CLERGY’S HANDICAPS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 46, 18 November 1936, Page 12

CLERGY’S HANDICAPS

“Ministry Stultified By Stereotyped Methods” LAYMAN’S FRANK COMMENT “Most ministers of religion are honest and good men who are doing their job to the best of their ability, but they are handicapped by orthodoxy and conventionality. Their ministry is being stultified by adherence to stereotyped methods iu the conduct of church worship, by following the same order of hymn a_nd prayer, lesson and sermon, Sunday after Sunday, without variety.” The foregoing opinions were expressed in an address given last evening by .Mr. J. M. Thompson. Lower Hutt. at. a social gathering held in the Taranaki Street Methodist schoolroom. Wellington, at which a welcome was tendered to the ministers and laymen who are attending the annual synod of the Wellington district of the Methodist Church. Even Hie distinctive attire of tlie minister, said Mr. Thompson, who represented the laity in the welcome to the synod members, was a barrier to his free and effective mingling among men. Wearing the collar back-to-front marked him out as someone who was to be regarded as on a different plane from other men. (Cries of dissent.) In the course of further frank remarks ou the theme of what be called "stocktaking” in church enterprise. Mr. Thompson criticised the lack of support extended to the clergy by some of the very laymen who were responsible for the invitations given to ministers to labour in a circuit, and whose attendance at the services was most intermittent. He also deprecated the lack of financial support accorded to the church by laymen who were in a position to help it more generously, and said the. services of worship should be budgeted for by heads of households just as the domestic needs of the family were budgeted for. The “church of the future" was the theme of another speaker, the Rev. S. Hindmarsh, of Eketahuna. who said there was need for Hie church welcoming to its ranks men who would help in tlie necessary task of adapting the church’s message to the changed conditions of the times, while at the same time conserving what was of value in tlie theology and practice of an earlier generation. Another of the essential requirements of the church of the future was a deepened spirituality in its ministry and membership. The gathering was presided over by the Rev. E. P. Bia mires (president of the sreneral conference), and a welcome was tendered to the visitors by the Rev. P. R. Paris (minister of Taranaki Street Church). The speeches were interspersed by musical items, tlie contributors being Mrs. McAlister. Miss Joy Sutherland. Mrs. Maul. Mrs. H. F. Gardiner, Revs. J. 11. Haslam and A. M. Costain. Messrs. E. L. Howe. C. V. Svcnson and B. Stokes.