WORLD AT A CRISIS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 16, 13 October 1933, Page 9

WORLD AT A CRISIS

What of Christianity?

FAILURE TO CONTROL

Primate Outspoken

Dominion Special Service.

Auckland, October 12. “The world has come to a crisis,” said Archbishop Averill when delivering his charge to Synod. “Communists insist that they can show us the way to surmount the crisis and find real life. Christians, on the other hand, deny the Communist claim, and declare that it’s plain has fatal flaws in it, but are we going to prove ourselves as much in earnest over building a kingdom as those others are about building their Communist state? “It is perfectly useless to shut our eyes to the fact that Christianity has not permeated civilisation, even in so-called Christian countries, and has not extended the Kingdom of God over financial, economic, industrial, social and international life. It is perfectly useless to restrict Christian religion to individual conduct and salvation and to leave no room for Christ in the business, political and economical life of the world. “As we look at the world to-day can we possibly imagine any semblance to the Kingdom of God? Can we see any clear-cut sense of right and wrong? Is the world capable of using aright the prodigal gifts of natural science? Now that science has made all men and all nations near neighbours, are men capable of acting neighbourly? Is there any spirit of God, of love, of service or of sacrifice in national relationships to-day? “What is the value of treaties and pacts and conferences when nations dishonour their own signatures and promise of allegiance and have no sense of loyalty to truth or to one another? The world, urged on by a world spirit, is drifting into secret or open antagonisms, into mutual suspicions which are the very antithesis of brotherhood. The of the -Disarmament and Economic Conferences and the secret and open return to recrudescence in the race of armaments can end in only one way because the power of Christian public opinion is too weak to be an effective antidote.

“It is useless to shut our eyes to facts. Christianity is failing to control the ideals of nations, international relationships and social relationships and readjustments.”

MANY PROBLEMS STILL Warning by Archbishop SEARCH FOR A SOLUTION By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, October 12. “In spite of the gleams of sunshine which make a rift in the clouds of world depression, we cannot be t<)o optimistic about the immediate future so long as Europe and other parts of the world are again verging on a cataclysm and feverishly piling up armaments, and so long as the nations cannot, or will not, face the question of financial readjustments and rise above self-interest and narrow nationalism,” said Archbishop Averill in his charge to the Anglican Synod, which opened to-day. His Grace said that the world could not escape from the problem of unemployment, the remedy of which lay not in decreasing production but in increasing purchasing power. We had passed beyond the stage of seasonal unemployment, and were face to face with endemic unemployment. Temporary expedients such as had been adopted in America might help to tide a country over immediate difficulties, but did they touch the real problem? Surely there must be some solution, if only statesmen, financiers, and economists had the moral courage to seek for it and translate words into actions. In a small country like ours it should be possible to make bold experiments, if only the politicians would put the welfare of individuals before party and work together for the common cause. His Grace referred to the cut in pensions, especially old-age pensions, as in some ways the most distressing feature of all. He said he believed New Zealanders would gladly share the extra burden needed for paying them in full.