REUNION WANTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 49, 27 February 1935, Page 15

REUNION WANTED.

CHRISTIAN CHURCHES' VIEW. GREATLY NEEDED TO-DAY. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Tuesday. The essential unity of aim of the various branches of the Church was stressed to-day, when the proceedings at the annual conference of the Methodist Church were halted for a brief space to welcome representatives from the Presbyterian Church and the Council of Christian Congregations. The speakers on behalf of the visiting deputation were the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, the Rt. Rev. Dr. J. Dickie, and the president of the Council of Christian Congregations, Dean G. C. Cruickshank, both of whom expressed the opinion that close relationship between the various denominations was to be desired. Dr. Dickie said that if Chrietendom was to be reunited within the next few generations it would be along the lines of better understanding of one another's viewpoints and a fuller recognition of the right of each to his own viewpoint, provided always that it was for the glorification of God. Dean Cruickehank sard that the neceseity for reunion was never greater than it was to-day. It was not by ignoring the differences which undoubtedly existed, or the ambiguous statements which synods were very prone to make, but by frankly facing those differences that unity would bo attained. They sought unity not on the basie of compromise, but on that of comprehension.

Replying on behalf of the conference, the Rev. Dr. 11. Runston said that the various denominations were all united in the belief that the one hope of the world was the Message of Christ and the. power that came when that Message was received into the heart of man. The Methodist Church had a great deal in common with the Presbyterian Church, and he thought that the time was not distant when the question of closer relationship would be considered.