Presiding Bishop Reports on World Council Meeting
Diocesan Press Service. December 16, 1975 [75446]
GREENWICH, Conn. -- Addressing the Executive Council immediately following his return from the Fifth Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Nairobi, Kenya, the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, said that he found himself "thanking God for His Church, so varied in membership and expressions, yet seeking to serve one Lord."
Bishop Allin, who headed the Episcopal Church's delegation to the WCC meeting, told the 41-member Executive Council at its December 16-18 session here, that he had "gained a new appreciation for this country (the United States) and its potential." He added that he thanked "God for the opportunity to repent as well as to give thanks. "
"Let me simply say here," he said, "that any doubts I may have had about the necessity for a World Council of Churches were removed as I shared in the course of that Assembly."
Bishop Allin also reported to the Council on his meeting with the primates of the member-churches of the Anglican Communion in Nairobi just prior to the WCC Assembly, and weekend trips during his stay in Africa, to Kampala, Uganda, and to Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. He also related that he had called on the Orthodox Archbishop, Seraphim, of Athens, and made an official call on the Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios in Istanbul.
Bishop Allin observed to the Council that "the meaning of Christian community in this world or the next is finding our life and meaning together in the one God through Jesus Christ. Where we are at odds with one another let us pray and work to be even with one another -- Council, staff, Presiding Bishop and other members of this Church, and with the other folds in His Church."
[To access the full text of Bishop Allin's address, please contact the Archives. --Ed.]