National Council Report
Diocesan Press Service. November 2, 1964 [XXVI-20]
Asserting that "wherever human beings are in trouble or need - there the Church has a mission," the National Council (that was the name then) outlined its work during the past three years and set forth its aims for the next triennium.
"We are involved in work with human beings in all the aspects of their lives: in marriage and family life; in the well-being of youth and the aging; in their education and their vocations. We continue our witness and ministry through Church- sponsored social services; through chaplaincies and pastoral counseling; through the rehabilitation of prisoners and of alcoholics."
These continuing goals were pledged in a report to 500 Episcopal Church Women, almost 200 bishops and more than 700 deputies, which met in joint session.
Stating that "old ideas will no longer do. . . rigid lines of responsibility must be crossed if we are to respond effectively and now to the need of the world, the administrative and program arm of General Convention, the Church's governing body, pledged itself to implementing the concept of "mutual responsibility and interdependence in the body of Christ, " a document that stems from the 1963 Anglican Congress. The "mutual responsibility" document sounds a trumpet-call to each of the Anglican Communion's 18 national churches and urges the development of a new missionary strategy that would cross national church boundaries.
The National Council also reasserted its concern for these areas of mission to the world: race, poverty, church-state relations, international affairs, ecumenicity, and urban ministry.