Presbyterian Laymen Affirm Beliefs

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31168, 19 September 1966, Page 1

Presbyterian Laymen Affirm Beliefs

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, September 18.

More than 1700 people in the Auckland Town Hall today heard laymen of the Presbyterian Church affirm their faith in the traditional beliefs of the church and appeal for rededication to church tenets.

Speakers criticised the clergy for failing to reply adequately to recent statements questioning the validity of church beliefs. The public meeting was convened by the newly-formed Association of Presbyterian Laymen, which seeks more positive action from the church to counter the statements.

At the end of the two-hour meeting 450 people completed a form expressing agreement with the association’s objectives “in seeking to help restore confidence in the church’s theological training. Those who completed the form will also be given details of a petition the association intends to submit to the General Assembly; which will meet in November. Among those at the meeting were the Moderator of the Auckland Presbytery, the Rev. K. H. Evans, Presbytery members and Mr K. W. Hay. Mavor of Mt. Roskill. The chairman was Mr H. D. Labie, Mayor of Manukau and chairman of the Auckland Regional Authority. Presenting Case As a result of an invitation extended at the meeting by the Moderator the association will nominate six elders to attend a special meeting of the Presbytery to discuss the association’s case. “The Presbytery recognises certain things more clearly since the turmoil of the last few days,” Mr Evans said. “Among these are the depth of unrest in the church on doctrinal matters, and the way In which our church, partly because of its existing structures, can seem to be blocking positive forward movements by the weight of tradition and machinery. “1 am here as Moderator of the Presbvtery to make you the foliowine assurances. “The Presbytery is determined to preserve the unity of the church in the bond of love and in that snirit regards this meeting of laymen as something which God nvw use for the health of the whole church. we seek as a court to hear your noints of concern more attentively and understandingly than we have heard them before,” Mr Evans said. Fnr the association Mr R J. Wardlaw said the meeting had been independently convened. not to show any spirit of indenendence but to avoid giving the misleading impression that the meeting was officially sponsored. Given recognition, the association could make a useful

contribution in furthering the gospel and could provide the answer to repeated pleas by the ministry for a response from laymen to answer the urgent need for a more deeply committed laity.

“Defending Ministry”

“In finding ourselves taking issue with opinions on doctrine we draw our comfort from the origins of the Christian faith—simple origins in humble men, most of whom were ignorant and unlearned and none of whom enjoyed the religious ordination of their day,” he said. “In challenging those in our church who deny such essentials of faith as the truth of the miraculous resurrection of the divine Christ and deny, at least by inference, that there is a supernatural God and a sunernatural realm we be’ieve that we are acting in defence of the ordained min-ist-v in our church.” To accent the concepts of secular Christianity or to consent to their being taught was to reduce the ministry to the status of glorified social workers.

“If it is even possible that secular Christianity could be right in its claims, such terms as the doctrine of grace and the words of the sacrament of communion can only be regarded as hopeful mumbo jumbo,” he said. He said the association did not suggest that a majority of ministers did not hold

sound beliefs but rather that through complex problems inherent in the church’s form of government they were inhibited in their efforts to maintain their beliefs. “You have all read your newspapers and listened to the radio and watched television,” he said. “And you have no doubt been filled with a growing sense of dismay as one churchman after another has thrown doubt on the basic beliefs of the Christian church and the expected defence by the church of its unchangeable doctrines has not materialised. The New Zealand source of the teachings opposed by the association had said in print that the real doubting Thomases of the church today were those who clung to the idea of supernatural God and a miracle-working Christ, Mr Wardlaw said. “This statement leaves no doubt that the viewpoint we oppose and which we ask our church to deny is so radically different from Christ-centred Christianity as to be another religion altogether a religion that is man-centred. “We flatly deny the right of anyone to attempt to change the very nature of our church’s faith from within the church and without a constitutional mandate,” he said. Effects Two-Fold Mr I. M. Moses said the effects of recent statements by those in authority in the qhurch had been two-fold. Some people had said that

the Christian religion had been made more credible because it was no longer necessary to believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. The statements had had the opposite effect on others, who felt that the foundation of faith had been swept aside. “If Christ is not risen what have we to offer people?” he said.

Mr Moses said there was a need to pray that from the turmoil a statement would be issued by the General Assembly in November showing an understanding of modern man and reaffirming belief in truths which were just as valid now as they were 2000 years ago.