World Church-In Brief
Diocesan Press Service. February 6, 1968 [62-9]
The Archbishop of Canterbury dismissed as unsatisfactory any relation short of complete organic union between the Church of England and the Methodist Church while speaking at the Hinde Street Methodist Church in London during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Four reasons were given by Dr. Ramsey as to "why we are not content with separate churches in communion with one another."
First, "we believe in the unity we already share in virtue of our common baptism and our common allegiance to Christ as Lord," he said.
Second,"there is in this country an urgent practical need to recover the New Testament principle of the one ecclesia of 'all in one place.' It cannot be right to bring into new areas of population a Christian mission divided into denominational structures often competing in their activities ."
Third, "it is theologically unsound to create in the same locality parallel denominational episcopates."
Finally, while Methodists and other Free Churchmen are not willing to accept the episcopate as a condition for freedom of communion, they have, according to the Archbishop, "shewn their readiness to consider taking the episcopate as part of the structure of common church life if there can come about a united church in which treasures given to all of us by God in our several histories can be shared together."
Maurice Cardinal Roy, president of the Pontifical Commission Justice and Peace, and Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, WCC general secretary, announced on January 27 the appointment of a Roman Catholic priest, Father George H. Dunne, S. J., as the secretary of the WCC/RCC Exploratory Committee on Society, Development and Peace. Dr. Dunne, assistant to the president of Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. (USA) since 1961, will have responsibility, during his six month appointment, for the Conference on World Co-operation for Economic Development, which will be ecumenically sponsored April 21-27, 1968, in Beirut, Lebanon.
The Rt. Rev. J. Stuart Wetmore, Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, preached at the final service of the Christian Unity Octave at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Thursday, January 25, at 4:45 p. m. The service marked the first appearance of an Episcopal bishop in the pulpit of St. Patrick's.
Bishop Wetmore said he had been invited to St. Patrick's through his activities in the newly developed Association for Christian Mission in the City of New York and the proposed Council of Churches in the City of New York.
Seventeen priests and ministers of the Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, and Congregational churches met at a resort motel recently for a one-day retreat planned by the minister-priest fellowship recently formed in Guadalajara with the encouragement of Archbishop Cardinal Garibi Rivera.
World Day of Prayer will be held March 1. This year's theme is "Bear One Another's Burdens."
The documents which will form the heart of discussions at the Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Uppsala, Sweden next July have been printed in booklet form in three languages and are being distributed to member churches and their delegates to Uppsala, as well as to national councils of churches.
Not only official delegates but those who cannot go to the Assembly are encouraged to study the preparatory documents and communicate any major suggestions to those who will represent their church.
What is expected to be the year's most important policy-making meeting of the National Council of Churches will be held in San Diego, California, February 20-22, when the General Board convenes for mid-winter business sessions.
In unusual day and night sessions, official representatives of the 34 member denominations in the Council will weigh such matters of concern to the churches as: the crisis in the nation's cities, world peace and major issues confronting American Christians in this national election year.
To emphasize the tremendous importance of the stable home in this period of social unrest, churchmen and women throughout the nation will lead in the celebration of Family Week to be observed May 5-12. Religious groups of all faiths will join with family-helping agencies and other bodies in holding community-wide observances across the country. In many towns public mass meetings will present experts on family life in order to help build families strong enough to adapt to the pressures of our time. In other places church-wide forums or special meetings Will deal with ways of strengthening and enriching family life.
Overseas
Albania has officially abrogated all laws dealing with church-state relations in that country.
The action is apparently aimed at delivering the coup de grace to formal religious institutions in Albania. Since churches and religious bodies no longer exist, laws covering them are deemed unnecessary. Tirana Radio claimed last October that Albania had become "the first atheist state in the world. " The broadcast dealt with confiscation of church property by the state, ostensibly in the interest of the country's youth movement and its ideological purity.
The Rt. Rev. Joost de Blank, 59, the former Archbishop of Capetown who clashed repeatedly with the South African Government on its policy of apartheid, died, in London Jan. 1. Dr. de Blank had been a semi-convalescent since last July and suffered a second stroke before he died.
