Anglican Church

New Landmark

For New Guinea

From a Port Moresby correspondent The first diocesan conference of the Anglican Church in Papua-New Guinea was being held at Dogura, Papua, at the end of August. It was expected to last a fortnight.

THE conference coincides with the 25th anniversary of the deaths of Anglican martyrs at the hands of the Japanese in Papua and a special service will be held during the pro ceedings to mark the event.

The conference has been set up by the new diocesan interim con stitution, which was approved by general synod of the Anglican Church in Sydney last year and which came into force in the territory at the beginning of this year.

It represents an important step forward in the progress of the church in the territory.

Until now, though he has made a habit of extensive consultations, the Bishop of New Guinea, the Rt. Rev.

David Hand, has been solely respon sible for what goes on in his diocese.

Under the new constitution and at the Diocesan conference, clergy and laity will have a much bigger hand in planning and decisions. It is ex pected that the New Guinea delegates in particular will be vocal about what they want the Church to do and how it is to develop.

Church in politics

Since this is an interim constitu tion, the Bishop still has the last word, and is still ultimately respon sible for what happens and in theory at any rate could veto any decision made by the conference. But this is not seen as likely.

With a general election due next year, one of the most important subjects at the conference is sure to be the Church’s role in politics as well as in economic development, social welfare, education and medical work.

Important discussions will also be held on the Church’s attitude to various native customs.

If this and the next few con ferences function smoothly it is pos sible that Church authorities could produce proposals for a permanent and even more democratic constitu tion as early as 1970, for approval by general synod then.