"Destiny Of Mankind Is In South-East Asia”

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31760, 17 August 1968, Page 14

"Destiny Of Mankind Is In South-East Asia”

The destiny of mankind lay in South-East Asia, the Rev. H. Perkins, secretary of interchurch aid for the East Asia Christian Conference, told those attending the inter-church-aid evening of the National Council of Churches last evening. “In Asia there are peaks of population pressure, political flashpoints and the sharpest points of encounter with men of other faiths,” he said. “We may have a 'Western heritage, but we have an Asian detiny.” Mr Perkins said that SouthEast Asia was also a place where there was a very intense battle of denominationalism. It was an area where because of historic separations, Christians did not know each other. The main differences in this could be seen in the eastern area of Chinese cultural influence and the southern area of Indian influence. “This also brings about tremendous political tensions, and I do not mean only in Vietnam,” he said. “I have known Koreans walk out of an East Asia Christian Conference meeting because it was too dangerous for them to go back to their own country as participants of certain decisions. “What the E.A.C.C. is seek-

ing is the intercongregationa) life of the universal Church This does not mean sharing the left-overs of the affluent with those who have not got it. Inter-church aid is the matching of Christ’s gifts to the people in the world.” Mr Perkins said that one of the essential charactistics of life was expectation, but rising expectations produced revolutions. The meeting of expectations was a spiritual problem facing developed and undeveloped countries. Many good inter-church-aid projects had not been achieved because they had never been taken up properly. It seemed at present that the people with the most money had the most say in what other people were going to do with it “We have to thrust forward in this matter to get to the point where projects going forward are so good that the Asian voice originating the project has the say in what is to be done,” he said.

Hail Storm.— Hailstones the size of large marbles covered areas of Sydney today sending cars out of control, and making roads impassable. A layer 9in thick stopped traffic on roads in the eastern suburbs for 15 minutes this afternoon.—Sydney, August 13.