Association “Not Open To All”

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31188, 12 October 1966, Page 18

Association “Not Open To All”

Concern that the Presbyterian Laymen’s Association might be thought to represent all laymen in the church has been expressed by Mr J. K. Nichol, a secondary school teacher, in a statement.

Mr Nichol said that to many the organisation appeared to be a fully representative body but he had been in touch with the secretary of the local organising committee and he found that the association was not, in fact, open to all Presbyterian laymen.

"The basic requirement is that members subscribe to the stated policy of the association which is, at best, a list of extremely conservative beliefs stated, in many cases, in libellous terms as far as ordained men of the Presbyterian Church are concerned,” says Mr Nichol. “The name of the association might lead people to believe that the movement has some broad following in the church. I, one Presbyterian layman, am ineligible to join because I hold views that diverge from those of the organisers of the association. “This makes many of us feel that we would like to dissociate ourselves from the movement in some public way. No opportunity is given us at the meetings as the secretary told me that there would be "no time for discussion or questions. “It is obvious that the association, generally recognised as “the’ association of Presbyterian laymen, speaks for only a minority of the laymen

of the church. Other groups, although technically laymen, can have no voice in its deliberations,” says Mr Nichol. Mr Nichol gave the names of six Christchurch men, who, he said, held similar views.