THE RHODESIAN CHURCH
SIR,--I would be grateful for an opportunity to correct a statement in the article entitled 'A Kind of Religion' by Mr. MacInnes (Spectator, Feb- ruary 1, 1963) which has only recently reached Northern Rhodesia. In this article reference is made to 'a segregated Anglican service' at Ndola in Northern Rhodesia. In these words, and the paragraph containing them, it is dearly implied that segregation is the policy of the Anglican Church. As Bishop of the Anglican Diocese concerned wish to deny very strongly that any such policy of segregation is followed by us.
As far as the Anglican Church in Ndola is con- cerned I can assure you that I myself have been celebrant at services of Holy Communion, on the occasion of an ordination, or a Synod when the church has been filled with a congregation of mixed races who come to the Communion rail to re- ceive the Sacrament from the hands of European and African priests. For many years it has been normal for an African priest to celebrate Holy Communion from time to time at the principal service on Sunday for the English-speaking con- gregation. On any Sunday Africans are welcome to attend the church services in English and I am pleased to say that some do so. There are also some Europeans who attend the services which are in 'the African vernacular.
On an ordinary Sunday it is not surprising that the great majority of Africans prefer to worship in the church which is built near to their homes in a service in their own language. As there is very little public transport and the residential areas are widely separated from each other, this must be expected at the present time. As, however, an in- creasing number of English-speaking Africans are coming to live in those residential areas where only Europeans lived in the past, we look forward to welcoming a growing number of these Africans as regular worshippers in the church where the con- gregation in the past has been predominantly European. I can assure you that we welcome this development.
OLIVER CCNTR 'tL AFRICA
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