BOY SCOUTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 243, 14 October 1933, Page 12

BOY SCOUTS.

CHURCH GROUPS.

REPLY TO ARCHBISHOP. (<WE WANT TO CO-OPERATE." Comment was made to-day by the metropolitan commissioner of the Boy Scouts' Association in Auckland, Mr. W. r. Holdsworth, on the ren* arks made by His Grace Archbishop Averill, in his ■barge to the Anglican Synod, concerning scouts. "His Grace said the diocesan council which reported on youth work had reported the practical abolition of 'controlled groups' in New Zealand," said Mr. Holdsworth. "This is very definitely contrary to fact. The Dominion chief commissioner, Dr. P. Clennell Fen wick, af Cliristchurch, in a letter dated August r, states, 'Our regulations! have always permitted churches to have their own closed groups.' Eight church-controlled groups have been formed, and registered in the Auckland area during the past year by the following denominations: Catholic 5, Congregational 2, Church of Christ 1." Scouting's attitude to the Church, said Mr. "Holdsworth, was made abundantly clear by a perusal of the religious policy which had received the approval of the heads of all the leading denominations of religion. Summarised, the policy was:—(l) Every scout shall belong to some religious body and attend its services. (2) In denominational (closed) groups, the leader is expected to arrange with its religious authoiity for religious observances and instiuction. (3) In interdenominational (open) groups, scouts are to be encouraged to attend the services of their own denomination and group church parades should not be held. (4) Where it is not permissible under the rules of the religion of any scout to attend religious observances other than those of his own church, the scouters of the group must see that such rules are strictly observed while the scout is under their control. Practical Support Essential. "There arc within New Zealand a number of controlled groups," said Mr. Holdsworth, "and undoubtedly there would have been considerably more had it not been incumbent upon the controlling authority (as in open groups) to provide officers of their own selection, to attend to the financial requirements and to provide accommodation for the groups they raise. It is a significant fact that scouting lias been making exceptional progress with interdenominational groups, each controlled by a committee of parents and public, whilst church groups, controlled by the -\nflican Church, have been dying out from lack of practical support by the controlling authority. ■ "His Grace has expressed the opinion that if scouts and guides are not helped by scouting-and guiding to be loyal to their own church, it would be better for the church to create some other organisation. The opening lines of the scout promise insist on the appreciation of duty to God. This spiritual outlook is the basis of the movement, and provides every religious denomination with a secure "foundation on which can bo developed the great game of scouting for boys within their own churcli. Provision of Leaders. "The movement is in accord with the Archbishop's statement that the provision of leaders is the crux of the whole matter. We are conducting special training courses for the benefit of men and women in order that they may qualify for leadership in die movement. "In his opening address His Grace stated that: 'National or class loyalty can never establish peace upon the earth. The world is crying out for unity and for some dynamic principle which would be supernational and demand a loyalty over and above party, class or national loyalties.' Scouting is a world-wide brotherhood, recognising no barriers of class, creed or coloui, and has been successfully established in almost every country in tile world, with the notable exception of those counti ios which have adopted national characteristics of Communism, Fascism or Hitlerism. We want to co-operate with the churches because we ought to get from them the spiritual dynamic which we need to make scouting ideals possil>le —the force that will enable us all, men and boys, to live tlie scout law. We desire to bring within the fellowship of every church a new generation of Christian men, strong in faith, broad in vision and sympathy, through scouting, bound together throughout the churches by the world-wide link of tho great scout law. "We can bring to the churches what they are needing—youth, enthusiasm, and the plain, simple, splendid code of the scout law, as the practical rule of life."