Mutual Responsibility Document Received; Committee to be Named
Diocesan Press Service. January 7, 1964 [XVII-1]
The document on "Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ" moved a step closer to implementation in the United States when it was enthusiastically received by the National Council at its December meeting at Seabury House.
Earlier, the document met with similar acclaim at the annual meeting of the House of Bishops in Little Rock, Ark.
At the same time, the 32 Council members requested that a special committee be appointed by Presiding Bishop Lichtenberger to work out specific measures for implementation of the document within the American Church. These details will go before General Convention for final action when it meets in October, 1964, in St. Louis, Mo.
The Council also urged all staff officers to examine their programs and work in light of the document's call for "a radical reappraisal" in the work and witness of the Anglican Communion's 18 national churches.
In making these recommendations to the Council, the Rt. Rev. Thomas H. Wright, Bishop of East Carolina, stated that "the only way to present the mutual responsibility document to General Convention is to abolish the quota system and ask each diocese and missionary district to measure up to the high calling of mutual responsibility" by 1965.
Bishop Wright, who headed a special National Council committee on implementation of the document during the Council meeting, added that the document calls for "adventurous giving."
In keeping with this new missionary understanding--a partnership of equals--the National Council approved in principle a proposal that the Episcopal Church in Brazil be given independence. Similar approval was given last month by the House of Bishops.
However, before the Brazilian Church can become the 19th national church in the Anglican Communion, its three bishops must work out a mutually satisfactory declaration of finances, organizational structure, evangelistic responsibility, and a partnership in world mission with its American counterpart.
The Brazilian church, with a membership of 31, 000 is divided into three missionary districts, Central Brazil, Southern Brazil, and Southwestern Brazil, Begun 75 years ago as an in- dependent national church, it became affiliated with the American church in 1907 because of needed financial support. For the past three years, its leaders have expressed the wish for and worked toward independence within the Anglican Communion.