“VERDICT OF NIL”

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24152, 11 January 1944, Page 4

“VERDICT OF NIL”

CHRISTIAN ORDER CAMPAIGN

COMMENT OF “METHODIST

TIMES ”

“Great things were hoped for from the Campaign for Christian Order when it was inaugurated in 1942. But, though much money had been spent, much printer’s ink used, and praiseworthy activity in its interests engaged in here and there, the results have been comparatively small,” states the "New Zealand Methodist Times,” commenting in its New Year issue on the religious outlook in 1944. “It is true that in many places the co-operating churches have been drawn closer together, and in that respect good has been done,” the article continues, “but in regard to the promotion of anything like religious revival the verdict, it has to be confessed, is ‘nil.’ The campaign on the whole has unquestionably been disappointing. It has not produced the effects that many anticipated, and vve doubt whether New Zealand religious life is appreciably different because of the activities of the campaign, and that circumstance is symptomatic.” Grave Moral Slump

“We are passing through a grave moral slump in New Zealand to-day,” the article says. “The Christian church here, in common with other countries, is having a difficult time. The prolongation of the war, with all its tragic tale of slaughter, misery, and woe, is producing a cynicising effect upon many. It is not tending to promote religious earnestness. While many individual churches are thriving and can speak of large congregations and earnest memberships and progressive movements, the majority, we imagine, would have to confess to the opposite. Many churches feel that in their work they are practically ploughing the sands. Too many are satisfied if, in melancholy phrase, they are ‘holding their own.’ ”