Anglican Congress
Diocesan Press Service. August 1, 1962 [I-3]
Some 1,000 Churchmen from all over the world will converge on Toronto, Canada, next August as delegates to the Anglican Congress 1963. Using the over-all theme, "The Church's Mission to the World," the Congress planners hope that delegates will provide some answers to the question: what does the Christian faith mean to 40,000,000 members of the Anglican Communion in an age of atheistic ideologies, humanistic philosophies, and revitalized non-Christian religions?
The Rt. Rev. Ralph S. Dean, Bishop of Cariboo, British Columbia, and chairman of the Congress program committee, has stated a hope that introspection and tranquil, academic discussions will be kept to a minimum and that, spurred by colorful representatives of the Anglican Communion's "younger Churches", delegates will face up to the challenge of the new age.
Bishop Dean also expressed a belief that, whereas it might have been true once that the Church was on the frontiers pushing out, the Church now is on the frontiers being pushed back. Sub-themes will provide a close scrutiny of the Church's vocation on some of these religious, political and cultural frontiers. Several speakers will stress the need of a new and vital approach to the Anglican mission in lands where the rise of independent nations heralds religious independence too. Others will consider the challenge of current philosophies arising out of a scientific and technological age, which may clash head-on with the Christian faith in the spiritual struggle of the future.
Because of the challenge offered to Christianity by the rapid expansion of Islam and the resurgence of Hindu and Buddhist faiths in Africa and Asia, the Congress will hear specialists in the field of world religions. Included in the list of notable speakers are: The Rt. Rev. K. D. W. Anand, Bishop of Amritsar, India; the Rt. Rev. Roland Koh, Suffragan Bishop of Kuala Lumpur, Malaya; the Rt. Rev. J. C. Vockler, Bishop of Polynesia, Fiji Islands; Canon Kenneth Craig, Warden of St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, an authority on Islam; the Most Rev. A. C. McInnes, Archbishop in Jerusalem; the Rt. Rev. A. W. F. O. Howells, Bishop of Lagos, Nigeria; the Rt. Rev. J. W. Sadiq, Bishop of Nagpur, India; the Rt. Rev. Chandu Ray, Assistant Bishop of Lahore, Pakistan; the Rt. Rev. H. L. J. de Mel, Bishop of Kurunagala, Ceylon; the Rt. Rev. W. N. Panapa, a Maori Bishop of New Zealand; and Professor Y. Endo of Japan. The Rev. Max Warren, General Secretary of the Church Missionary Society of the Church of England, will be the theme speaker on "The Church on the Religious Frontier."
Invitations to the Anglican Congress 1963 were sent by the Most Rev. Howard H. Clark, Primate of all Canada, to all diocesan bishops of the Anglican Communion asking them to name official delegations of one bishop, one priest, and one layman from their dioceses. Official delegates will also include two youth delegates from each Province of the Church. The sizeable delegation from the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. will be headed by the Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Arthur Lichtenberger.
The 1963 Congress will be the second such Congress held. The first, history-making Anglican Congress was held in 1954 in Minneapolis, with the Church in the United States acting as host to the world-wide Anglican Communion.
The Rt. Rev. F. H. Wilkinson is Bishop of the Diocese of Toronto, which is acting as host to the 1963 Anglican Congress, August 13 to 23. Toronto, an Indian name which means, appropriately, "place of meeting," is a city of more than a million and a half people living in a 241-square- mile area comprising the city proper and twelve adjacent municipalities. Sometimes called "Toronto the Good" or "City of Churches", Toronto is the capital and industrial hub of Ontario, Canada's most populous province. The city also houses the headquarters of the various departments of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada.
Delegates to the Congress have been urged to visit various dioceses of the Canadian Church before and after the meetings, to help widen the spiritual horizons of Canadian Church members and encourage greater participation in Anglican work beyond the immediate limits of the Dominion.
(Editor's Note: This is the first of many articles to come your way on the Anglican Congress.)