TO PAGANISM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 31, 7 February 1939, Page 11

TO PAGANISM.

SLIDE IN DOMINION. CHURCH EXPRESSES CONCERN FEWER ATTENDING SERVICES. Over a quarter of a century ago a former Bishop of Auckland (Dr. Moore Richard Xeligan) made a statement from an English cathedral pulpit that brought a hornet's nest about his head, says the Auckland Anglican "Church Gazette," under the heading "The Slide to Paganism: Was Religion Justified?" The occasion was the Pan-Anglican conference and the overseas representatives were telling England something of the conditions of church life in the Colonies. "In Xew Zealand," said Bishop Xeligan, "there is a grave danger of the children lapsing into Paganism. I have traversed country districts where children , bad never heard of St. Paul or St. Peter. In some families in the backblocks prayers—not even the Lord's prayer, were said or even heard. Here was a real sensation for the daily Press. How dare this stranger criticise our boys and girls? Wore not young Xew Zealanders the finest children in the world? Did we not lead in social legislation? Hosts of letters poured into local editors and Xew Zealand got -very excited. They soon got away from the main argument and quoted the All Blacks' victories in England to prove that such athletic giants could only come from homes of rigorous morals. Poor Xeligan 1 He did not even mention morals. He merely said that we were "in danger of lapsing into paganism." Just what did he mean? Children Not Taught to Worship God.

Well, ho meant that because of the system of secular education and also tiie serious dearth of clergymen in his diocese the children were not being taught the worship of God. He concluded his stirring address with an appeal to Mother England to send us a dozen young earnest men in full priest orders who would* go where they were sent. "How shall they heat without a preacher?" concluded the good Bishop. He got his quota of men and they did their job. Who of the old timers has not admired the courage of these Englishmen who tackled the country parishes in the real pioneer spirit? Mortimer Jones, Howard, Marmaduke Warner, Gallop, Cruicksbank, to mention a few at random, set out into the backblocks on a job utterly foreign to their training. Not one of them had ever mounted a horse and now the saddle was their home. The "Church Gazette" honours these Home Missionaries and proudly, records their efforts to stem the rise of paganism. But quo vadia New Zealand? Loyalty to Faith Not Maintained. Have we of the Dominion maintained our loyalty to the faith of these men? The answer is a clear and definite no. It is futile to jeer at the prophets who warn us. Neligan was right, but wo stupidly called him a pessimist. Dean Inge is usually right but we call him

the "Gloomy Dean." If anyone doubts that the slide to paganism has already set in let hiin count the number of people at church next Sunday (evening if you like) and he will find that on a very liberal estimate, over 50 places of worship in Auckland can scarcely muster 10,000 people. This means that about five per cent of Auckland are definitely at church on an average Sunday night. Now let us watch the wharves and the stations and the roada into the city about church time, and we find the thousands increasing. Excursion steamers and trains and buses and cars packed with people. Again, in the homes if one could only peep, one would surely find the thousands mark again amongst those who listen in. Who are these people ? The answer is that they are pagans predicted by Neligan. They may be very delightful pagans, but they are pagans all the same. We do not suggest that they are morally evil or corrupt. Neligan did not say so either. He said, and we say, that they (1) don't know of God at all. (2) they know Him but quietly ignore ' Him, or (3) they are too bored and apathetic to care one way or another and have therefore decided to get along ' without God at all. If a person who ! feels like that is not a pagan, what is