QUESTIONS FOR THE CHURCH

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23301, 10 April 1941, Page 8

QUESTIONS FOR THE CHURCH

ARCHBISHOP’S HOLY WEEK SERMON WORLD’S NEED TO-DAY Questions on which the church might speak were enumerated by Archbishop West-Watson, in his Holy Week sermon iast evening, in emphasising the need to-day for the Christian church to bear corporate witness “to what God would have done in this world” and in pointing to the possibility of the church being eclipsed if it was not faithful. The world to-day needed, he said, a dispassionate body of men and women, in every country, cherishing the same ideals based in submission to one God in whose service men’s diversities would become a harmony instead of a discord. Faithful witness would call for courage and decision. “If we say nothing ... we shall certainly be attacked as having failed the world in its hour of need,”'he said. “If, on the other hand, we dare to speak of the fa.se gods, whether of democracy or of autocracy, we shall certainly be told that we are trespassing on forbidden ground. There is no easy way for us, but I believe that in the world of to-day our paramount duty is to speak—and how much better to suffer for action'than for refusal of responsibility.” , He would ask, he said: Has the church notning to say about racial superiority and racial discrimination? in particular, has the British church notning to say about our complacent assumption that it anything has to be done well it must be done by ourselves? Are we never to learn what great things God has wrougnt and is working to-day through other races, even races opposed to us? Has the church notning to say about the cail for sacrinces an rounu if any true international brotnerhood is to be established? Does not the church really believe that every nation is iis brother’s keeper? Has the cnurch nothing to say about our satisiaction with our comparatively hign standard of living in british countries while millions upon millions of Indians and Chinese are never much above starvation? Has the church nothing to say about a country which cannot feed its populations and which is refused an opportunity till it explodes in war? “Has the cnurch nothing to say about the acquistive greed of industrialism as it virtually enslaves the Orient and dehumanises so many in the west or condemns them to unemployment? Has the Cnurch nothing to say about a civilisation which estimates the worth and position of men according to their nnancial resources? is the reproach that we are a plutocracy auogetner wide of the mark? Has not the Church anything to say about the destructive results of part* politics? Do we take to heart Mr Churchill’s words to the Conservative Part> the other day? Is it impossible for a man to be a Christian first and a party man second? Cannot the Church do more to express in fellowship of worship and service the unity which we have with one another in Jesus Christ our Lord? Which is more important in God’s sight, our deep fundamental unity or the divisions which we might never have thought of if we had not inherited them? "If the Church has nothing to say about these things then the bible has a good deal to say about them,” he added, “and out of our own Sacreu Book our critics condemn us.” It was largely cowardice, laziness, and indifference that prevented witnessing to God’s ways and will. Neglect to think, to decide, to speak, and to act was a subtle, easily overlooked and cowardly kind of betrayal.