N.C.C. Relationships With Catholics

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31761, 19 August 1968, Page 16

N.C.C. Relationships With Catholics

Relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the National Council of Churches were discussed at the annual conference of the council in Christchurch on Saturday.

“In line with the wish of the last annual conference of the council It was hoped to set up a joint working committee between the NC.C. and Roman Catholics by the beginning of this year,” said the Ven. Archdeacon W. M. Davies, who was reporting on relations with other churches. He said that before the committee could work, the consent of member churches had to be obtained. “The Baptist Union found it was unable to agree to any such

arrangement until a definite ruling on the subject could be obtained from an assembly of that church. “The scheme therefore has been deferred until Baptist opinion is known,” Archdeacon Davies said. It was decided to review the situation in November, by which time Baptist opinion would be known. Leave was given to local branches of the N.C.C. to pursue co-operative enterprises with the Roman Catholic Church and individual churches were given freedom to conduct their own negotiations with their Roman Catholic brethren. “In the last year in New Zealand there has been great development and there is new thinking on this issue,” said the Rev. D. M. Taylor, general secretary of the N.C.C. “The time is right for much closer relations with the Roman Catholic Church,” he said. “The impacts that are being felt by other churches are also ' being felt by Rome. There is hardly a Roman Catholic parish in New Zealand that is not in some way affected with work with Anglican and other reformed churches,” said Dr B. Meeking, a Roman Catholic observer to the council and recently appointed by the Pope as Consultor to the Secretariat for the Union of Christians.

“This change is being effected with the guidance from our bishops and also from a Vatican directive. Our mutual recognition of baptism, is a good point, but I feel that we are both keeping quiet about mixed marriages: if our relationship is to be mutual, we must talk about this,” Dr Meeking said.