CHRISTIANS SHOULD UNITE TO HELP COLOURED PEOPLE

By a Staff Reporter BRITISH Christians of all churches should unite to improve the conditions of coloured people in this country, it was proposed this week at the four-day conference at Heythrop College, attended by non-Catholic experts as well as representatives of every Catholic diocese in England.
The conference proposed that this inter-church collaboration in helping coloured immigrants to settle properly in the country should first be explored locally in preparation for a national organisation to co-ordinate the work.
Among the speakers given an enthusiastic ovation were the Evangelical Anglican, Dr. James Packer, who said that Low-Church Anglicans had broken ground recently in that they now wanted to have dialogue with Christian bodies they disagreed with, and Congregational minister, Professor George Caird, well-known commentator on Vatican 2, at which he was an observer.
Fr. Henry St. John, 0.P., speaking on the new Catholic approach to church unity, stated that Catholic doctrine was not changing on the matter. It is the Catholic understanding of the church's doctrine that is changing and developing, he explained.
Discussion groups quickly came to clear agreement on the need for a "give and take"
basis in the work of uniting Christians of different communions. It was also agreed, Christians should "where suitable" come together in church to pray for unity.
WEAKENING FAITH "Ecumenism" was a word which should be dropped. It was agreed too many people did not know what it meant. It was suggested that instead we should talk about "efforts for the unity of all Christians."
A criticism made of the ecumenical movement was that it was weakening the allegiance of Roman Catholics to their faith.
Bishop Holland of Salford, speaking on the new Ecumenical Commission for England and Wales, which he heads, stressed the need for studying the unity problem in depth rather than merely at the superficial get-together level.
This commission's aim is to co-ordinate the unity efforts of individual diocesan commissions. It would welcome suggestions from those individual commissions, he said.
It would be composed of 19 members, one representing each diocese, and they would as a whole be representative of the diocesan and religious clergy, nuns, laymen and laywomen.
Cardinal Cardijn seriously ill
THE Young Christian
Workers this week asked for prayers for their founder Cardinal Cardijn, who is seriously ill following an op!ration in Belgium. Cardinal Cardijn, who is 84, started Y.C.W. in the early years of the century. It now has a membership of 31 million in 110 countries.
More for Bihar Famine Appeal HELP THE AGED has been able to increase its weekly grants to feed starving old people in Bihar because of the response of the British public to its Bihar Famine Appeal. Enough money was cabled to India last week to feed a further 3,000 old people during the present week.