CHURCH'S CALL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 192, 15 August 1930, Page 7

CHURCH'S CALL.

ENCYCLICAL LETTER.

War, Birth Control and Divorce Questions Dealt With.

LAMBETH RESOLUTIONS.

(United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright)

LONDON, August 14.

.The Encyclical Letter issued by the Lambeth Conference, in -which 300 archbishops and bishops review the 70 resolutions carried, is a stirring call to Church people individually and collectively, to bear more faithful witness in word and deed to the faith, hopes, purposes and resources which are theirs as members of the Church.

■ The document lays emphasis upon the remarkable progress lately made toward the reunion of the Churches through important conversations in the conference with delegates from the-Orthodox Churches, old Catholics, the Church of Sweden, the Church of Scotland and other bodies. Most notable is the proposed union of the churches of South India, resolutions generally approving which were unanimously adopted.

The suspended discussions with the leaders of the Evangelical and Free Churches shortly will be resumed. In the meanwhile the faithful are enjoined to persevere in the quest for visible unity of the Church.

A memorandum embodying the resolutions adopted points out that the decisions of the conference are mainly in the nature of recommendations -and therefore are not binding on any church within the Anglican communion until confirmed by "the respective church authorities.

The conference attaches weight to a call to serious Christian people to realise the necessity for banishing from their minds ideas concerning the character of God as being inconsistent with the character of Christ. The report says: "We affirm the supreme and unshaken authority of the Bible as presenting the truth concerning God in its progressive relation throughout the Old and New Testaments." Three Important Issues. The conference, presumes that public attention probably will be fixed on three other groups of resolutions in relation to:— ; (1) Church union in South India. (2) The attitude of the Anglican Church toward war. (3) Remarriages of divorced persons. The resolution concerning war reads: "When nations have bound themselves in a treaty or pact for the pacific settlement of international disputes, the conference holds that the Christian Church of every nation should refuse to countenance any _ war in regard to which its Government has not declared its willing-, ness to-submit the dispute to arbitration or conciliation."

In. cases of divorce the conference disapproves of remarriage by the Church while a. former partner is living.

The conference affirms that the duty of parenthood is the glory of married life. It sa'ye: "Where there is clearly felt a moral obligatidn to limit or avoid parenthood the method must be decided on Christian principles." It strongly condemns the use of any methods of contraception from motives of selfishness, luxury or mere convenience.

The memorandum concludes with a reference to unity: "The Anglican union is becoming a world-wide community of free, self-governing churches. Among these there stand already the churches of the United States, Canada, Australia, New JJgaland, South Africa, the West Indies and India. In such a partnership none can, or wishes to, dominate the others."