Talks To End Church Division Begun

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30760, 26 May 1965, Page 17

Talks To End Church Division Begun

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

GENEVA. May 24.

The Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches have begun their historic dialogue to end centuries of religious division.

The initial meeting of a joint committee of leading churchmen from each persuasion, which opened in Geneva last Saturday, ended today. It was held secretly to avoid publicity and permit freer discussions.

committee to the Vatican’s six to permit full representation of all the council’s major concessional groups. Basically, the committee's task is to replace religious division with inter-church cooperation and collaboration. Promoting Peace

The committee, composed of six Vatican representatives and eight from the World Council of Churches, met at the council’s headquarters to determine procedure and the programme for future sessions.

Meanwhile, Vatican City sources said Pope Paul may establish a new secretariat in the Roman Catholic Church for promoting peace. The Pontiff is said to be considering such a panel along guidelines recently proposed by a Roman Catholic review in Switzerland. The sources say the Pope is not likely to take any steps on the matter until after the Ecumenical Council makes pronouncements on war and peace at its fourth and final session which will begin on September 14.

The council is a fellowship of 209 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches in more than 80 countries. It has eight members on the