MISSIONS’ WORK

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31662, 24 April 1968, Page 8

MISSIONS’ WORK

Income Cut By Devaluation

To keep the present work of Anglican missions going—without allowing for rising costs and development ‘of the work—an extra $42,377 would be needed each yeai, the Archbishop of New Zealand (the Most Rev. N. A. Lesser) said after the first meeting of the New Zealand Anglican Board of Missions since devaluation.

“We have calculated that the over-all position requires an increase of 20 per cent in the income of the board if its present missionary work is not to suffer," he said. To this must also be added increased costs within New Zealand caused by such factors as higher postal and telephone charges and higher travel costs. Archbishop Lesser said that the extent to which devaluation had affected missionary areas varied from place to place so that the Church Missionary Society areas and the Diocese of Melanesia needed 25 per cent more financial support from the board to maintain their present work.

The Diocese of Polynesia needed 13.03 per cent more and the English societies such as the Church’s Ministry Among the Jews and the Jerusalem and the East Mission 6.4 per cent more. The board agreed that a message should be sent to all the New Zealand dioceses underlining the seriousness of the present position.