THE MISSION FIELD

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 40, 15 August 1940, Page 7

THE MISSION FIELD

APPEAL BY BISHOP

"MOST IMPORTANT WORK"

NEED FOR MONEY

An inspiring appeal for greater energy to be devoted to what he described as the Church's most important work —the spreading of the Gospel through overseas missions—was made last evening by the Bishop of Waikato, the Rt. Rev. C. A. Cherrington, in an address at the rally which concluded the annual festival of the New Zealand Anglican Board of Missions. There was nd lack, he said, of men and women ready to enter the mission field, but. the great need today was for money to equip them for their task and give the Church its full scope among the peoples to whom the Word was being taken. The Board of Missions was launching an appeal for £19,000, but he did not think that £50,000 would be too much to ask.

The Archbishop and Primate of New Zealand, the Most Rev. Campbell WestWatson, presided at the rally, which was held in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall.

His Grace referred to the encouraging and inspiring success of the festival, wnich had been conducted on a new plan suggested by Bishop Cherrington. In some ways, he said, the Anglican Church in New Zealand was a pioneer; all the various missionary societies supported by the Church had been co-ordinated, and worked not in competition but in co-operation. For fifteen or sixteen years the work had proceeded with wonderful harmony. Particularly in time, of war the feeling was that whatever else suffered the foreign mission work must go forward, because it was so vital a part of that greater war which aimed at making one family in Christ Jesus.

CHRISTIANITY'S OBJECT.

Bishop Cherrington, following the singing of the hymn "Th!e King's Business" and the reading of a prayer by the general secretary of the board, the Rev. F. C. Long, said that people had to be very careful to remember the object of the Church and churchmen. He understood that the Church was a society of men and women, boys and girls, whom the Lord called to Him to complete the work He began. Jesus Christ had made it possible for everybody to be redeemed, but He left the actual redemption to the individual himself —it was for the individual to spread the Kingdom of God and build up, the" society-

Mission work had been done spasmodically. Sometimes there was great fervour and missionary enterprise. Knowledge of the world was limited for several hundred years, and people did not know of the nations that lay beyond the "round plate" of the world, and it was only when the pioneers, either for discovery or trade, made their findings, that great men and women were inspired with the fresh missionary fervour which resulted in the formation of great societies. *

"We know we are plunged into such a catastrophe as the world has never known, and we know, as Christian men and women, that\the whole thing is the fault of ourselves and other men and women, who have not been Christian enough in the past," said the Bishop. "We have got to go back to the last century to find the seeds of what we see in Germany today."

Certain great scholars began tampering with the New Testament, and one could not escape difficulty and disaster^ for tampering with God's Word nor for berating God's ancient people, the Jews. The findings of one Strauss most certainly disturbed the people of Germany as early as last century, and Christian people believed that those who tampered with the laws and revelation of God must come to disaster— no part of the universe was free from the jurisdiction of Almighty God or outside His governance.

FUNDS WANTED

If people could not give themselves, did not feel they had been called, they must take the other and far easier task of seeing that' those who were called did not lack or suffer any need through their fault. What was the great need today? Money. There was no lack of agents, of men and women ready to go; the whole trouble was that there was not enough money with which to equip them. The total contributions of the communicants of the Waikato diocese to missions in the mission year averaged 2s a head—the price of one or two picture shows. Did not that make the audience wriggle with shame? People did not take the cause of missionary work nearly seriously enough. If £90 were given to missions out of a parish's income of £900 people thought they were doing very well. Suppose the position were reversed—£9o kept and the balance given? That was the kind of thing people ought to be trying today.

What on earth was the use of having a cathedral where it was not wanted when there were hundreds of thousands of people wanting the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not getting it because there was not enough money to buy bread and butter for missionaries? He had heard of the Bishop of Melanesia having to reduce the number of spiritual agents and cut down the work. Christian work in a land like that was extraordinarily expensive, and the missionary had only a mere pittance, enough to keep body and soul together. The Melanesian Mission was the most expensive he had heard of, and for that reason he thought the people of New Zealand should get on their mettle and show the whole world that they were not going to be done down by pounds, shillings, and pence.

The Board of Missions was appealing for £19,000, but he did not think it would be too much to ask for £50,000 and get it, and see that the Bishop of Melanesia had all he needed for the asking.

Archbishop West-Watson said that perhaps £19,000 was not adequate for the importance of the work. If one compared what the Methodists, with their 9 per cent, of the population, gave to missions, with the money given by the Anglicans, with their 40 . per cent, of the population, it would perhaps be not very reassuring to Anglicans.

The Yen. Archdeacon H. W. Monaghan, of Timaru, who also gave an address, said that if every communicant gave threepence a week the revenue of the Board of Missions would be doubled.