Synod passes motion on sporting links

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33254, 18 June 1973, Page 12

Synod passes motion on sporting links

(From Our Own Reporter)

NELSON, June 16.

The controversy over the cancellation of the Springbok Rugby tour of New Zealand hared briefly at the Nelson Diocesan Synod of the Anglican Church yesterday when the synod debated a two-part motion on “racial and immoral discrimination.”

The motion, by Mr E. L. Krammer (also an executive member of the Nelson Bays Rugby Union) was that the synod endorses the decision of the 1972 synod which deplored racial and other immoral discrimination wherever practised in the world. The second part concerned

the maintenance of sporting links with countries of different political and racial backgrounds, thereby “assisting in the fulfilment of our Christian responsibility by providing the meeting ground for the ministry of reconciliation.”

Both parts were carried by overwhelming majorities.

Until April 10, New Zealand was one of the few countries in the world which had the privilege of nonpolitical interference in sport, said Mr Krammer. “The Anglican Church was one of those who pressured the New Zealand Government into making the decision it did,” he said. Archdeacon P. M. Keith said that there was a Christian responsibility to meet and associate with people of divergent views to bring about change and ultimate reconciliation. This, he said, was better than forms of discrimination and ostracism. The Rev. P. Axcell, opposing the motions, said that often there came a time in some circumstances where a common meeting ground could not be found. “Then you have to find another way,” he said.