Peace a must church leader

Press, 1 November 1985, Page 4

Peace a must church leader

PA Dunedin A commitment to peace is a must for the church because God might allow a holocaust, said the new Moderator of the Presbyterian Church yesterday.

The Rt Rev. Dr lan Cairns, of Dunedin, was addressing the General Assembly of the Church at its opening. “God who allowed the flood in Biblical days, God who allowed Hiroshima, God who allowed two world wars, God who allowed grain dumpings and butter mountains alongside the famine in Ethiopia, may very well allow the holocaust,” he said. “Being God’s Church under the mushroom cloud is a new thing, that demands radical abandonment of old stances and a radical commitment to peace. “We dare not say, ‘Don’t worry. You are not really alone. God is there, and God

will not allow the holocaust to happen’.” Dr Cairns said that horrific misuse of atomic knowledge had resulted in the potential to wipe out all life at least 100 times over. Social structures were also in danger of disintegrating. Authority was being Eitioned and people were nchanted, pessimistic, and selfish.

“That is the spirit of the age,” he said. “Ironically it colours the life of the Church because this selfish individualism is born out of despair. “That is the opposite of the attitude that ought to prevail in the Church. The truly Christian attitude gives birth to mutual love and respect, to unity of purpose, and the striving together to help achieve God’s plan for the world.

“The vision of Christ is the real need for the generation,”. Dr Cairns said.