MAUDE ROYDEN ARRIVES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 106, 7 May 1928, Page 10

MAUDE ROYDEN ARRIVES

A SINCERE CHRISTIAN "We needs must lovo the highest when we see it," is a saying which slips back info the mind from schoolroom days on meeting Aliss Maude Royden, the famous woman preacher, wlio arrived in Wellington this morning from Sail Francisco. Hers is a persoiialily which, considering the meaning so often given to tho word, one would hesitate to describe as "religious," and yet there is no doubt that her magnetism, sympathy, humour, saiioncss, an.l courage—qualities which at once impress anyone meeting her — ore blended by some deeper spiritual and controlling force. She is what most of us wish to be, and few of us are—a. sincere Christian. Aliss Royden comes lo New Zealand from it (our of America, where she was most kindly received by the Episco-

palia.il cliuvchcs, corresponding to fbo Anglican Churches here and at Home. Shu travelled from toast to west across the Continent, and spoke at many of the State universities and colleges 'in the Middle West, at the Wcllesley Women's College chapel near Boston, at the St. Louis Cathedral, and in the. Episcopal Church at,.Sacramento at the invitation of the Bishop of Sacramento. In (liis <;U,y si 10 also spoke to the National Convention of tho Y.W.C.A., an organisation -which had been very good j to the, visitor. These -were but I a few of Miss Koyden 's engagements. Everywhere she was flooded with invitations to speak, and everywhere she was immensely struck with the American women. '' They are extraordinarily public spirited," she said to a "I'ost" reporter, "and the way they keep their homes and yet do public work is simply astoundingi It may be that their menfolk expect a good-deal of them and think that they should lake a part in public life. Of course, while I was in America there was all that hullabaloo over my smoking. You would think no American had ever smoked, und that there had never been a murder in .Chicago. It was the Methodist Women's ilomo Missioneiy So-I ciety which made the fuss, and they even forbid their ministers to smoke. After that it. became a Press stunt and raged from const to coast, but only a tiny section of tho people made the uproar, and the main effect was to I give me a bigger public tlian I had ever had before." The rumour that sho believed in companionatc marriages, said Miss Koyden, smilingly, had died a national death. Miss Koyden, who is a. sister of Sir Thomas Boydcn, chairman of tho Cunaril Line, explained how sho had come to take up preaching. She had been speaking in the cause of suffrage, and as she: became more and more interested in the movement, she studied and spoke of it from the religious aspect, which caused'1!^ tremendous amount of interest, and resulted in a request from the odicers of the City Temple, London, to speak there one Sunday. "I was very surprised at -the invitation," said Miss Roydeu, "but I went. Ny jaw dropped, when at the conclusion of the service they said, 'and will you come again?' I -felt I had said' all I had to say! But I went again, and then when Dr. i'ort Xewton was called to the Temple, ho wished for an assistant, being m poor health. They asked him if he would take a woman, and he replied, 'Certainly,' and so I became, the assistantpastor. But I have never joined tho Congregational . Church," continued Miss "lioyden, "and will always remain an Anglican. I used to regret that the Anglican Church would not ordain me as a minister, ■ but now I think I am freer as I am, and prefer to remain a 'free lance.' " Asked if both at Home and during her travels» she had noted signs, not of an organised revival/in any special church, with any particular loader, but an. increased individual interest iv tilings spiritual, Miss Boyden said sho undoubtedly had. She had met little groups of people in England and America, who met and discussed religious matters among themselves, and many of the people who came to her Guildhouso services belonged to no particular. Church; did not even call themselves Chrstinns, and yet were interested in the services and discussions held there. "A witty ITrenchman has said, 'Mankind is incurably religious,' and I believe that," said Miss.Hoyden. Miss Koyden is inclined to think that tho present Prayer Book controversy in England will end in disestablishment —"unless the Archbishop of Canterbury can dodge it. He's tho only person

who can!" Tn this connection she spoke of thf Rev. 11. R. L. Sheppard, whose recent book, "The, Impatience of a Parson," has created an unusual stir at Home and abroad. "Dick Bheppard has the ear of the people of England as no parson has had it for generations," said Miss Royden. We call him the "radio parson," for, by this means, lie reaches millions of people. He asks for disestablishment ami disendowmeut, and ho wants the Church of England to lead the way in all abandonment of privileged positions." Miss Royden leaves for the South to-' night, but will return again to Wellington next week, when she will speak on several interesting subjects. Her four of (lie world is being ma fly under the auspices of the British Commonwealth League, and with the view of seeing for herself just, what the women of' oilier countries are doing. She has heard that New Zealand women have done very little with their franchise, but is rather jnclined to think they are underestimating their achievements. '