PLEA FOR MORE ORDERLINESS

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27709, 13 July 1955, Page 7

PLEA FOR MORE ORDERLINESS

PRIMATE’S ADDRESS TO SYNOD (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 12. A plea for more orderliness was made by the Primate of New Zealand (Archbishop Owen) in his presidential address to the Wellington Diocesan Synod today. Clergy and laity were both involved to a large extent, he said. “In fulfilling our secular duties it is possible for us to show ourselves good Christians, but many of us could show ourselves better Christians if we introduced more orderliness into the way in which we fulfil these duties,” he continued. “Whenever our duties involve other people—and most of them do—we should be punctual in their fulfilment.” For example’, he said, he had often been shocked by the dilatoriness that sonfe persons seemed to enjoy in answering letters. The good Christian did not take the view that if he delayed long enough a letter would answer itself; he knew that dilatoriness put others to inconvenience, said Archbishop Owen “From time to time we should reconsider the various claims that our work makes on us and decide whether we are giving priority to those parts of it which should demand our best attention,” he said. Unbusinesslike persons, he said, were not only a nuisance to society, but were also ineffective as Christian witnesses.