CHURCH OF TO-DAY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 236, 18 July 1936, Page 4

CHURCH OF TO-DAY.

INFLUENCE IN WORLD AFFAIRS. BISHOP-DESIGNATE’S VIEWS. (Per Iress Association.) WELLINGTON, July! 17. The influence of the Church on World affairs was referred to by Arclir deacon H. St. Barbe Bishopdesignate of Wellington, in interviews on arrival from London by the Akaroa to-day. The world, he said, was in a very fluid condition. Old conventions had gone, and everything was called in question. The foundations of life were uncertain for the majority of people. To his mind the British Empire was the one corporate entity in the world which did base its life on Christian principles, and for that reason the British people had a tremendous message to give. Whatever their attitude to the organised Church might be, there was a very strong religious foundation to all life in England, although, perhaps, people would not admit it. One could not say the same of many other nations.

The archdeacon said it seemed to him that the Christian ideals of na-_ tional life were summed up in the League of Nations. Despite the apparent failure of the League, he still held that it was a form of corporate life. An organisation such as the League was the only hope of averting the crash which was threatened on all sides at present. Christianity was the hope of the nations, even though organised institutions representing Christianity seemed to be fairly weak. He knew nothing about the Church in New Zealand, so he could not speak for it. Commenting on the general public’s attitude towards the Church, Archdeacon Holland said he thought ' the conventional idea that it was respectable to be a Christian was waning, and those who asserted their membership of the Church were really concerned about what the Church stood for, and about spiritual realities. Today there was more intelligent understanding of what Christianity meant. In the old. days people were members of churches because everybody else was. Now they belonged to the Church because they had conviction. It represented thei true thing of life. This was all for the good, because it meant that old conventions were dying out.