FAITH AND ORDER. CONFERENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 226, 24 September 1927, Page 22

FAITH AND ORDER. CONFERENCE.

LAUSANNE (Switzerland), August 3. Gathered from the four quarters of the globe, five hundred leaders of the Christian churche* assembled in the ancient Cathedral of Lausanne to-day and prayed f.,r Divine guidance in their taek of preparing the way for better understanding and greater harmony among their various denominations. The service marked the opening of the World Conference on Faith and Order, which will be in daily session until August 21, and preparations for which have been going on for seventeen years. More than ninety nation-wide churches were represented in the procession that marched from the Cathedral to the famous Palaie de Rumanie, where the conference will hold its meetings. Dignitaries of the Eastern Churches, conspicuous in their lofty headgear and flowing robes walked shoulder to ehouldrr with soberly-clad ministers of the English dissenting churches. Bishops and archbishops marched beside laymen. Australia, Japan and India were in line with America, Sweden and Germany. In all nearly fifty different nations were represented, and fully a score of languages.

The Opening Sermon. "The caill to unity is from God to man, , ' said Bishop Charles H. Brent, of Buffalo, New York, U.S.A., chairman of the conference, an Episcopalian, who preached the opening sermon in the cathedral. "Through unity alone can the Kingdom of God be set up among men." Hβ laid stress upon the evils resulting from the present multiplicity of churches, especially in rural districts, where the church-going population is divided into impoverished rival groups, without moral and spiritual potency. As a result of religious divisions, he declared, not fifty per cent of the population in so-called Christian countries even profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, many of them because they are sadly perplexed and mystified by jangling claims *nd voices. Bishop Brent said that the field of church unity is too vast to be covered by one conference, and that personally h would be content if this conference took up only tr-» subject of a united Christian faith, and let the questions of churcl: government, or order, lie for the present. Harmony in church government, he suggested, might come naturally after harmony in faith had been attained. "We are living," he said, in conclusion, "in a world that has lost its way. Religion as summed up in Jesus Chriet can alone hope to rescue it. God has used, beyond anything we had a right to expect, our divided Christendom But now that we know the sin and disaster of sectarianism we cannot hope that He will use it much longer."

The Procedure. The programme, covering nineteen days, has been carefully arranged to give every denominational group a hearing. Dr. Alfred £. Carvie, of England, a Oongregutionaliet, is deputy chairman o.f the conference, and will preside at the bueinee* sessions. Representation has been assigned to each denomination on a basis proportionate to the number of communicante. In addition to the official representative? appointed by the various participating churches, there ie a Continuation Committee, consisting of eighty members, representing all the larger denominations, which is in general charge of the organisation and conduct of the conference. AfteT tlie opening sessions this week the conference will be divided into a number of sections each charged with the discussion of special subject*. Reports from these sections will be received by the conference in full session. The resolutions and statements adopted by the conference will have no binding force upon the chuTches represented, but will be brought to the attention of the participating churcthee for acceptance if go desired.