News Briefs
Diocesan Press Service. April 6, 1966 [42-9]
ANGLICAN CONSULTATIONS SET
The response of the Anglican Communion to the call for renewal issued by the 1963 Anglican Congress in Toronto, MRI, and the direction of future responses will be the subject of several conferences of a world-wide nature.
The first conference will be held in Jerusalem April 14-18 where the subject of directories and projects will be dealt with. The Rt. Rev. Ralph S. Dean, Anglican Executive Officer, whose office has the responsibility of incorporating projects into directories and circulating them to churches of the Anglican Communion, has stated that he hopes such a conference will go beyond the financial aspects of MRI and grapple "with the heart and substance of our Lord's mission to His world."
This conference will be followed by one on the training of missionaries - the form it should take, whether it should be at home or abroad, as well as consideration of the relation between specific missionary societies and the church overseas.
Problems of communications will come before the Lambeth Consultative Body when it meets in Jerusalem, April 25-29. Recommendations made at a conference of Anglican information officers in London a year ago and subsequently studied by a sub-committee in New York, will be discussed. Primates and Presiding Bishops together with some Archbishops of the Anglican Communion make up the LCB and deal with inter-Anglican affairs.
In reporting on his first year as Anglican Executive Officer, Bishop Dean stated that he has visited 14 of the Communion's 19 autonomous churches during 1965, traveled 120, 000 miles, and visited some 28 countries. In assessing the response of the Communion to MRI, Bishop Dean stated that response is in the region of one- twelfth of the total required. The Congress stated that $15,000,000 was needed over and above regular budgets during the five years following the Congress for emergency projects of churches in the world's developing countries. Bishop Dean also noted the need for careful planning of project directories, both as to priorities and to the ecumenical nature of projects.
340 STATIONS BOOK "WITNESS"
At least 340 radio stations throughout the country will present "The Witness", a series of 26 15-minute dramatic programs, beginning in mid-April. Additional bookings of the public affairs series are expected to raise the final total to a minimum of 400 outlets. Produced in Hollywood, and aired by more than 100 ABC Network stations during the latter half of 1965, "The Witness" was made available for syndication recently by the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church.
"The Witness" was conceived and produced with the objective of reaching an audience of mature, thoughtful people. In the entire series, which is non- denominational in content, there is no mention of God, Christianity or the Church. Nor is there any admonition to "go to church".