perhaps spirituality

Absent from the church: Money and perhaps spirituality

From SUSAN YOUNG in Port Moresby and BERYL CATES in Suva.

The second Diocesan Con ference of the New Guinea Ang lican Church, held in Lae at the end of June, was notable for strong words on just about every

thing.

Bishop David Hand himself set the ball rolling with a first-day pre sidential address, which described the official Australian pronounce ments on “the so-called act of free choice” in West Irian as “a disgrace”, and the Territory Land Titles and Affidavit Bills as “sailing very near the wind”, in the way that they ap peared to “contravene the basic principles of justice”.

Taking their lead from him, dele gates promptly tabled three West Irian motions. The first of these, drawn up and presented in its final form by native teachers, expressed the view that not enough people were going to vote in the act of free choice and urged the House of Assembly and Australian Parliament to ask the United Nations to start a new plan allowing all West Irianese adults to take part in “a true act of free choice”.

"An obligation"

Two hours and four interpreters later the resolution was through with only a handful of dissenters, who apparently felt that not enough was known about the true situation to warrant a motion of that sort.

The second motion declared that the presence in the territory of West Irianese refugees placed the churches under “a direct and immediate obligation to adopt measures neces sary for their spiritual and material welfare”. It called on the Melanesian Council of Churches to initiate action.

One of the most important con ference decisions was the cause of less fuss than almost anything else: the unanimous passing of the new diocesan constitution which if, as is expected, it is passed by the General Synod of the Australian Church in September, will make the church in New Guinea self-governing.

The chief result of administrative

autonomy for the church will be the right to choose its own bishop. It will also have the right to remain a member of a province of the Aus tralian church, or if it wishes, join in creating a new province—of the South Pacific for example.

The conference pivoted around two major themes, “Spiritual Renewal” and “Christian Stewardship”, or in other words, the right and full use of time, skills and money.

Indirectly, both themes prompted two fierce verbal blitzes which effect ively blew to bits the conference’s early air of calm deliberation and, later, its air of jaded weariness.

Just as the conference was about to start its first discussions on spiri tual renewal Father Theodore Woods was provoked by a passing question on another topic to launch into an impassioned speech of chilling beauty and power, accusing the church of failing to love and nourish its people spiritually.

"This miserable economy"

Father Dennis Browning was just as angry about something quite dif ferent. Moving a resolution for a plan to rectify the church’s parlous financial state, the ex-wartime Grenadier Guards chaplain gave delegates a ferocious bawling out for what he described as “this miserable economy of ours”.

These verbal fireworks undoubtedly stimulated delegates into deeper thought, greater effort, more search ing self-examination, and probably sent them home still thoughtful.

A more promising road chosen by conference was via the linked routes of spiritual renewal and stewardship in its fullest sense. Delegates found that the church’s educational and medical work, its evangelistic outreach, pastoral care, administrative and building programmes were all suffering severely, chiefly because stewardship was lacking—and that in turn suggested that spiritually some thing was wrong somewhere.

Not enough people, either locally or overseas, are responding to the church’s urgent need for qualified staff of all kinds. Not enough people, either locally or overseas, are giving anything like enough money to keep the church.

Remedial measures approved by conference include an all-out drive to make everyone’s Christian faith a more personal and vital force; stewardship campaigns all over the diocese to encourage people to give more of themselves and their pos sessions; administrative streamlin ing; and an Australia-wide appeal

to wipe out the P-NG church’s frightening debt.

Significantly, the conference re commendations laid emphasis on self support. Delegates seemed to sense that, with the continuing drop i*» overseas giving and manpower, the church in New Guinea can no longer rely on the overseas church to carry it.

As Bishop Hand said: “We must learn to grow up . . . this is the way we must go if we are not to be begging babies any more.”

Catholic conference

The 10 bishops and two bishop’s representatives who met in Suva in late June for the second meeting of the Roman Catholic episcopal con ference of the Pacific—known as CEPAC —made decisions which will affect the 263,000 Catholics through out the north and south Pacific.

The bishops represented all Islands territories, and were of many nation alities. Two were Pacific-born, the tall and imposing Archbishop of Papeete, the Most Rev. Michel Coppenrath, and the dynamic Apostolic Administrator of Agana, Guam, the Rt. Rev. Monsignor F.

Flores. Conference president was the American-born Archbishop of Suva, the Most Rev. G. H. Pearce, who before his enthronement in 1967 spent 18 years in Samoa.

Features of the important Suva meeting were informality and unity.

Most of the bishops have spent ardu ous years in the tropics as working priests, and have never put over emphasis on the need for their own personal dignity.

Among their decisions: Steps are to be taken to ordain deacons, either married or single.

They will work in outlying areas and may administer all the sacraments except the Eucharist and Penance.

International organisations, such as UNESCO, will be asked to help, either to provide technical schools in overpopulated islands, or to assist with the emigration of people to sparsely populated areas.

Bishop Guichet, of the Gilberts, voiced his concern for the Gilbertese now economically supported by royalties from Ocean Island phos phate, soon to be mined out. Starva tion faced the Gilbertese, for their islands are coral atolls, incapable of supporting any real form of agri culture, the bishop said.

Bishop Rodgers, of Tonga, out lined the desperate predicament of the over-populated Tongan Islands, in which 3 per cent, of the popula tion is in paid employment. The

average wage for a worker in Tonga is $1 a day, he said.

CEPAC will seek to establish as soon as possible a Pacific seminary because of the need to train Pacific born priests within their own cultural milieu. The seminary will have two phases of training; one in Noumea, the other in Suva. The dual sites were chosen for several reasons, not the least being the need for unity between Pacific territories.

Though no new policy was adopted, the present method of choosing lay missionaries was queried. Tribute was paid the good work done by many lay missionaries, but the in advisability of sending them to the Solomons without adequate training and proper screening was voiced by 42-year-old Father Fox, who repre sented Bishop D. Stuyvenberg, of the British Solomons, and also the Papua-New Guinea-British Solomons Bishops’ conference.

Tonga schools

Bishop Rodgers announced a pro posal to phase out early Catholic primary school classes in Tonga be cause of the heavy financial burden placed on parents in paying Roman Catholic school fees when govern ment tuition was free. The children could go to the government schools.

Missions had added difficulty in pay ing lay schoolteachers from meagre funds.

Father Fox said where a govern ment primary school was available in the Solomons the Roman Catholic primary school was closed.

Bishop V. Kennally, 75-year-old Vicar Apostolic of the Caroline Islands, said all primary classes in the Caroline Islands were either closed or were being closed and chil dren directed to government schools.

The conference agreed to request the Holy See to revise Canon Law 1098, which affects marriages in ex traordinary circumstances, such as those between Roman Catholic partners in outlying areas with no resident priest. Under present Canon Law the partners can marry providing they make their vows before two witnesses. CEPAC wants greater re ligious solemnity attached to such occasions for the tendency has grown for the married couple not to regard this civil service as having made a permanent bond.

Bishops also will ask for a Court of Second Instance in the Pacific.

This is a court of appeal used by couples when the validity of their marriage is questioned.

Date for the next meeting of CEPAC is August, 1970, in Noumea, New Caledonia.