Anglican Priests Bring Mission To City

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31047, 30 April 1966, Page 16

Anglican Priests Bring Mission To City

Although the Anglican Church in New Zealand showed a small time lag in development and acceptance of new liturgy compared with England, its congregations were better in number and more loyal, said the Rev. Humphrey Whistler, a member of the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield, Yorkshire, who is at present holding missions and retreats in the Diocese of Christchurch. Father Whistler, with another member of the community, the Rev. Geoffrey Curtis, is spending two months in the diocese and 10 months in New Zealand. The community first sent representatives to this country in 1910, and since then teams of two or three have returned about every 15 years. The aim of his and his comnanion’s work was to deepen the spirituality of the parishes they visited, Father Whistler said. Although they perhaps showed a tendency to stick to the old ways congregations in New Zealand were ready to go ahead and waiting to be shown the way. Most of the priests’ work in the diocese will be at the parish level, but the highlight of their two-month stay will be a teaching week at the Cathedral from May 22 to 29. aimed at explaining Christianity to people who work in the city. His order laid great emphasis on ecumenical work and he had received great inspir-

ation at a Roman Catholic retreat conducted by a Dominican priest and nun to explain the Vatican’s attitude, he said. Because they belonged to a religious order and lived according to monastic rule some Anglicans at first took members of his community to be “Roman Catholics in disguise” but this was dispelled once they met and talked with them, Father Whistler said. The community, which began in 1892, now had about 80 members who worked in one of the four English houses, or in South Africa, Rhodesia or the West Indies. The order staffs two theological colleges, one of them in the West Indies. The order was one of the first to make it easier for young men from noorer families to train for the ministry, Father Whistler said. Most of the members of the community were ordained clergy when they entered, Father Whistler said. They underwent a novitiate of two years, took temporary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience after three years, and permanent vows three to six years later. Father Whistler and Father Curtis will be in the Christchurch diocese until June, then will visit Dunedin and Nelson before returning to the North Island. They have already held retreats and missions in the Wellington diocese. They will return to Mirfield in December.