Caution Urged On Church Relations

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31763, 21 August 1968, Page 14

Caution Urged On Church Relations

The changed and enriched relationship among Roman Catholic, other Catholic, Orthdox, and Protestant churches had come so speedily and wholeheartedly that it took the breath away, said the president of the Methodist Church of New Zealand (the Rev. J. D. Grocott) addressing the annual synod of the North Canterbury district yesterday.

This lively movement had come so speedily that the usual terms did not describe it It was wider than church union. Even the term “ecumenical movement” was not adequate. The nearest approach to understanding the movement was reflected by the suggestion of the head of the Roman Catholic Church that he set up a committee of the most highly qualified people to study the “doctrine of the church." “What is now clearly emerging is the fundamental question, ‘What is the Church?’ And can we claim that the ‘Divided church’ or even ‘competitive churches’ can claim to be ‘One Holy and Catholic and Apostolic Church?’

“We must not be too glib with our answers, because the sudden shock <rf the Papal Encyclical of this month not only revealed a confusion between morals and faith in Christ, but also an authoritarian position that is foreign to the Christian freedom ih which the finest protestant traditions have been nurtured. “While those of us in the Methodist Church accept the rulings of the Supreme Court

or that of Holy Writ ... we are not prepared to accept such a statement as this given in such absolute finality. “The gap between churches is clearly visible when we examine this encylical,” said Mr Grocott.