A closer Church predicted

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33514, 20 April 1974, Page 16

A closer Church predicted

An eminent United States Anglican theologian and scholar, Rev. Dr M. H. Shepherd, predicted in Christchurch yesterday that the Church would probably become smaller in numbers and more committed in nature.

He has been in New Zealand for two months and is spending a few days in Christchurch. He came pri-

marily to deliver the 1974 Selwyn lectures in Auckland. Dr Shepherd said that it was hard to know which direction the church might take.

“There might be a massive reaction against the materilism that technology has brought us. Possibly the majority might become more and more' secularised,” Dr Shepherd said. He said he could not see a single structure called a world church, but would predict increasing co-operation

between denominations, some mergers, and churches retaining their distinctive structures while working alongside one another. ‘RE-EVALUATION’

“The Church is undergoing a great deal of self-criticism, re-evaluation and change,” Dr Shepherd said. “There is a great ferment to rearrange Church structures. 1 ’ Whatever the Church of the future would be, it would not be tied to a political establishment. There would be no special privileges from the State, and no privileged positions in society. Dr ■ Shepherd has had a life-long interest in ecumenism. and has sat in on thS third session of Vatican 11, and he believes that Roman Catholics and Anglicans will be practising official inter-communion within 25 years. He believes they will be exchanging clergy, and no longer fighting over mission fields and prospective converts.

The religious exclusivism that characterised the Roman Catholic Church before Vatican II had largely disappeared, he said. “Since Vatican If the Roman Catholic Church has openly admitted that features of the true Church exist in other bodies, too,” Dr Shepherd said. For this reason the Anglican entry into union would not jeopardise Anglican hopes of increased cooperation between the two denominations, he said.

The plan for union had protected those features of life and doctrine that were most in accord with Roman Catholic interests. ‘BROADER BASIS’

“Roman Catholics will only be negotiating for union on a broader basis than simnly with the Anglican Church,” Dr Shepherd said. He could not agree with

opponents of Church union in New Zealand whose argument was that Anglican entry unto union would destroy negotiations for increased understanding between the two denominations, he said.