FUTURE CHURCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 103, 2 May 1936, Page 26

FUTURE CHURCH.

SHORTER SERVICES.

SCHOOLS FOR TEACHING

VITAL NEED OF FELLOWSHIP. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) XEW PLYMOUTH, Friday. There is something more in a religious life than belonging to a particular section of a Christian church, declared the Rev. E. P. Blamires, of Auckland, president of the Methodist Churchj when replying to a reception tendered to him to-day by the New Plymouth Methodist community on the occasion of his lirst official visit to this circuit. The president spent the early days of this week at a retreat for Taranaki ministers at Dawson Falls, and later attended Congregational gatherings at Stratford and New Plymouth. To-mor-row he goes to Inglewood, and will conduct services 011 Sunday in connection with the jubilee anniversary of the church there.

The lirst d«uty of everyone was to be a Christian and then loyal to his own particular Church, said Mr. Blamires. There was a good deal of confused thought on the subject of church union. He believed in union and looked forward to a union of Christian churches. There could be union in matters of organisation, and, certainly unity in spirit, but he did not suggest that there must be .absolute uniformity. No one wished to make all the churches or all the Christians conduct their worship or shape their lives to one particular pattern, but the problems of the world would not be solved without a reunited Christian church. Pie was an advocate of reforms, but he knew some ministers would not move as fast as he would like. One thing he desired was to see the church of the future become more a school for teaching, and he went so far as to suggest that Sunday morning worship would be made more effective if the period of collective worship were shortened so that congregations might join in groups for particular lines of study. It would simply be the extension to adults of what was done in the Sunday schools and classes. He declared that fellowship was vital to Christian life and called on church members to take their share of the responsibility in national life by discouraging and avoiding prejudices and cultivating thoughts .of peace and good will to those of other nations. Prejudices, he said, were the cause of wars, but love and friendliness were promoters of peace.