Protestants Seek Unity

New moves toward Protestant church union are under way in at least ten coun­tries at present.

*Nigeria—Anglicans           (Episcopalians),  Methodists, and Presbyterians have ap­proved a constitution and are preparing a service of union for launching the new Church of Nigeria next December.

*England—Methodists and Anglicans (Church of England) have voted to negoti­ate for the next three years. Recognition of each other's ministry is hoped for by 1970, with organic union to follow. Dises­tablishment of the Church of England as a state church is one of the many thorny problems to be worked out.

*Australia—Congregationalists, Meth­odists, and Presbyterians have a timetable for union, possibly by 1968. The process could be slowed down if Anglicans, now looking at the proposed plan, ask to enter.

*Canada—Anglicans, Methodists, Con­gregationalists, and Presbyterians (the three latter in the United Church of Christ) after twenty-two years of negotia­tions, are moving toward organic union. Anglicans will vote on a basic plan for un­ion this August at Vancouver. The United Church of Christ members are to vote in September, 1966, at Waterloo, Ontario.

*Wales and England—Presbyterians of England and Congregationalists of England and Wales recently approved a plan for union. Now both church bodies must vote. Presbyterians in Scotland, Wales, and Ire­land are not being included in union plans for the time being.

*Scotland and England—Anglicans and Presbyterians of both countries will hold a summit meeting in January, 1966, at Edin­burgh to consider further steps toward unity.

*Italy—The Second Italian Evangelical Congress meeting in Rome recently voted to form statutes for a federation and act on them, possibly in 1967. Baptists, Method­ists, and Waldensians—the three major Protestant groups—favor federation and an increased dialog with the Roman Cath­olic Church. Pentecostals and smaller groups are less enthusiastic on both counts.

*North India and Pakistan—Angli­cans, Brethren, Disciples, Methodists, Bap­tists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists (the two latter in United Church of Christ) are now in the third edition of plans for union which were initated in 1957.

*Ghana—Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Methodists are involved in union plans first started in 1963.

*England—The British Council of Churches, representing the British Prot­estant churches outside the Anglican com­munion, has a target date of Easter, 1980, for church unity among council members.

*Denominational divisions separating the Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Congrega­tional ministries have existed since the Prot­estant Reformation.

The Church of South India, formed in 1947, pioneered in combining Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congrega­tionalists. It took 28 years of negotiations and seven editions of a constitution to effect a reconciliation.

Attempts such as these at cooperation among churches often flounder at common tasks, such as worship. Service of commun­ion, central to church worship and unity, becomes difficult over a common "table" when churches traditionally disagree as to who should preside.

Some churches say only a minister or­dained by a bishop in historic succession, or, with continuity from the time of the apostles (historic episcopate), can cele­brate a valid Communion. In numerous others, a minister ordained by a presbytery or a congregation usually presides.

The Church of South India was the first to resolve these and many other differences in the various ministries. The new Church of Nigeria will be the second to combine both the episcopal and nonepiscopal min­istries.