SERIOUS DRIFT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 274, 18 November 1936, Page 8

SERIOUS DRIFT.

AWAY FROM CHURCH.

REAWAKENING CALLED FOR

TENDENCY t>F RADIO,

.Aspects of , modern ;life which were threatening .to cause ' a serious drift the Qhurch were dealt with by tlie E: •D. Patchett in his inaugural address to the representative session of the. annual Synod of the Methodist Church.,(Auckland..district) at tlie Pitt Street Church to-day. By many tokens, said Mr, Patchett, the Church was facing a nation--wi.de drift from her doors- — a drift serious for Church and alike, particularly in sueh a time of moral testing as the. pfeseSt, when everywhere th 6« nerves of' the stations

were on edge.' j The integrity of the Empire, said Mr. Patchett,. was. broad : based upon the character of a vast multitude of good men alicl women, whose guiding principle was-the will of God. -It must be clearly seen that to arrest the national drift' from the Church was a patriotic as well as a. religious duty. The threatened drift was first seen in a tendency to belittle the importance of institutional religion; in many quarters it was assumed that the Christian faith would go on whatever happened to the Church. This was a fatal illusion —the Church had no permanent substitute. It was against all precedent that a nation could retain a distinctively Christian character and programme without the organised might of the Church behind it. '

Gospel on the Air.

"Broadcasting promises to impinge more and more upon established conventions," continued Mr. Patchett, dealing with radio as another threatening tendency. "It is to be admitted' that the Church in this land has been slow to capture its fair share of radio for Christ. Perhaps this dilatoriness has sprung out of a reasonable distrust of the ultimate issue. The acceptance of a cheap and lazy substitute of some of the elements of - worship over the air, instead of the complete fellowship of God's house, will do. .Radio services cannot be recognised by the Church as an equivalent for the privilege and duty of public worship. By a gradual slipping in this direction the friends of religion may do the Church in the long run a grave dis-service. No good purpose will be served by the Church neglecting to use broadcasting to the full as the handmaid of religion, but Church people should set their, faces against the temptation to neglect the imperative duty of church attendances." Mr. Patchett" added that the responsibility for the serious decline in church attendance lay chiefly at the door of nominal church members. They had received much and wfere giving nothing in return; there was a generation practically outside the church to-day, which, during the formative years of life, had had the incalculable gain of a religious training and background. They were using up the spiritual force of their forbears, and had little, left to hand on.

Weary of False Gods. "The desperate need of this age is a widespread spiritual awakening," said Mr; Patchett. "The world is waiting for a new and commanding impulse to live. Men have grown weary of false gods. A generation that has lost its way is ready to listen to some strong prophetic voice calling it back to God. The modern methods of mass movements arouse expectation concerning the possibility of catching the ear and arousing the conscience of the nation. In their own- way Hitler and Mussolini have caused the rebirth of their peoples. That lis the inner meaning of the great national dramas which have been staged I before the eyes of this generation."

How the disunion of the Church itself mocked the message of universal brotherhood it was confmissioncd to proclaim to a divided and distracted world! ex- | claimed Mr. Patchett. There was a call for the churches to get together to carry 'ideals into realities.