THE CHRISTIAN WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26245, 31 August 1946, Page 2

THE CHRISTIAN WORLD

NEWS OF THE CHURCHES By Oikumene “ I am quite sure the Almighty in tended us to be happy,” said the Bishop of Wellington when replying to farewell speeches addressed to him at the annual meeting of the National Council of Churches in Wellington. Representatives of several churches eulogised the bishop’s friendliness, co-operation, and the inspiring, enthusiastic leadership he had brought to interchurch activities. The bishop said that when he came here from England he did not bring any special ideology with him—he simply brought himself, and it was natural for him to seek fellowship and co-operation with all others engaged in Christian work. Bishop Holland concluded that there was great satisfaction in seeing many dreams of six years ago now accomplished facts. The National Council was now an established agency of Christian co-operation recognised by the Government and leaders in the community—and still in its infancy. Pacific Missions That New Zealand should contribute increasingly to the life of the Southwest Pacific area is recognised in Church circles as elsewhere. Plans for co-operation by those engaged in missionary work in the Islands are now well advanced. Increased Government activities and the compara-. tive isolation of the mission stations are given as reasons why conferences are being planned- Eleven commissions are now at work reporting on different aspects of life in the Pacific. A preliminary gathering of missionary leaders is to be held at Suva next year. These will report to a conference of mission boards in Sydney in February, 1948, when a full-scale South Pacific Conference will be planned to be held in Suva. This in turn will report to the world missionary conference to be held in Europe in 1950. The Church’s Opportunity

Reporting to the Presbyterian Outlook, the Rev. Tulloch Yuille, formerly of Knox Church, Dunedin, describes the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. “The assembly has just closed, and the general impression left on my mind is that the Church of Scotland feels very keenly that this is a day of real difficulty, but also that this is not a time for depression. God is still the sovereign God. Now, that does not mean that the assembly was just whistling to keep up its courage in the dark. It was a very grave and earnest assembly that was as conscious of God as it was of the difficulties. ... It is quite plain that the disorder of to-day has seemed to nations and classes and interests a great opportunity for kicking one another. But to the Church disorder does seem to mean opportunity lor something better than that; a disordered society seems always to anord an opportunity for a better society. And so the call that rang through all the assembly was the call for better women and men, more unselfish, more consecrated. It was a call for evangelism.” Mr Yuille adds that a committee is busy interviewing ministers who wish to serve in New Zealand.

“Reunion Will Come” The Right Rev. William T. Manning, Bishop of New York, now 80 years old, has announced that he will retire this year. In his last official address to the convention of his diocese he spoke on a theme close to his heart—the reunion of Christendom. He described the Protestant Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church from which sprang as a bridge between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. H declared that the reunion of the Churcn win come and that there are to-day S? J® SS b doSr the East USEVK ferent churches, are srudyuig each other’s positions in a new spirit of sym pathy and with the desire to see whatever 7 truth each position represents. Lisbon Manning called attention to the wav Fn which the World Council of Churches is drawing the Orthodox and Protestant Churches tog ®^ r *°!. U pg. oneration and common action on ques tions affecting moral and social “jj ditions and in projects for human welfare and post-war rehabilitation. News in Brief Four hundred servicemen of all ranks from private to major have applied as candidates for the ministry °f the Church of Scotland. . . . The Workers’ Educational Association, which is the largest association for adult education in Britain, has announced plans for a new headquarters building in London, to be known as Temple House, in memory of the late Dr William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was president of the association from 1908 to 1924 . . . The Protestant Churches of Poland are at the present time enjoying complete religious liberty as far as the central Government is concerned. The Methodist chapel in Warsaw has been re-dedicated at a service attended by representatives of the World Council of Churches and most of the Churches of Poland. . . . The Slovak Evangelical Church in Czechoslovakia has joined the World Council of Churches. This Lutheran Church of 400,000 members has suffered much during the war as a result of its witness against un-Christian ideology and practices. Many of its pastors have been in prison. Bishop Osusky writes: "After the suffering of the past years our Church is now more united than ever.”