CHURCHES AND YOUTH

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 42, 19 February 1944, Page 7

CHURCHES AND YOUTH

SCOPE! OF ACTIVITIES

Some indication of the work being done for youth by the Church of England lias been given by the Rev. H. R. L. Isherwood, president of the Auckland Clergy Association, in replying to the comment of Dr. C. E. Beeby, Director of Education, at a conference of the Auckland Education Board on child delinquency, that the Churches should step up their activities. Mr. Isherwood said there were from 300 to 400 young people aged from 15 to 25 at one suburban church, and sporting and social functions were a regular feature. He thought the spiritual, cultural and physical needs of thousands of young New Zealanders were being provided by the churches and that the only limit was set by parents who did not trouble to send their children to Sunday school. The children attending church were happy, healthy, normal and vigorous young people, with as much potential wickedness as any other group. Some of the boys would otherwise have been members of street corner gangs, while some of the girls, had not the Church made provision for their social and gregarious instincts, would be liable to be led astray.