‘Church A Failure’

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31123, 28 July 1966, Page 18

‘Church A Failure’

The last 25 years had been “a most gruelling and crippling failure” for the Christian church, said the Rev. E. G. Buckle. He was introducing a group of 16 background papers to be discussed by the two-day consultation called by the National Council of Churches to study the position of the Christian Church in New Zealand. The consultation, which marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the council, is being attended by about 100 delegates from member churches. It would provide a pool of ideas to meet the situation the church faced in the future, said the convener, the Rev. W. Ford. The papers cover a wide range of subjects including the arts, international affairs, immigration, social groupings and loss from the churches, “secular man,” the welfare state and sociological study. Questions raised when the groups presented their reports included Christian responsibility in the affluent society; the persistant legacy of Victorian morality built into New Zealanders; complacency and acceptance of low standards; lack of personal goals; the handling of new leisure in an age of automation; attitudes to education; general ignorance of the Pacific and Asia; and the need to ask specific questions about New Zealand's immigration policy.