Market decision 'will mean more ecumenical contacts'

BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
BR HAIN'S decision to en
ter the Common Market means that greater and closer contacts between the Churches of most of Western Europe will be possible,
This will be not only in the spheres of culture, music, literature, tradition and a lessening of religious differences, but especially in the
stewardship of Western Europe's economic resources and developments in aid of the under-developed Third World.
While it is true that the actual allocation of most aid to the under-developed world is in the hands of governments, all authorities in Britain contend that the way for Christian and Church influence in this field has been made immensely wider by the decision to join the Common Market. The Archbishop of Canter bury, Dr. Ramsey, sum'
marked the position succinctly in a special statement not long before Parliament's vital decision. He said that if Parliament voted in favour of entry "theChristian Churches will have immense new responsibility and opportunity to which, by God's help, we must rise.
WITNESS "The contacts between the Churches. Catholic and Protestant, on the Continent and in England, will be greater than ever before, and we shall work together in our witness to the Christian foundations of our common life.
"Christian influence will help to prevent a united Europe from being introverted and selfish arid to lead it to be a Europe which gives all it can to the wider service of a desperately needy world."
A similar viewpoint was put by another prominent Anglican—the Bishop of Southwark, Or, Mervyn Stockwood —who wrote: "The coming together of our countries makes it possible for Europe, as Europe, to consider responsibly the stewardship of its resources, "I do not see the European Community as a rich man's club, or as a selfish competitor in a world race. In'stead I see the Community making its contribution not only to its own members but also to the less favoured nations. We cannot afford poverty in any part of the world."
FORCEFUL An even more forceful line was taken only a few days before Parliament's vote by the International Justice and Peace Commission of the English and Welsh Catholic bishops. It announced that it considered Britain's entry into the European Community would provide an unrivalled opportunity for Britain to promote greater aid for developing countries.
It went further by proposing that the British Government prepare itself now for actual entry into the Common Market by working on proposals for an overall European aid and development programme for the developing countries.
If the British Government did this, it said, "they will receive full and enthusiastic support from Christians and other men of goodwill, who regard the problem of development as a central problem of our time, upon which, as the Holy Father has stressed. peace largely depends."
Another authoritative Catholic view was expressed recently by Bishop Butler, Auxiliary of Westminster, one of the Church's leading theologians. He wrote to The Times to say that British entry would afford wider scope not only for Christian ecumenism but also for dialogue and cooperation between religious believers and non-believers.
.; He added: "In an enlarged European Community centrally administered and relatively prosperous, Christians, Jews and Humanists will have an increased duty to be loyal to, and to promote jointly, values which they share; priority of human over commercial technological factors, participation by all sections of society in political decisionmaking, solidarity with the Third World."
JEWISH VIEW A Jewish viewpoint was recently given by Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits, the Chief Rabbi of Britain and the Commonwealth. He wrote: "The Cornmon Market will challenge us to shed the last vestige of our traditional insularity . .
4'As the largest European community to survive the Holocaust unscathed, AngloJewry will have to assume a special responsibility in the reconstruction and creative expansion of Jewish life throughout Europe."