PROBLEMS OF TODAY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 91, 14 October 1935, Page 4

PROBLEMS OF TODAY

THE CHUKCH'S FAILURE

PRINCIPLE OF SELF-DENIAL

_ "Affairs in the world at, large still give cause for grave apprehension," said the Bishop of Waiapu, the Rt. Rev. H. W. Williams, in the course of his annual address on Thursday afternoon to members of the' clergy and laity at the opening of the Synod at Napier. "The financial depression has lifted but little, and a very slight improvement has been achieved in the unemployment situation; and now it appears possible that the world may be plunged into war. Italy has opened hostilities against Abyssinia in the face of the universal disapproval of the nations of the world; and who can tell where the trouble will end?

"In times such as this," said the bishop, "one hears harsh criticism of the Church, from widely-differing quarters. On the one hand there are those, often but little interested in the Church, who ask scornfully, 'What is the Church doing? Why does she not boldly demand the reduction of armaments? 'What has she done to relieve the trouble of unemployment?' and so on. On the other hand, when efforts are being made resentment is shown; the clergy are told not to meddle in affairs which are riot their business, and to keep their hands off politics. Critics of the Church have generally very vague ideas of what constitutes the Church; it cannot be too strongly emphasised that padres of this denomination or that are not the Church. Any defect which may be charged against the Church must be placed to the account of the laity as "well as the clergy. And yet all these things are emphatically the concern of the Church. It is her duty to probe, the source of the trouble and to seek a remedy, and we must with shame admit that the Church's failure is. in a large measure at the root of all the trouble. A DORMANT VIRTUE. "The first demand made by our L6"rd upon a would-be, disciple is. that he shall deny himself; but this primary Christian virtue has long been dormant and now largely fails to affect our national, our civic, and even bur personal lives. ' "Acquisitiveness rather than selfdenial is obviously the motive of much of our conduct," . added ..the bishop. "Material wealth- has become the dominant measure value, and hence springs every form of unhealthy rivalry.. "As far as we can judge,,greed and national pride are the sole causes of the present war.' The relentless pursuit of weslth and of money is the main factor in the impasse which we have .reached in the financial field. Affirmation at the Christian principle of self-denial vill operate ir. all fields, and this is the Church's paramount duty. I am not without hope for the future, but it is folly to shut our eyes to the fact that if these ends are not obtained by Christian means attempts will not long be delayed to achieve them apart from Christ. It is the Church's opportunity: may she not betray her Lord." ■