SALVATION ARMY IN N.Z.

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29220, 2 June 1960, Page 12

SALVATION ARMY IN N.Z.

“Healthy Part Of The Movement” (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. June 1. Though the Salvation Army would probably always be a minority religion because of the exacting self-discipline it demanded, New Zealand was always considered as a “healthy part” of the movement, said the new Salvation Army Commissioner for New Zealand (Commissioner A. J. Gilliard) in Wellington today. Commissioner Gilliard was principal of the army’s international college for officers in London for more than five years before his present appointment. Before that he spent eight years in the United States as personnel director in the western Slates, and as chief secretary in the southern States. The problems confronting humanity were international ones, said Commissioner Gilliard. Broken homes, delinquents, and irresponsible parents were not confined to one country or one race.

The Church had noticed, however, that there was. particularly in Europe, a spiritual awakening. While it was small and unspectacular, church leaders were confident that some people were turning to a more serious way of life.

There were many reasons why the Church had lost much of its influence. Among them were the failure in the early years of the century to keep pace with modern thinking, the opposition of the Church to science, the big differences, particularly in England, between the rich and the poor, and the slowness of the Church to take social action. The world wars and the depression had also been disrupting forces, and gradually religion had become something on the edge of many people’s lives.