Presiding Bishop Hines Announces Appeal for Nigeria-Biafra Relief
Diocesan Press Service. September 9, 1968 [69-1]
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- A special nationwide appeal for Nigeria-Biafra relief has been announced by the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, to be held in Episcopal churches during the period of October 1 to October 8.
The goal of the appeal, Bishop Hines' statement said, will be $200, 000 to provide a "fair share" from the Episcopal Church in participating with the World Council of Churches in its drive for $2,000, 000 to aid the victims of war and starvation in West Africa.
In the Biafra area alone it is estimated that 6, 000 children are starving to death each day.
The special appeal within the Episcopal Church was agreed upon by the Bishops of the American Church while meeting in London in August during the Lambeth Conference and is in conformance with action taken by the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches at Uppsala, Sweden, in July, which called for increased relief assistance, the establishment of an airlift and the development of "mercy corridors" for the delivery by air of food, clothing and medical supplies.
The American appeal also is designed to carry out a resolution of the Lambeth Conference approved in mid-August which called for a massive inter-governmental relief operation to aid the victims of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war and for support by Christians of the work of the World Council of Churches and other voluntary agencies in meeting immediate and long-term needs of the embattled area and its people.
The funds from the Episcopal Church and other churches will be administered by the World Council's Division of Inter-Church Aid, Refugee and World Service, which is cooperating with Caritas Internationalis and the International Committee of the Red Cross in moving supplies to the needy areas.
Bishop Hines said the special appeal by the Episcopal Church is intended to provide for the purchase and shipment of food and medicines as well as for the expenses of medical-nursing teams. The first such team consisting of seven members already has been sent to West Africa.
Church World Service, an agency of the National Council of Churches, also recently airlifted shipments of high-protein food, dried eggs, dry milk and medicines for Biafra from New York by way of several trans-shipment points from where they were flown by night-flight to Biafra.
In a letter to the Bishops of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Hines said:
"We need the kind of response that will enable this Church to provide its fair share of the $3, 000, 000 World Council of Churches appeal for aiding Nigeria/Biafra victims of war and starvation. By a united effort across the Church we should be able to achieve a minimum goal of $200, 000 for Nigeria/Biafra."