Rome Elected To Church Body

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31730, 13 July 1968, Page 13

Rome Elected To Church Body

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

UPPSALA (Sweden), July 12. Roman Catholics tonight were elected for the first time to full membership of a commission of the World Council of Churches (W.C.C.), the Associated Press reported.

The historic vote for seats for nine Roman Catholics — another milestone on the long way to Christian unity—was taken unanimously by show of bands in the fourth General Assembly of the council. The decision gave Roman Catholic theologians a voice and a vote for the first time in W.C.C. deliberations on the fundamentals of Christian faith. Their election without the Roman Catholic Church being a member of the W.C.C. was possible because the Faith and Order Commission has a separate constitution. This enables churches outside the W.C.C. to be represented. The nomination of the Roman Catholics was ap-

proved by the Vatican before the W.C.C. assembly began. Two of the Roman Catholic theologians elected were Rev. J. Chibangu, rector of the Catholic University, Kinshasa, Congo, and Professor Samuel Rayan, of Leumen Institute, Kerala, India.

A spokesman for the council said plans were being made for $3 million of new aid to victims in both sides of the Nigerian civil war. The money would be in addition to cash already allocated by the W.C.C. and material donations by member churches estimated to be worth over $3 million. One of the six W.C.C. presidents, Dr Akanu Ibiam, former governor of Biafra, told the Assembly: “We are still at war with Nigeria. We are defending ourselves and Nigeria is the aggressor,” he said. “We need food, doctors, nurses . . . but we are ready to endure all suffering. You may give us food . . . but the' next day we are wiped out by bullets or bombs.” Earlier, Bishop Brooke Mosley, head of the W.C.C. press committee, told a newsconference Dr Ibiam was busy, talking with Nigerian representatives on the sidelines of the Assembly. But his condemnation before the Assembly of Nigeria as an aggressor did not suggest that whatever contacts he had had with the Nigerians had been fruitful.