sameness” of men, had impressed him everywhere, Dr. Archibald said. Especially in the Eastern countries there was a driving force within the church and a desire to leam and adopt Western ideas.

The church in the East was not a Western church put on top of the peoples there, but a body growing up from the grass roots, he said.

In Hong Kong, Dr. Archibalt was amazed at the work being done by Christian organisations for the refugees there. It was "beyond praise,” he said. His visit to East Berlin was on a brief three-hour tour. An hour of it was spent having passports and identification cards checked. It was a relief to come to a country like New Zealand where one could pass into the country without passport checking and number takirjg, he said. New Zealand church life seemed very similar to that in Canada, Dr. Archibald said. The movement to the suburbs was affecting inner-city churches there as It was here. On similarities between the people, the common band of loyalty to the Commonwealth seemed to link the peoples of New Zealand and Canada, he thought. Dr. Archibald and his wife left for the North Island yesterday. On Sunday he preached at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church. Before leaving New Zealand, he will visit Waipu, in Northland, where he hopes to visit Scottish people there, descendants from early settlers from Nova Scotia who came to New Zealand more than 100 years ago.