Dean Discusses Youth Problems

Press, Volume C, Issue 29634, 3 October 1961, Page 10

Dean Discusses Youth Problems

“The life» of the adolescent in my generation was much less complex than is that facing the growing boy or girl today,” said the Dean and Vicar-General of Christchurch (the Very Rev. M. Sullivan) in his address to the Anglican synod of the Diocese of Chrostchurch yesterday afternoon.

“Our pleasures were necessarily simple and restricted and our temptations were not so pressing. We had less money, fewer motorcars and almost no serious distractions. If we behaved differently from the modern adolescent it was due, in part, to the fact that we were guarded and protected by church, home and school. The disciplines of life were easier to impose and to accept. ( “Undoubtedly there was rebellion, but it was less marked because its effects were not so obvious to the public eye,” Dean Sullivan said. Faith Challenged Earlier, Dean Sullivan said the claims of the Christian faith, particularly in the realms otf conduct and behaviour, were being seriously challenged, ignored, and even flouted. A whole new world had emerged since the end of the last; war, he said. The youngster of 16 had grown up in the Welfare'State and known no other economy. He had nothing but the talk of wars and rumours, of wars. “He lives perpetually under the threat of the bomb and its annihilating consequences.

“In this lovely land of ours het has always basked

in economic security and has never lacked money or the freedom to enjoy himself. He has been educated under a system which has aimed to remove all the drudgery of learning and emphasised the necessity for promotion in school on the basis that he must progress easily from class to class lest failure damage him in some way,” he said. “If, however, he lives it. a perilous age, he nevertheless finds it exciting but the excitement before long turns to bewilderment. At this point he faces his real problems and it is here that . the Church must try to meet him with understanding.” Courses and Tours One of Dean Sullivan’s suggestions was that successive groups of young persons should tour in under-nour-ished. countries in South-East Asia. Another was that he would like to see the Government appoint lecturers in Teachers’ Colleges who Would give courses in religious knowledge. He said this was a purely personal opinion. Attendance at these courses would have to be on a voluntary basis.