The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1938. CHURCH UNION

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 206, 28 May 1938, Page 10

The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1938. CHURCH UNION

An interesting incident of the Wellington Terrace Congregational Church jubilee thanksgiving service on Wednesday evening last was an eloquent plea by the Bishop of Aotea-roa, the Rt. Rev. F. A. Bennett, for a union of the churches of all denominations. The churches, he pleaded, should work together. They were bound by the love of Jesus Christ, and should forget their petty differences in the extension of His Kingdom. The movement for Church unity has beep gathering weight in the Mother Country,, where several important conferences have been held to ffiscuss the differences which have kept the various religious denominations apart, and how these might be reconciled. Those interested in the movement are the Church of England and the Free Churches. Their leaders are strongly imbued with the conviction that a united front must be presented to the enemies of organised religion, who in recent years have been multiplying to an extent that now constitutes a. deadly menace to the Church. It has been freely admitted that the Church to-day is fighting a defensive battle against the forces of apathy on the one hand and atheism on the other. But the difficulties in the way of reunion are so great that it may be seriously doubted whether the movement will be successful. It may seem strange, even alien to Christian principle, that the spiritual unity implied in a common allegiance to God. and Christ should have been shattered into so many fragments by dissensions on matters of order and ritual. The fact to be remembered', however, is that involved in these divisions and subdivisions of organised religion into so many sects was also an underlying principle of action, the right claimed by the dissenters to worship in their own way. And there were other factors. \ The Wesleyan movement, the bi-centenary of which is being celebrated by the Methodist Church throughout the world this month, represented in one respect a revolt against the lethargy and apparent indifference of the English clergy .of that day in the midst of social evils that were multiplying alarmingly in the eighteenth century. John Wesley’s evangelistic war against those evils not only created a new religious order which bore his name, but also set in motion moral and philanthropic forces that have played a strong part in developing a national Christian conscience in. England, and inspired various celebrated campaigns in the field of social reform. Under the impetus of these movements the Church has become importantly identified with social reforms and services, and for its work in this field has a large claim upon the gratitude of the people. Here again the various denominations are spiritually united in a common purpose. Again it might be asked why it should be so difficult for religious bodies having a common allegiance to the Christian Faith and to the fundamentals of the philanthropy Christ preached while on earth, to solve the problem of organic, union. The answer probably lies in the fact of history that religion in the past has not only had to fight for its freedom from tyranny and oppression from without, but from similar evils from within, and from the latter has emerged the claim of the individual to the right to worship in his own way; The task of the Church’s leaders will be to convince its individual members that the'common cause is sufficiently urgent to require of them some measure of compromise that will enable the foundations and the structure to be strengthened against the dangers that threaten it. That the cause is urgent is beyond question. There seems to be little or no difficulty- as fat as the Free Church denominations are concerned. “Much though I love my Church,” said Dr. Jones, president of the National Free Church Council,” I would let the name ‘Congregationalist’ go if thereby I could help in the creation of a United Free Church of England.” The real difficulty is when it comes to a question of the Free Churches joining up with the Church of England. On this point Dr. Jones declares that “anything like union with our Anglican friends is not yet practical politics. In Edinburgh,” he added, “the conference came to something like, unanimity about the Faith. The clash came about the matter of Orders and Sacraments.” In the speaker’s opinion the work of union should begin with the Free Churches. “We are in full spiritual fellowship with one another,” he said. “That spiritual fellowship should find expression in a union that all the world can see. It is not,” he concluded, in a further reference to the question of union with the Church of England, “the ministry that creates the Church. The ministry is at once created by the Church, and is God’s gift to the Church. That is the difference that divides us. It may be, in God’s providence, that some day this difficulty will be removed.”