Church-University Relationship

Press, Volume C, Issue 29499, 28 April 1961, Page 10

Church-University Relationship

With the purpose at “taking stock” of the present relationship between the ehurches and the University in New Zealand, and of discussing a number of related questions, the National Council of Churches yesterday a consultation meeting in Christchurch. Organised at the request of an informal group of church leaden which met'in WelUngton in November ot last year, the meeting was attended by nearly 30 representatives of more than a dozen Protestant denominations and church organisel- - from throughout the Dominion. The Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt. Rev. A. K. Warren) was chairman. Four matters of particular importance discussed were the need for the establishment and maintenance of university! chaplaincies on an ecumenical basis; the encouragement of university authorities to provide courses in Biblical studies as part of an arts degree; the need for halls of residence (not hostels) in university centres; and the relationship of the existing religious societies within the universities to the fulfilling of the church’s pastoral responsibilities. Magazine Article Introducing the scheme in a recent editorial in the monthly magazine of the National Council of Churches in New Zealand, the Rev. A. A. Brash, secretary of the council, said the church had a “real responsibility to minister to students as they passed through all the challenges and tensions of the years in which they qualified to become leaders in many fields of life. “It is a period when some, who have no faith, are thinking deeply and are ready to consider the meaning of the Christian faith as never before in their lives.”

There was no place in the community where a Christian witness needed to be more alert and continuous than In the university, he said. The churches in New Zealand had thus planned this consultation meeting to “take stock of their witness to and

through the students,’* Mr Brash said. Christchurch representatives taking part in five meeting included the following:—The Dean df. Christchurch (the Very HfevJ Martin Sullivan) (Anglican i Church). the Rev. , S -M' W. Wilson (Rre«byt«:iimi Church), the Rev. Roland I Hart (Baptists Church). TStl H. F. Gross and the Rev.jMJ O’Grady . (Chus&les 0»f Christ), Brigadi* L. ’Mlllar (Salvation Mrs - M. «»9* : e iwomson (SGcicTy . ■ Friends), Messrs 16 A. MaeDiarmid and> Gavin YMcs (Anglican and the Rev. R, *M? Hodder (Congregational XHurch). » Other chtlsch dtaips bftiiganisatdens repsteesited included the Method# ehuttSh. the Student ChriatStn Movement and the Irftsr-Univtifs-ity Fellowship, and notable guests included the Bishop of Dunedin (the Rt.. Rev. A. H. Johnston). The meeting will be held throughout the day at the Durham Street Methodist .Church.