Canadians Join in Publishing Far and Near
Diocesan Press Service. October 10, 1965 [XXXVI-14]
"Far and Near," a bi-monthly devotional guide with emphasis on the mission of the Church, will merge with "Our Response to God," a similar publication of the Anglican Church of Canada, beginning January 1966. A joint Advisory and Editorial Committee, with equal representation from both churches, will produce the new booklet.
The name, appearance, and general content of the publication will be that of "Far and Near," consisting of a page of commentary on a bible passage coupled with a page of information about an Anglican diocese for each day of the calendar year. The reader of the book is asked to offer his prayers for the work of the diocese described.
Every diocese in the world-wide Anglican Communion will be mentioned once each year. The prayers in the book will follow the Anglican cycle of prayer.
The joint profit is a response to the document "Mutual Responsibility and Interdependence in the Body of Christ," adopted in 1963 by the Anglican Congress, a meeting of those churches which trace their ancestry to the Church of England and share its traditions and beliefs, MRI, as the statement is known, states in part that "every church needs to develop swiftly every possible channel of communication with its companions in the Anglican Communion."
"Far and Near" has been published for the last 20 months by Forward Movement Publications under the auspices of the Mutual Responsibility Commission of the Episcopal Church. The booklet was originally edited by the Rev. Massey H. Shepherd, Jr., beginning in 1963, as "Make His Name Glorious" and published by the Department of World Mission and Evangelism of the Diocese of California.
Arrangements have also been made with the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge for the distribution of the book in Great Britain.