Anglican Sunday Schools Lack Pupils, Teachers

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30269, 23 October 1963, Page 11

Anglican Sunday Schools Lack Pupils, Teachers

Concern that only 13,000 out of 54,000 children attending State primary schools attended diocesan Sunday schools was expressed in the report of the diocesan board of Christian Education to the Synod of the Diocese of Christchurch. The board was also concerned at the great difficulty in recruiting suitable Sunday school teachers; the apathy of vestries and parishioners to the religious instruction of children, “reflected in an over-emphasis on buildings and not on the child of God”; and the urgent need of the Anglican Church to catch up to the standard set by other denominations In the production of Sunday school literature.

The board reported on progress being made on the provincial youth conference to be held next year. The Bishop of Guildford (the Rt. Rev. G. Reindorp) has agreed to be main speaker, and several experts in their fields will lead the worships.

The Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt Rev A. K. Warren) will be conference chairman, the Rev. Canon M. Peaston will lead the Bible studies, and the Bishop of Nelson (the Rt Rev. O. M. Huhne-Moir) will be the chaplain. Correspondence courses on the Christian faith have been started by the adult education council, the report stated. Twenty-eight parishes have studied the courses. “Christian parents must be the first educationists. More practising Christians in their late twenties and early thirties must offer to teach in the Sunday schools and Bible classes. Every parish should have an adult group continuously exploring their faith together,” the report said.

A mass movement to study the works of Mao Tse-Tung is under way in China, where the Communist Party has recently denied that there is any “personality cult”— Reuter.