Churches’ Decision To Help Anti-Racist Groups Slated

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32395, 7 September 1970, Page 13

Churches’ Decision To Help Anti-Racist Groups Slated

(N.Z.P.A.-Rcuter—Copyright)

LONDON, September 6.

Many church-goers, when they dropped their accustomed coin into the collection plate, would not be happy to know that a portion of their offering was destined for the support of terrorist movements in Africa, the “Sunday Telegraph” said today.

The newspaper was commenting in an editorial headed, “Holy Terror,” on the recent decision of the executive committee of the World Council of Churches to grant some £BO,OOO to anti-racist organisations.

The “Sunday Telegraph” said that it was true the grants were not supposed to be used for military purposes, but the council would have no control over the way the money was spent. “The World Council of Churches is curiously selec-

tive in its solicitude. It raises no money for the struggle against communism,” the newspaper said. “True Role” “The truth is that, like the United Nations, it lost its true role when it was swamped by its Third World Members. “All the Churches in South Africa, including those that are in the thick of the real battle against apartheid, have condemned the council’s folly. “Here in England we are entitled to ask where the Archbishop of Canterbury stands,” the “Sunday Telegraph” declared. A storm of shocked protest

blew up among South African political and Church leaders and in the newspapers on Friday at the World Council of Churches’ decision. Government members. Church leaders and the leader of the multi-racial programme Progressive Party all lashed out at the council's decision. Vorster’s View The Prime Minister (Mr John Vorster) said; “It cannot be tolerated that money contributed and collected in South Africa should be sent out of the country for this purpose.” The Progressive Party leader (Dr Jan Steytler) said: “There can be no justification for a Church body giving financial support to groups committed to achieve a political objective through terrorism and violence.”

A statement issued by the South African Council of Churches after a meeting in Johannesburg on Friday said: “If press statements are accurate, the South African Council of Churches dissociates itself from the standpoint expressed, but this does not necessarily imply withdrawal of association with the world body.” The statement said that the South African Council “makes it clear that it rejects the use of violence as a Christian solution to the racial problems of southern Africa.”

In London, anti-racist groups planned to spend grants received from the council on promotional and educational campaigns. Posters And Leaflets Britain’s anti-apartheid movement said that its grant

would be ploughed into general educational work, including the publication of posters and leaflets. A spokesman said that some of the money would go to boosting its campaign against resumption of arms sales to South Africa.

Meanwhile, in Geneva, a spokesman for the W.C.C. said that criticism by South African Church leaders would not deter the body from its decision to give money to antiracist groups. “It is a clear-cut policy decision and there will be no going back on it, even if South African Churches leave the world council,” the spokesman said. The spokesman said that the decision to contribute funds to fight racism was agreed in general terms in August last year in Canterbury, England, and the South African Church leaders knew of it then.

The spokesman said that three South African Churches withdrew from the W.C.C. in March, 1962, in protest against the findings of a W.C.C. consultation on race relations which criticised the apartheid policies of the South African Government. He drew attention to a speech in Durban last month by Dr Eugene Carson Blake, Secretary-General of the W.C.C.

Dr Blake said: “Neither I, nor the World Council of Churches, will compromise on the clear position of the council on race in order to make it easier or more comfortable for the South African churches to be members of the ecumenical fellowship.” A W.C.C. spokesman said a grant of SNZ9OOO had been given to the Federal Council for Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia for legal action to support Aboriginal land rights. Salisbury Reaction

In Salisbury, Rhodesian Anglican Church leaders condemned the decision to give money to anti-racist bodies. The Bishop of Mashona- ’ land (the Right Rev. Paul Burrough), and Archdeacon Humphrey Pugh, of Matabeleland, issued a joint statement in which they said the deci- 1 t on was incompatible with the Gospel preached by members of the World Council.