World Council Group Meets
Diocesan Press Service. June 7, 1965 [XXXIII-6]
Limitations placed upon the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul, American - Red Chinese relations, and the growth of the ecumenical movement were among matters discussed at the annual meeting of the United States Conference for the World Council of Churches, April 28-30, Buck Hill Falls, Pa.
Representatives of the 30 member churches requested the United States government to inform the Turkish government that any limitations placed upon the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate constitutes a violation of religious liberties. The resolution also stated that threats to expel the Ecumenical Patriarchate are "an entirely inappropriate response to whatever provocations derive from the political and ethnic tensions with Cyprus and Greece."
Diplomatic and economic recognition of Red China was urged by Dr. John Fairbanks, director of the East Asian Research Center, Harvard University, and Dr. John C. Bennett, president of Union Theological Seminary, New York, both of whom addressed the meeting.
Dr. Fairbanks pointed out that a move such as admitting Red China to the U. N. would likely improve the American image in many quarters and might influence Peking in the direction we want; Dr. Bennett, discussing the issue on a theological level, reminded the meeting of a Christian's duty to always seek relations leading to reconciliation.
A third major address was made by Dr. Eugene L. Smith, secretary in the U. S. of the WCC, in which he outlined the growth of the Ecumenical movement. He noted such work by the WCC as resettlement of refugees, emergency disaster aid, and the Theological Education Fund. He also pointed out that now every major autocephalous national Orthodox Church except one is a member of the WCC and that conversations with Roman Catholics were taking place "in many countries on many levels." Growth can also be seen by the fact that in 1948, at its founding, the WCC had 136 member communions. Today it has 209.