MARRIAGE AND HOME LIFE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27378, 17 June 1954, Page 3

MARRIAGE AND HOME LIFE

ADDRESS BY DEAN OF CHRISTCHURCH APPEAL FOR FAMILY UNITY A fear that many so-called homes had “degenerated into bed-and-break-fast establishments” was expressed by the Dean of Christchurch (the Very Rev. Martin Sullivan) in a lunch-time address in the Christchurch Cathedral yesterday. His talk, entitled “Marriage and the Home,” was the last in a series of five addresses on marriage and its problems. Dean Sullivan said that families were in danger of losing a precious possession in loving, working, playing and learning as a team, where unity was visible in spite of aU the obvious differences in personalities. “In how many homes Today are families seen together?” said Dean Sullivan. "What has happened to the hospitality and gaiety that used to centre round the firesides? Do our children bring their friends home to entertain them there? Do we make music, however untuneful it may be? No; we rely on the canned product. Our simple entertainment has been taken over by artificial and simulated substitutes.”

The family pew in churches had also disappeared, said Dean Sullivan. “But one promising feature has replaced it —children’s services, which are becoming increasingly popular, and family services. I am inclined to think that the children are leading the way. “‘Community of Persons” “Home is not simply a place or a building. It, is a community of persons, an atmosphere," he said. “Marriage and family life are the Divinelyappointed means of creating persons, and it is the fullest expression of the principle that the creation of man is a co-operative action—between God and man, and man and woman. “What children learn at home is of greater and more enduring importance than anything else they are likely to learn anywhere,” said Dean Sullivan. “The influence of the home is ineradicable. It rests deep in the human mind and leaves either firm and happy memories, or ugly and unhealed wounds. Nobody can ever overestimate the influence of the home, and we ought continually to look at our values.” Dean Sullivan said it was family life that taught a child. It taught him what pleasures he could enjoy, what careers he ought to carve out or emulate. From it he learnt lessons of cooperation, self-control, loyalty, and sympathy. "Home is the place where not only children are born, but the place where men and women are made,” he said. “In a Christian community we should always find good home conditions for parents and children. Good home conditions are the outward signs of inward, invisible grace.”