CHURCH CONGRESS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 126, 24 November 1925, Page 7

CHURCH CONGRESS

FREE AND FRANK DISCUSSION

INDIFFERENT SERMONS

BEY. E. J. CAMPBELL ON THE LABOUE MOVEMENT.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, 15th October

There was general agreement that the Church Congress, which was brought to a close with a thanksgiving service in Chichcster Cathedral, had been noteworthy for free and ' frank discussion of world problems and the high plane reached by the speakers. Dr. E. 3. Campbell, of Brighton, who preached at Chichester Cathedral, referred to the reunion movement. ' The most important object had already been gained, he said, in that the two main Christian communities into which England was divided had learned to know and trust each other as never before. The change of spirit in the last twenty years was truly marvellous. The essential factor of the realisation of Christian unity had in an unprecedented degree como to occupy the foremost of their thoughts. "There are two spirits at work," lie said, "in the Labour movement — 'the spirit of Christ and the spirit of nuu-Chrisf.. Ihcio .'a on the one hand the spirit of grofit Labour statesmen striving from directly Christian sources, and there is the spirit of greed and rancour on the other, and these two can never make terms. Wo have had reassuring evidence of late that it is the former that prevails with the British working man up to t;ie present.

"WE NEED A BE VOLUTION."

"We do need a revolution very sadly," said Mr. Campbell, "but it is a different kind of revolution from that proclaimed by the advocates of class war. It is a revolution in our own ways and thinking." Augustine* Birr ell had said that when at the beginning of the last ceutmy the unhappy 'oilers of this country wcjc looking to revolutionary France, as many of tho same class wore looking to revolutionary Russia now, the one factor which more than any other saved England from bloody internecine strike was tho spiritual fervour which followed upon tho preaching of •.Tohn Wesley. "The saiao prophetic spirit that saved Englacd then," said Mr, Campbell, "can save England now, and what will save England will savo the world."

They should unite in earnest prayer for a reawakening in the spiritual consciousness of tho people of our race, and there were many signs that we •are at the beginning of a 7isw cwa in thi3 respect. Those gathered there might live to sco the most overwhelming return to Christ ou the part of all nations: "thuj;' had.over '.b'eeii ,'krio.wn, and to partaho in the greatest spiritual advance that had ever Jjccij since Christiiuiity. began.-,., ...... . . ,'■ •

COUNTRY PARSON'S LIPJ3. •

A great deal of newspaper correspondence has contred around tho complaint of indifferent preaching which was made by the Archbisuop of Canterbury at tho opening of the Congress. One of the rank and file of country parsons supplies two very cogent reasons for poor preaching. "First of all, books are of a prohibitive price; in vain one triew at a good book shop to obtain food for thought, but this kind of food, like material food", lias gone up in price, and one cannot afford to spend 6a and then to find out the book will not do. Secondly, the average country parson cannot afford the odd man of prewar days, with the result that there are numberless jobs—pumping ,tho water, cutting wood, etc.—whicih, when a man has a family, are no mean tasks; I have not mentioned the garden, which js an appalling problem all to itself. Now these odd jobs extend to other things in tho parish which people of comparative leisure formerly undertook. That class pt person uoos not exist; they are neither workjug for their living or saving servants' ivages by working at home. Further, the idea of free evenings in the country, when a man could put on his slippers after the evening meal and read, is fallacious. The country is alive with social life, and though we parsons do always organise it, if we neglect it we miss the most valuable opportunity of seeing people we do not see in their homes, and over and over pgain I have found, by attending 4 Tillage social, dance, or whist drive, that men and women have spoken of itatters they would never have raised in their homes. I agree that evpn if shprt sermons arc now demanded it is next to impossible to keep fresh unless we can buy books and have inoi'c of an atmosphere conducive to study. In the town committee work can be scrapped or refused; in the country if you do not pump vp 1 your y/ater and cut your wood, trouble follows!

"It is the fault of the archaic system which asks a man to live in a huge house and garden and to live like a gentleman, and states a wage which is often below that of a mechanic. In many cases the parson has given up one essential of pastoral •work, namely, visiting; he says, 'I will look after my garden, a few sick folk, and my sermons; I can do no more.' This to my mind is deplorable, for it has been well said that if a parson is invisible during the week he is likely to be unintelligible on Sunday." ADMIRAL'S PLEA FOR DISARMAMENT. Sir JTreclerick Lugard, Commander of the Legion of Honour, speaking at the congress with regard to our trusteeship for other 1 races, ma do an outspoken vindication of thrt honest mid honourable part played by captains of industry and governors of tropics! regions in dealing with native population!!, and emphatically denied the cliaige of "exploitation.?> Then came an exposure of indiscipline in modern life and. a slashing attack on the sins of society. Finally, the unusual spectacle was presented of a fighting Vice-Admiral (Vico-Adininil Drury Lowe), making a passionate appeal for disarmament and peace, biickeii up in person by leading rcpreaen'.a-' tives of the Council of the Free Churches. 85, Fleet street.