Missionaries’ Changed Role Discussed

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30535, 2 September 1964, Page 9

Missionaries’ Changed Role Discussed

It was a common but entirely wrong conception that missionary work was no longer needed in today’s changing world, the federal secretary in Australia of the Church Missionary Society (the Rev. Canon A. J. Dain) said in Christchurch. “If we had the men available we could easily place 100 to do missionary work in dioceses throughout the world right now,’’ he said. It was not the need for missionaries which had altered in recent years but the role they must play in the life of the country, said Canon Dain. Today a missionary was not a leader but a servant of the Church in the country where he worked. He went there only at the invitation of that Church, and then not as a minister of a congregation—such positions generally would be filled by native clergy—but as a specialist either in education, medicine, of theological training. The main requirements of today’s missionary were a specialised knowledge and—most essential—humility. He had to be a “back-seat driver,” ready to assist quietly nations very conscious of their new independence. At the Advisory Council on Missionary Strategy which met last year as a preliminary to the Anglican Congress in Toronto a new emphasis was laid on inter-church dependence, Canon Dain said. This meant that New Zealand must be conscious of its responsibilities not only to Melanesia but to Aslan and African countries as well.

Principal Speaker Canon Dain is the principal speaker in the Church Missionary Society’s South Island spring school, which opened on Monday at St Margaret’s College. Last week he took part in the North Island school. The theme of his talks during the week will be “Today’s Missionary Task.” The programme of the school will include Biblestudy sessions, led by the Rev. H. F. Thomson, and

• prayer sessions in the morn- ; ings. In the afternoons there i will be talks, and on Thursi day an open forum. Talks on i missionary work will continue i in the evenings. The Bishop of Nelson (the Rt Rev. F. 0. Hulme-Moir) is chairman of the school, and speakers will include Miss B. i B. Carpenter, from the Kilimatinde Hospital, Tanganyika; Mr and Mrs D. R. J. Cooke, formerly of the Noble Boys’ High School, southern India; the Rev. R. M. Glen, from Tarime, Victoria Nyanza Diocese; and Miss S. G. Kempe, from Burundi, Central Africa.