Compulsive Problems Studied

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31774, 3 September 1968, Page 16

Compulsive Problems Studied

Compulsive problems, including alcoholism, over-eating and gambling, were condemned far too much by church people, the Rev. R. M. Boas, vicar of Labasa, Fiji, said on his arrival in Christchurch last evening. “Maybe this is because they don’t have an answer to these problems,” he said.

Mr Boas, who has been working in Fiji for two years, was for 10 years in Los Angeles, where for much of the time he was concerned with alcoholism and other compulsive problems. He will spend a week in Christchurch during a threeweek visit to New Zealand arranged by the New Zealand Anglican Board of Missions. Compulsive problems followed closely the affluent society, said Mr Boas. Although many clergy were becoming more knowledgeable in this field and were being trained in how to deal with the problems. the layman was lagging. Alcoholism was affecting the social drinking of many laymen, he said. They were not aware of it in the early stages and because of this they were inclined to sweep it under the carpet. In the United States there were also several groups of

Over-Eaters Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous. These problems were not confined only to the United States. “Innocent raffiings are the beginnings of compulsive gambling,” said Mr Boas. Mr Boas said that one of the main reasons for his visit to New Zealand was to see the life of the church and to become involved in dialogue with the church on the search for a deeper meaning of the world "mission". “I am beginning to realise that people are ready to acknowledge the change of role of who is a missionary and who isn’t," he said. “People who are struggling to bring their family to God or people who are trying to broach the difference between pakeha and Maori may all be called missionaries," said Mr Boas.

The old image of a mission-

ary as a person who went overseas to give aid would die hard, he said. Mr Boas, who was ordained in the Diocese of Rupertsland, Canada, in 1935, served in the church in Western Canada for more than 20 years. From 1944 to 1954, he was skipperchaplain on a medical mission boat on the Columbia Coast, working among loggers, fishermen and a few Canadian Indians. In 1955 he went to Los Angeles where he trained for pastoral clinic work and was headmaster of a church school before moving into a busy Los Angeles parish. At present he is in Fiji on loan from the Diocese of Los Angeles for three years. In Fiji he is working in a large parish with a predominantly Indian congregation, including two primary schools with 800 children.