N.C.C. SECRETARY TO GO TO GENEVA

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30958, 14 January 1966, Page 1

N.C.C. SECRETARY TO GO TO GENEVA

The Rev. David M. Taylor, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in New Zealand, will leave Christchurch next Wednesday to attend a meeting of the central committee of the World Council of Churches to be held in Geneva from February Bto February 17. He will be the sole representative of the churches in New Zealand.

In London Mr Taylor will have discussions with staff members of the British Council of Churches, including the Rev. Paul Oestreicher, who was educated in New Zealand and is now secretary of the international affairs department of the British Council. For one night Mr Taylor will be the guest of the Rev. Bernard Leeming . S.J., at Heythrop College/xlxford. This Jesuit college has long been a centre of ecumenical thinking.

In Paris Mr Taylor will visit his sister, Mrs G. H.

Mirams, who has lived there since her husband was appointed. to the staff of U.N.E.S.C.O. after being Film Censer in New Zealand for 10 years. The central committee of the World Council of Churches, which meets only once a year, held its last meeting in Enugu, Nigeria, and will be attended by about 100 delegates and 100 others from all parts of the world. Immediately after the meeting Mr Taylor will attend a meeting also in Geneva of secretaries of national councils of churches. From Geneva Mr Taylor I will go to Athens, where he

will meet the Greek Orthodox Archbishop. This it i; thought will be the first such visit paid by a representative of the churches in New Zealand

Mr Taylor will visit Bangkok and Djakarata to have discussions with the Church of Christ in Thailatr’ on interchurch aid projects and with the Indonesian Council of Churches. He is due back in Christchurch on March 4. The Rec. R. M. O’Grady, the assistant secretary, will act as general secretary of the National Council of Churches while Mr Taylor is overseas.