RECTOR'S DESPAIR

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 67, 22 March 1929, Page 17

RECTOR'S DESPAIR

A LIVING RESIGNED

APATHY TO THE CHUItCH

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, sth February. A rector's resignation from his living in the little village of Hedgerley, Buckinghamshire, has drawn attention to tho growing apathy of the country folk to the claims ot the Church. After eight years' Work the Rev. W. O'Connor has resigned his living because his parishioners refuse to go to church. He makes the announcement in the parish mugaziuG; "There is only one reason for my retiring," lie writes, "and that is the feeling | o£ depression and discouragement which has been growing on me for the last three or four years. There is in this parish a number of people who never enter God's house; there is a large number who enter it very rarely. What grieves ihe most is to see so many of the boys and girls following the example, of their elders and cutting themselves oS from the means of grace. The worship of God is a trouble to them, and they seldom or never darken the door of His house. I have failed to influence them; I feel as if I were up against a brick, wall; and so I had better retire. This ib my only reason for leaving Hedgerley, which I love, and where personally I have experienced only friendship and personal goodwill during the last eight years." j Mr. O'Connor, who is an elderly man, With a friendly, courteous manner, said that the only reason for his retirement is the utter indifference of hid people to religion. "In the last fotrf years I have become increasingly depressed," ho said. "I have 350 parishioners, but I Seldom have a congregation df more than 30, although ou great festivals, and particularly at the harvest festival, it may reach 50. There is no other, place of W6rship in the village; it is not a Question of farm labourers preferring chapel to church. I "They simply won't have anything to do with religion, and I have found it impossible to get through their apathy to' any latent belief. I "People aie always nice to me when I go to see them," Mr. O'Connor continued. "But if I ask them Why they won't come to church they have all kinds of excuses. Sometimes they reply that they can t be bothered.' Or they will tell me that they are too busy, or too tired. Some of the children go to church, but as soon as they leave school they leave church. "It is a vain fight, Mr. O'Connor added. "They do not help With suggestions for deepening the spiritual work of tho parish, or even propose a different kind of service. Some of the older people, I imagine, retain the old love of the Bible, but most of them are neither interested in tho Church nor religion."

THE OLDEST INHABITANT. It was left for the oldest inhabitant \o attempt explanation (writes a Press representative), and with it ho gave his philosophy of life as he saw it and had seen it in that village for over half a century. He is Mr. Fred Arlett, an ancient with a ready wit and Some strong convictions. "Why don't I go to church? he asked. "Well, now, that's funny, it's just what vicar asked mo not a month ago. I'll tell you the same as I told him, young man, and that's to mind your own business." ■ I After a time, however, ho relented, and agreed to think about it. "Well," he said, "I suppose it it because I Was driven to go when I was young. But, mind you, I have a Bible which I won at Sunday school, and I read that every day. If you do that there a no call- to go to church. Parson can't teach you more than that." After another long period of rumination, ho added With pride: "And, mind you, I'm a better man than many of them as do go." One cpuld not help feeling that the old man's philosophy is one held' by many in the English countryside to-day. "Yes, he proceeded, "people t used to go before the war and make their kids go, too. But nobody ever seems to make children do anything in these days. They just do what they like, and it isn't human nature that they should 8° to church of their own accord." .1.1.* He summed up on a note which is otten struck by philosophers and others who watch the way of the world from more exalted positions than this old Buckinghamshire labourer, "Everybody does just what they like now," he said. "They don't cure so much what other people think about them. • It's that war. It has changed everything." Nobody in the village had a word to say against Ml. O'Connor, who is a courtly, scholarly clergyman of obvious sincerityit is just that ho and the Church find so little part in the villagers' lives. He has held livings in Ireland, and was for many years actively identified with medical missionary work in India. His resignation takes effect in February. _«„_____—.