SPORTSMEN'S SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 136, 5 December 1929, Page 7

SPORTSMEN'S SERVICE

CHURCH CONTROVERSY

REPLY TO CANON JAMES

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, This Day.

As convener of tlje Public Questions Committee of the Auckland Presbytery, the Rev. W. L. Marsh, of Devonport, made a reply to the published remarks of Canon Pereival James in answer to the criticism of his proposal to start a Sunday morning service specially for sportsmen. Canon James's retorts were directed particularly to comments on the scheme made by the Eev. D. C. Herrony. of St. David's, on Sunday evening. , ■ . "Canon Pereival James deserves at least credit for discovering a new field for missionary work,'' said Mr. Marsh. "Among Siinday sportsmen he finds some of the very best and most serviceable of our fellow citizens, and very properly he wants to win them into the fellowship of the Church for fuller service of the Kingdom of God. He proposes, therefore, to arrange a service #f minimum duration to leave these serviceable people free in the meantime to spend the rest of the day in sport. Ho says they would be happier for it', though apparently he is not sure they would be the bettor. "Surely in vain the net in spread in the sight of any bird. Does Canon James really believe that those who at present have no interest in the fellowship of the Church compared with their interest in sport are likely to land themselves to any scheme calculated to win them into the fuller service of the Kingdom of God? If so, I shall have to concede what I have long tried to disbelieve—that the Canon's zeal is not according to knowledge. We love him for his ingenuous charm, but are forced to believe that he is, after all, an ecclesiastical Peter Pan. "MORE OF PANIC THAN PETER." "All the same, his bitter reply to recent criticism savours more of panic than Peter. He speaks as though it were an outrage to criticise so wellintentioned missionary efforts, but the Canon forgets that others besides sportsmen have a conscience about Sunday, and if his plans seem to such not only utterly futile but dangerous, because they would tend to lead out of the fellowship of church many have a right to say so. It is puerile to characterise the Rev. D. C. Herrou's measured and most relevant examination as a gratuitous attack or denunciation of some person or persons not present (could Canon James have been present in any case?). "If Canon James had made his experiment quietly instead of blazening it abroad along with some very unfortunate remarks about the hardships of having to attend an 11 o'clock service, no one would have made public criticism, but the publicity given raised the whole question of Sunday services and put all those who do not agree with the Canon into a very false position. To try to meet the necessities of modern life is a duty binding on all of us, but it is one thing to provide an extra service and quite another to suggest that the primary duty and privilege of Sunday can be dispensed with in half an hour. "■Without in the least intending it, the Canon has really sold the pass to our common enemy," Mr. Marsh continued. "To reduce religious observance to the minimum in order that the rest of • the day may be given to what is after all an extra indulgence in sport, simply mocks the whole spirit of the faith we profess. The Canon shelves what he calls the difficult question of Sunday recreation, but it is vital to the whole argument. In effect he condones Sunday sport by a special service to bless those who indulge in it. PRINCIPLES AND IDEALS. "Now, while we frankly do not uphold Sabbatarianism, we do believe that observance of Sunday is the strategic position in the struggle between spiritual and secular views of life. If man is nothing more than a complex machine, then the Behaviourists and the Bolsheviks are right, and we should get rid of everything that smacks of principles and ideals. What does truth, however, or chastity matter if we end in a hole at the cemetery? "But if we believe that man is spiritual, with immense possibility for good and evil, and up-to-date, all life confirms that view—then, as the Rev. D. C. Herron rightly said, we are standing at the parting of- the ways. Sunday is the only real opportunity for the vast majority to possess their souls at all without some cessation of the daily round of interests. Without some time free to give to the inner life of the spirit and our families and others, life becomes hard and selfish.

'' It will not become less hard or selfish by a hurried observance of religious rites as a sort of preliminary to the real ■business of the Say on the golf links. "We regard the Canon's proposal ■with dismay because by implication it insults the claims.of the human spirit no less than it denies the lordship of Him whose day it is supremely.

"New Zealanders least of all can complain of the lack of opportunity for sport with summer-time facilities and Saturday practically a sports day," Mr. Marsh said. "It is ridiculous to pretend that we do not pay more than due homage to physical needs. The greatest need of this age is not to be met with potted piety on Sunday morning followed by a repetition of Saturday's physical exercises. Only a frank and.glad recognition of the claims that God and humanity make on our heart, mind, soul, and strength can save our land from the vulgarity of secularism and the loss of all that makes us great. "The unworthy personalities introduced and strictures on Mr. Herron's scholarship are really apart from the controversy, and I can safely leave them to the good sense of the public."