'BAPTISED PAGANS.'

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 83, 8 April 1940, Page 3

'BAPTISED PAGANS.'

BISHpP'S CHARGE. CHILDREN NOT TAUGHT. «* PARENTS AT FAUM." (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) HAMILTON, tliis day. "Most of the work of the clergy in Xew Zealand is connected with converting baptised pagans. Such missionary work should not be necessary in this country, after the Church has been so long established," eaid the Rt. Rev. C. A. Clienington, Bishop of Waikato, when addressing an Anglican Church Congress at Hastings on Saturday. He urged that there should be a return to discipline in regard to the observation of the holy sacraments of the Church. Many Christian people, he said, failed to realise their responsibilities in the teaching of their children. If there was any fault with the children it lay at the feet of the parents who had failed to teach them in their tender years. Capable parents ought ti> be able to prepare children for the Sacrament of Confirmation, but to-day it had become the practice to regard such training as part of tlie duties of the clergy. "To-day we are producing large numbers of baptised pagans. We should refuse to baptise a baby whose parents are not prepared to abide by their vows and bring the child up in tile knowledse of (Jnd." said the speaker. "Jt has become a habit to bring a baby to the church to he baptised just in the same way as it is taken to the doctor for vaccination. Similar discipline is equally necessary in marriage."