CHURCH OVERSEAS ;

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 68, 21 March 1914, Page 6

CHURCH OVERSEAS ;

A CLERGYMAN'S CANDID COMMENTS MR. WOOLLCOMBR'S HOOK. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, /lth Kobruaiy. A very l>ra*z\ xolnnu'of lrniini. dices and inipr": : lions has been publi -lied by Ihe U.m-. H. S. Woolleoinbe (Ihioiif/Ji '.-Oiigmiins) b'V.vmg on liis. visit lo tin" 1 (Joimnioiis on ih'lnli of the Church of England Alon'.s Society. AJ r. Woolhombe's book is full of airvdotes whit n must, bo load. He is most instructive in his iinprussion&ol' the v.-oik the Chui'di .s doing in Australasia and tho way iv is doing it. To this he devotes a whole chapter fiom which 1 quote . " At first [ fell there was a mysterious difference between the leligious atmosphere abroad and thai, at tlome which 1 could not explain ; a lack of something which 1 could not .name. I asked one of the bishops whether he could interpret my feelings. And he exclaimed at once : Ah, you are beginning to lealiso what It is to come from England with its centuries of tradition to a lountry that has to make its own; at H.->mo the Church supports you, here you have to support the Church. Living in a, country, as wo do at Home, steeped in custom, one does not realise its power of influence until it is removed. . . " One often hears that Anglican Churchmanship at Homo rests too much on custom and convention, and too little on personal conviction and experience, so that many are in danger of losing their religious sense, and even their religious faith, under the trying circumstances of new conditions of life. Poi\ naturally in a new country the forces of materialism are very stiong. " The Anglican Church always starts with a handicap in the colonies. Owing to our endowments at Home our people are not trained to give, as the members of other religious bodies are ; and one part of the clergyman's duty abroad is to do tho work which we Anglican clergy ought to have done at Home, of training our people in the duty of systematic support of their Church. One hopes that the Church's new finance scheme will train our people in a lesson which any colonial clergyman in a new district will tell you that we need to learn. I "We speak sometimes of the clergy sotting an example of the simple ,liie. Our brethren certainly do so in tho colonies. Most of them have to suppoit themselves and their families on a wage little better than that of the labourers on the farms ; many of tbe'm scarcely expect a holiday, which we at Home demand as right or look upon as a duty. A FEW SUGGESTIONS. "I hope I shall bo paidoned if I venture to make a few criticisms and suggestions. I would not have anyone think that it is my opinion that the Church ab Home has all to teacli and nothing to learn from the Church abroad. We both need to learn from one another. It' religion is really to grip these hard-headed, practical men, it must be preached as something which has a direct relation to life. One feels everywhere that the religious appeal loses its force because we clergy are apt to forget this great and sell-evident truth. "We have allowed our Church life to get too much bound tip with old. ideas and social customs which are now passing away. We have preached the religion of a book rather than of a life. We have laid too much stress on ecclesiastical faults, such as lack of attendance at church, and too little on the great moral evils — selfishness, injustice, impurity, and the like; with the result that in spite of the devotion of many earnest Labour leaders to the person and teaching of Christ, they feel that tho Church of to-day has no real inspiration to give them in their dreams of progress for what are commonly Called the working classes. THE HATEFUL PEW RENT. "In a democratic country it is surely a mistake, however great may be the temptation, to continue tho hateful system of pew-rented churches. I know there is much that can be said in favour oi a system which secures a regular income lor a parish church with no endowment, but surely it shows a sad lack of faith, and a still greater lack of vision, that such a system can be perpetuated in. countries where class distinctions are even lees popular than they are at home. "1 suppose the real secret of pew rents lies in this, that the ordinary Anglican cannot be persuaded to oifer any regular payment towards his Church unless he gets something definite in the way of return. The rent of a pew, which he can then claim as his sole possession, appeals very strongly to the Enghbh mind. . . . Everywhere I find Churchmen of the humbler clause*, bit terly opposed to this old-fashioned system. It is Church people at Homo who are really most to blame. With our endowments we have no right to use Buch methods of raising money, and there is little doubt that if the "Free and Open, Church Association 1 had its way in the Old Country the churches abioad. would very quickly follow our example. NO REFRESHING NOVELTY. In all parishes where Church work depends for its financial existence on the-well-to-do, a, clergyman must find it extremely difficult to disclose his sympathy with, the aims and hopes of the poorer portion of his flock. In many cases, perhaps for these very reasons, the Church abroad seems eveji more- out of touch with Labour than, we are at Home, and 1 fancy this w,a& the experience of tho members of the Mission of Help .to New Zealand. "Once- more, our dear old Church of England is quite extraordinarily unadaptable. 1 quite expected to find a refreshing novelty about methods of Church work in a new country, of experiments in services outside the limits of th*> I'/a.yer Book. But I am bound to confess tbat here again I think it is true to say, that tho Church abroad is even le&s adaptable than the Church at Home. It would be comic if it were nofc pathetic to realise that we have transported into democratic Australia and New Zealand all our old Anglican system, a* it it were some Heaven-born and inspired plan of Church life, instead of being the gradual result of the environment in which the Church has grown up at Home. It is surprising to find enormous districts organised as parishes where no parochial life- is possible, to find cathedrals so-onlled which in many raept* aif* only parish churches, with a parish attached, presided over by a Dean ■with the archaic dresf, which may he all very well in an English cathedral town, but »i quite out of place- hi i< hmd f ulL f of upw idfa«. 11 I may daiv l<, f-ay i-0,, the Bishop.-, who appeared lo in" to have Uw* !ic»fc grip of the- people in I heir own diocosf were cenninly no thosve who vr a noted for then cpiPi'opal dignity, o! lor Uie correctness oi their co-tume. but those who were more often addressed by the affectionate name ol 'r^rtp' tha/i tlii> dignified title of 'My Lord.' "Thih biinw lack of adaptability, as at Home so abroad, is seen in our exclusive devotion to the sen luib of our frayer Buuki . . • Occasionally we ought tuiMy in Intel room in our Otuuxli fvv ,<t«mj;eß where gresier treedgm. both yf

ai'wUigemunt and expression might be a!i^v;t"l under duo authority. It i» idle to Miupot-e that tho Mouiod^tc with iUc'r type of ser\ ice do not meet a veal ricwi yinong Anglo-Saxon people, and J oit.' old Church should be piepared to meoL that neul."