Negro Methodist Bishop Visiting Christchurch

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31585, 24 January 1968, Page 14

Negro Methodist Bishop Visiting Christchurch

The Rt Rev. P. Taylor, a Negro bishop of the Methodist Church in the United States, is. visiting Christchurch (Juring a six-day tour of New Zealand to discuss social, political and religious problems with ministers and laymen. Bishop Taylor is Bishop of New Jersey and president of the Council of Bishops of America. He has already visited Hawaii, Japan, Formosa and Australia.

After arriving in Christchurch on Sunday, Bishop Taylor spoke to the congregation of the Methodist Central Mission on the administration of the Methodist Church in the United States, which has Um members. He

then spoke of his task as Bishop of New Jersey, where the congregation of 90 per cent of the churches in his diocese are white. On Monday he visited Arthur’s Pass, and later met ministers. Yesterday he attended a luncheon given the the Christchurch Rotary Club. Last evening he spoke to a group of ministers and laymen and afterwards visited the Rehua Maori Boys’ Hostel and Wesley Lodge, both run by the Methodist Central Mission. He will leave Christchurch today for Wellington. The superintendent of the Methodist Central Mission (the Rev. W. E. Falkingham) said yesterday that every four years bishops from the Methodist Church of the United States were required to visit other countries to view the task of the Christian Church.