Methodists Hear Report On Church Union

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30530, 27 August 1964, Page 14

Methodists Hear Report On Church Union

A vote on church union planned for next year had been postponed, the Rev. R. G. Bell told the North CanterburyMethodist Synod yesterday. The vote was to have been taken within the Presbyterian, Congregational, and Methodist churches and the Church of Christ. Mr Belt who is a member of the four churches’ joint standing committee on church union, said the delay was not simply because the Anglican Church had asked to join union discussions, but because the committee had not so far-been able to agree on a basis for union. Baptism, the ministry, and status of the declaration of faith were the main subjects under discussion. The committee still hoped to reach a decision before the churches’ national annual conferences, however. Mr Bell said that the request of the Anglicans was very encouraging. The committee was now consulting representatives of the Anglican Church on the best way of going ahead, assuming that the negotiating churches approved the admission of the Church of England to the negotiations. Either the basis now being worked on could be scrapped and a fresh start made, or the basis could be looked at in conjunction with Anglican views stated by successive Lambeth conferences Mr Bell favoured the latter course.

Mr Bell said the Anglicans would insist on episcopacy. For Methodists, this was not the problem it was for other negotiating churches, as the majority of world Methodists were under episcopacy. The form in which episcopacy was adopted by the united church would not necessarily be the Anglican form. The Rev. L. T. Norwell said that union could simply not be forced.

“I think the majority of our people believe union is the will of God, but impatience is not the right approach,” he said.

The Rev. W. R. Laws, connexional secretary of the

Methodist Church of New Zealand, thought the advent of the Anglicans would hasten, not delay, union. “Some people would be readier for a wider union,” he said. Mr Bell, answering a question, said proposals were being considered for an improved agreement among the present negotiating communions on the siting of churches and negotiations at local level, and the Anglicans would presumably be invited to join the agreement when and if they joined the union negotiations. A consultation on liaison in the Christchurch area was planned for next month. The synod adopted the report of the Methodist Church Union committee, including a reference to negotiations toward a united youth movement' among the negotiating churches.-