Five American Protestant missionaries were killed at Ban Me Thout, South Vietnam, during the acceleration of hostilities in late January.
The Christian and Missionary Alliance, in reporting the slaying of its missionaries, added that their mission facilities had been "totally obliterated." These facilities, which had been there for many years, included a leprosarium, a mission station and two churches.
The dead were listed as: The Rev. Robert Ziemer, 49, of Toledo, Ohio; the Rev. C. Edward Thompson, 43, and his wife, 44, of New Kensington, Pa.; Leon Griswold, 66, of White Plains, N. Y.; and Miss Ruth Wilting, 42, a nurse, of Cleveland.
Three other American staff members were seriously wounded. They were Miss Carolyn Griswold, 41, daughter of Mr. Griswold; Mrs. Ziemer,41; and Miss Betty Olsen, 33, a nurse from Nyack, N. Y.
Only the body of Mr. Ziemer was recovered. The rest were booby-trapped, the report said.
The report to the Alliance did not indicate whether the five were killed by the Vietcong or had perished in a conflict between Vietcong and Allied Forces.
The Right Rev. C. Edward Crowther, former Anglican Bishop of Kimberley & Kuruman, South Africa, appeared before the Special Committee on Apartheid of the United Nations on Friday, February 2, 1968, at 10:30 a.m.
Bishop Crowther, an American citizen, was deported from the Republic of South Africa on June 30, 1967. The only reason given by the South African government was that it was "in the public interest. "
The council of the recently established Anglican Center in Rome has decided that the provinces of the Anglican Communion should be invited to nominate and sponsor scholars to be associated with the Center for a period of study. The council met recently under the chairmanship of the Rt. Rev. R. S. Dean, Anglican Executive Officer.
Church World Service will send $1,000 to St. Vincent's Clinic in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to support a nurse and doctor this year. The medical team will work in the clinic's family planning program and will train interested Haitian doctors in family planning techniques. The CWS Planned Parenthood Program supplied the funds.
A December earthquake in Bombay, India prompted Church World Service to send $3, 000 in disaster funds to help buy immediate aid for the quake victims. CWS supplied 1 million pounds of food and medical assistance to victims in response to a $20, 000 appeal for immediate and rehabilitation aid by the World Council of Churches. Episcopalians aid the efforts of CWS through their contributions to the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief.
At Home
A ten-year decline in church attendance by Americans came to a halt last year, a Gallup survey indicated. In 1967, 45 percent of all adult Americans attended church during a typical week (about 51 million people). This was one percentage point higher than 1966. One factor which might have spurred the interest in church-going, the poll said, was concern over the Vietnam war.
Jose Limon will bring his world famous troupe of 22 modern dancers to Washington Cathedral for two different programs to be held Wednesday, Feb. 21, thru Saturday, Feb. 24th.
At 8:30 p. m. Wednesday and Friday, and at 4:30 p. m. Saturday, the troupe will perform: The Winged, accompanied by an electronic tape; The Exiles, danced to an Arnold Schoenberg symphony; and, Missa Brevis by Zoltan Kodaly. Thursday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. they will perform: The Traitor, with music by Gunther Schuller; Psalm, with music by Eugene Lester; and, There is a Time, with music by Norman Della Joio.
The Taos Indians' campaign for return of their sacred Blue Lake lands in northern New Mexico has gained impetus with the announcement of a national committee formed to support the Indians' effort. Three religious leaders -- two Protestant and One Roman Catholic -- are members of the new committee whose chairman is Mrs. Oliver La Farge of Santa Fe, widow of the distinguished writer and champion of Indian rights. They are: the Most Rev. James Peter Davis, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santa Fe; the Rev. Dean M. Kelley, New York, director for religious liberty of the National Council of Churches; and the Rev. E. Russell Carter, director of the NCC's special groups ministry who has long been associated with American Indian affairs and causes.