India, Pakistan, Ceylon Projects Listed
Diocesan Press Service. September 7, 1964 [XXIV-6]
The Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon has taken a further step in the implementation of mutual responsibility within the Anglican Communion in its directory of projects which has recently been forwarded to all branches of the Communion by the Anglican Executive Officer.
This directory of 130 projects can claim two "firsts." It is the first directory prepared by a regional officer, Bishop Sadiq of Nagpur. As proposed at the Anglican Congress of 1963 in Toronto, these regional officers would help further communication, cooperative planning, etc. among the branches of Anglicanism.
In a letter sent with the Directory, Bishop Bayne, Anglican Executive Officer, states that "it is also the first Directory to include projects from other-than-Anglican- dioceses -- in this case those of the Church of South India. Any other course would have been out of the question in India, surely, here the ties are so strong between the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon and the Church of South India, and where the currents of ecumenical life flow so steadily."
The projects listed represent the needs of the 14 dioceses in India and Ceylon and of the single diocese (Dacca) in East Pakistan. The other dioceses of the CIPBC, Karachi and Lahore in West Pakistan, and Rangoon, are considered in other regional directories.
Out of these 130 projects, which include requests for church buildings, schools, hospitals, clergy and lay training centers, more workers and funds for their support, eight have been designated as "immediate and urgent" priorities by the Missionary Planning Committee of the CIPBC. These eight projects represent various areas of the church's program: a school, hostel and hospital to minister to the isolated tribal people of the Bhil country north of Bombay and a similar project among the tribal people at Ahiri in the Chandur District, where there has been a large influx of refugees from East Pakistan. Also designated "top priority" are the renovating or building of several schools and the expansion of their existing programs; an eye clinic in the Kulu Valley, where eye diseases are particularly prevalent; and the construction of a maternity wing at St. Luke's Hospital, Chabu on the North-East border of India near the Brahmaputra River.
Of particular interest to Episcopalians are several requests for buildings and staff in Durgapur, the center of one of the largest industrial projects in India. The church in this newly developed urban area will be aided by money from the 1964 Church School Missionary Offering, which will be divided between this overseas metropolitan area and like areas in our own country.