CLERGY INDICTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 288, 5 December 1925, Page 14

CLERGY INDICTED.

INADEQUATE SERMONS. ARCHBISHOP'S WARNING. CAUSES STTR IN THE CHURCH. ■ A stir was caused by the remarkable fiermon of the Archbiehop of Canterbury at the opening of the Church Congress > at Eastbourne. The Primate pronounced 5 a sharp-pointed criticism of the Anglican 1 clergy, for he described the average " preaching in the parish churches to-day • as less thoughtful and less painstaking J than.in their fathers' days. 1 "Beyond question," said Dr. Davidson, 5 "the preacher's place in that field (the '- parish church) is often very poorly-filled. " Complaints of the inadequacy of their » sermons are rife, and the fact of that •inadequacy is beyond dispute. . Every - clerical meeting harps upon the fact of - our sparser congregations. : "There are many reasons for that. But i personally I put among the first causes ■ the fact, that the average Church of ! England sermons have not kept pace [ with educational advance, or with the : average man's or woman's/wider interest I in all sorts of human knowledge and , world affairs. 1 - Left to the Press. "It could easily be described as intolerable that the clergy, to whom re- ' sponsibility was given, should leave it to the daily newspapers or the popular ! novelist to give guidance and to suggest sturdy thought. I am glad they do suggest and supply it, but where are they who have been accredited to the duty? For mending the lack in their teaching, our clergy need more midnight oil, or, what is better, more forenoon hours with closed doors, steady if miscellaneous study, and big notebooks. . . . All this forces upon us the paramount necessity, which rests upon all in English homes and. schools and .colleges, to see to it that the ministry is rightly manned." While many ministers have taken the charge prayerfully and loyally to their unworthy bosoms, others are inclined to . resent the Archbishop's, scathing references to their primeval ignorance. "Fore- : noons spent in study are all very well," they say, "but what about our other ■work?" ■ . ■ . "Stuffy Futilities." A diversity of opinion on the Archbishop's indictment' makes interesting reading. An eminent King's Counsel said: "I have long since abstained from going to church; I probably got from the church in my early days some of the foundations for my religion, but preserve mc from, its stuffy futilities of to-day." The Bishop of Chelmsford (Dr. Warman) : "I agree that modern sermons are not as goodae they should be. The Archbishop performed a great-service to the clergy when he uttered this warning." A golfer: The church does not attract , mc. Ever since the time when, as a boy, I was compelled to go to church twice a day, and to Sunday -school as well, I have , rebelled against the church's lustiness. If Nature is God, I well get to Heaven. Yen. T. W. Cook, Archdeacon, of Hastings: I do not agree that clergy-. > men are too .overworked to produce • good sermons. It is their duty to prepare ■■•them. Everything else, such as confer-. '• ences, meetings, and so forth, must be • secondary, and, if necessary, must be j neglected. . . : .■ ■ A spiritualist: What a stupendous. ! admission is this of jthe Archbishop of ; Canterbury I It is what we have been I telling the churches for a long time, ever since' the new religion of spiritualism I began its latest wave ■■throughout the I world a-half century ago. The spiritual i principle has gone from the-church. It is like a lake whose springs have dried up. Higher Intellects. : The Bishop .of Winchester (Dr. Woods): Sermons to-day are much-less I thoughtful than they were 50 years ago. i Then parsons were on a higher intellectual level than the people who listened to them.. To-day the position is hardly the same. The parson is speaking to ■ congregations which are often as well j educated as himself, and probably know more about, the world. i A Fleet Street'journalist: The recent ■ "Daily Express" series of articles on the subject of "My 'Religion" by ten wellknown writers was a r.ewßnaner eensn- ! tion. With the exception of Mr. CompI ton Mackenzie, who is an orthodox ; I Catholic.' practically all of the contrii j tutors declared themselves to be agnos- '• [ tics—HusTi Walpole, Arnold Bennett, E. I i Phillips Oppcnhejm, 'Miss 'Rebecca West. 5 H. de Vere Stncpoolc. • Israel Zangwili. ' They do not accept any religion, as s generally understood, bearing: out the I warninc of the Archhi shop of Oantert bury that the vital force has disappeared from the church. An ex-Army Officer: The church came orash in the Great War. - It is far away from the pressing problems of TUiainDlovi j ment, bad housine. overcrowding, ton 5 ] many children, industrial strife anri [ international suspicions. It smuo'lv I Btands aloof from everything tliat matl I ters. " I Bishop .Welldon (Dean of Durham} • I J Good preachiner always draws large con- ! I greeations. Too many sermons are ' preached in the Church of England. They l . should seldom exceed twenty minutes. ' • A Presbyterian minister: T?«ther dras--1 tic words, those of the Archbishop. T ' j doußt the wisdom of makinc such an l -1 onslaught' publicly aerainst his own ' clergy. The Gospel goes marchine on. 1 and, so lone , as we are doin<? our best . we..should refrain from estimating the rate of progress achieved. A Christian Science. practitioner: The : sadness of the Archbishop of Canterbury seems to be justified. The Church o' Enpland relies on its imposing past and on long-dead' meaningless ritual.