Bishop Outlines Topics For Ecumenical Council

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30536, 3 September 1964, Page 18

Bishop Outlines Topics For Ecumenical Council

The church in the modern world would be one of the main topics for discussion at the third session of the Ecumenical Council, which would begin in Rome on September 14, said the Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch (the Most Rev. B. P. Ashby) at a press reception yesterday afternoon. The Church’s relationship with non-Christian religions, especialy the Jewish, would be considered, Bishop Ashby said. The missionary activity of the Church, which was faced with the problems of nationalism, would also be examined. It had to be conveyed to persons in these countries that the Church was not a Western importation that was being Imposed on them but a supra-national organisation that meant “all things to all men.” The Church was encouraging the adaption of native rites to fit in with its ceremonies, such as baptism. White vestments were a sign of mourning in some Asian countries, whereas black was a sign of joy—the reverse of the Western tradition. There would be flexibility in the manner of presentation, but not in the traditional teaching of the Church. A few bishops from Poland and other Iron Curtain countries attended the last session of the council, Bishop Ashby said. Communism would not be considered specifically, but the more general question of atheistic materialism would be examined. The role of the layman in the Church was set down for discussion. There was a tendency to give the layman a more prominent part in the Church’s affairs.

The New Zealand bishops would have an audience with the Pope. All the New Zealand bishops except the Most Rev. J. M. Liston, Archbishop of Auckland, who is elderly, will attend the meeting of the Ecumenical Council. Bishop Ashby will leave Christchurch on Sunday afternoon and arrive in Rome on September 13. The session of the Ecumenical Council is expected to last about two months, and will adjourn in time to allow some of the bishops to attend the Eucharistic Congress to be held in Bombay. On his return trip Bishop Ashby will visit England and Ireland. In Ireland he will make courtesy calls on the seminaries which supply priests to the diocese. He will travel to Rome by way of the United States, where he will examine church architecture in New York and study the ecumenical movement in Chicago.