Church Representatives Report on South Africa
Diocesan Press Service. June 23, 1971 [94-5]
New York, N.Y. -- Two prominent Episcopalians, who just returned from a 10-day trip to South Africa, have submitted their reports to the Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop, who said the reports were "very revealing, informative, discouraging and heartening."
The Rt. Rev. William Creighton, Bishop of Washington (D.C.), and Judge William Booth of New York, described their impressions of the "de-humanizing and de-moralizing" system of apartheid (racial separation) which they observed.
The two men went to South Africa on behalf of Bishop Hines in order to audit the trial of the Rev. Gonville A. ffrench-Beytagh, the Anglican dean of Johannesburg.
The dean, who is an ardent foe of apartheid, was arrested in January and was accused of subversion under the anti-Communist law but no indictment has been brought. He was due to be tried on May 29 but the court proceedings against him were postponed for a third time. The prosecuting attorney said the indictment should be handed down by June 30 with the trial probably held in August.
Bishop Creighton said of his mission:
"We believe that the Dean felt that our visit was helpful not only in personal support and as an expression of the concern of the American Church, but in bringing some influence to bear on the case against him. The prosecution now knows that it is being carefully watched and that the case will be reported abroad in the free world and by other jurists."
Judge Booth said:
"The poverty of fifteen or more million black Africans, enforced by four million white Africans and by the law is hard to visualize from afar. Seeing it in person gives one a dimension that makes it more vivid. Living it, daily, however, must make one wonder how long such a society can endure without an eruption."
Bishop Creighton and Judge Booth were accompanied by the Very Rev. Francis Sayre, dean of the Washington Cathedral, who was commissioned by the Anglican Deans of the United States and Canada to attend the proceedings.
Distribution: Bishops, Executive Council, Diocesan Press, Religious Press, Secular Press
Copies of the Presiding Bishop's letter and the reports by Bishop Creighton and Judge Booth are available upon request.