CHURCH’S PLACE IN COMMUNITY

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 139, 9 March 1943, Page 5

CHURCH’S PLACE IN COMMUNITY

Motive Of Self-Interest Condemned

Condemnation of the motive of seifinterest in the attitude of many New Zealanders to the political parties is expressed bv the Bishop of M elliugton in the following article, published in, the current issue of "Church and People.” “In the minds of many of our people there is, as far as I can gather, a complete misconception of the place of the Church in the life of the community. Here in New Zealand we seem to be divided into two camps, divided not so much by political principles, as by the material desires of those who dwell within the borders of each eamp. “I must confess I was much disturbed during the last general election by the fact that I hardly came across one voter who was bent on discovering which of the political programmes presented to him would be in the interests of the nation and the community as a whole. Rather every man was asking which party would give him personally the biggest dividend of protection and prosperity. This attitude conies perilously near the class-war, and is a bastard child of democracy. “Now, as a citizen of New Zealand, 1 am concerned as to how in the field of politics personal self-interest can be replaced by national interest or community interest, the true basis of democracy'. Frankly, I can see no hope unless the Christian view of life, standing as it does for the welfare of the community as a whole, grips the imagination and touches the conscience of the people, ine Church is the agent through which this should be done. And yet here is the great is the motive of self-inter-est even in the minds of Church-people, that thev tend to regard the Church as the bulwark of that order ot society which ensures stability or security for themselves. If they are on the Right thev regard it as the Church s duty to defend the status quo; if they are on the Left they demand that the Church shall undermine the present order and create one according to their liking. b rom then differing viewpoints the Church must be a bulwark of vested interests either on the Right or on the Left. “It is the failure to see that, the Church must, first and last be a bulwark of the truth as God reveals it to each generation that tends to cerate division ana misunderstanding both outside and within the Church itself. If in this year we are to move forward as a great felloxysbiii entrusted with the grave responsibility of leading the nation to know the things which belong unto its peace, the Churcli must be neither the National Party at prayer nor the Tfabour Party at prayer. It must stand at the heart of the nation s life, directing its citizens away from senregarding aims; it must be fearless in revealing what is inconsistent with Gods will and purpose in our political, social and economic life; it must indicate the nature of the positive demands which it must make if it is to be faithful to its divine mission. , “There is, moreover, a substantial agreement among the Churches of Chrisendom as to the nature of these requirements. They are embodied in convenient form in the Findings of great oecumenical conferences such as Oxford and Madras. It is the Church’s immediate task to establish these demands as part of the working conviction of all Christians. Ine Church must therefore claim the loyalty of all its members as it strives, to point the way to an ordering of all life which can claim the name of Christian.”