World Church-In Brief
Diocesan Press Service. June 6, 1966 [44-7]
Presiding Bishop Hines will succeed Dr. Eugene Carson Blake as chairman of the World Council of Churches' Division of Inter-Church Aid, Refugee, and World Service. Dr. Blake retired from the chairmanship following his election as general secretary of the WCC.
The Assistant Bishop of Zanzibar, the Rt. Rev. Robert Neil Russell has had to leave Zanzibar on the orders of the civil authorities. No reasons for the government order were given; although the Bishop and Zanzibar officials have had differences over a new Law governing marriages between Christians and Moslems and other matters.
Dr. Burton W. Marvin of Lawrence, Kansas, has been named associate general secretary for communications of the National Council of Churches effective May 23. Dr. Marvin succeeds the Rev. Dr. Samuel D. Proctor, now special assistant to Director Sargent Shriver of the U. S. Office of Economic Opportunity.
Methodist clergymen learned that the United States is one of the few nations which have failed to ratify any of the post-war human rights covenants during a special seminar in New York and Washington, D. C. While in Washington, the group addressed a letter to the President and other administrative leaders expressing their concern over such inaction.
A permanent link between the NCCC and the Roman Catholic Bishops' Commission on Ecumenical Affairs has been established with the naming of members to the 36-member Working Group. Chairmen will be the Most Rev. John H. Carberry of Columbus, Ohio, chairman of the Bishops' Commission, and the Rev. Dr. John Coventry Smith, general secretary of the Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations of the United Presbyterian Church, USA.
At the 1967 Montreal World's Fair Canada's Roman Catholic, Anglican, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox church bodies will construct together a single Christian pavilion. This is the first time that such a joint pavilion has been attempted at an international exposition.
The Central Committee of the World Association of Christian Broadcasters has agreed to terms of a merger with the Co-ordinating Committee for Christian Broadcasting. The World Association includes representatives of a number of public broadcasting corporations and independent broadcasting organs as well as church bodies in many countries, while the Co-ordinating Committee includes only church-related agencies.
The Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches held its third meeting at Bossey, Switzerland, May 13-16. The group gave primary attention to the draft of a document on "The Nature of Dialogue", which is to be issued this fall as a paper for study and comment. There are 14 members of the group: eight representing the WCC and six representing the Roman Catholic Church.
Terrence I. O'Brien of York, Pa., is resigning June 30 as national general secretary and assistant treasurer of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew in the United States. He has held this post for four years. For the previous eight years, he had served as editor of the national publication, St. Andrew's Cross.
The Church in Wales has recently published a revised order of service for the Holy Communion. The main suggested changes are: a Service of Preparation on the evening before; the introduction of a reading from the Old Testament; the sermon to be delivered after the Gospel, not after the Creed; the Intercession for Church and World to precede the Offertory; and some re-wording of the Prayer of Consecration. This revision is to come before the church's governing body in September to be authorized for experimental use in parishes.