A LIVING FORCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 100, 24 October 1942, Page 6

A LIVING FORCE

RELIGIOUS REVIVAL

CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN

New Zealand's Campaign for Christian Order is now in full swing, and it is of interest to note that a similar movement is sweeping Great Britain, where' all the churches are laying stress on the fact that social and economic problems arising from the war must be settled on Christian principles. Recent information from Home indicates that the Government intends to continue controlled economy after the war in order that Britain may be as great and united in peace as she has already proved to be in war and may devote her wealth to world reconstruction. An interesting fact is that the social economic system which is developing in Britain is neither Socialist nor Capitalist—nor any other "ism" —but in fact basically Christian since this harmony and unity of all classes would be impossible without a deeply Christian spirit of honesty and fair dealing, and the ability to see the other man's point of view, respect for the rights of the individual and minority opinions. One of the surest signs that Britain is renewing herself during the war and will enter the post-war era with moral as well as material strength such as she has not had for at least a generation is the rediscovery of the sense of strong moral purpose and, along with this impressive Christian revival seen both in the competence and vitality of the lead the churches are giving to social development and growth of organisation, all churches are determined to apply Christian principles to the ordering of Britain's social economic life. Further, the unity of all churches regarding the Christian principles which must be applied to the political and economic life of the nation is extremely impressive. Such unity of all denominations in a vital issue has not existed since the Reformation. ACTIVE BODIES. I The way the churches in Britain are I thinking on these questions is shown by pronouncements made during the past year by various church leaders, both Protestant and Catholic, on the application of Christian principles to the whole economic structure of British life. Church organisations working to this end include the recentlyinaugurated British Council of Churches, which consists of delegates from all Protestant Churches. The council has absorbed the Commission of Churches for International Friendship and Social Responsibility, a body which came into existence at the beginning of the war and has been extremely active in developing concepts of social Christianity and spreading them throughout the nation —for example the organisation of "religious and life works" throughout the great cities of Britain. Next there is the Catholic organisation, "The Sword of the Spirit," a very powerful large membership aiming at the restoration, in Britain and throughout Europe of the Christian basis for both public and ■private life/ Other bodies are the Industrial Christian Fellowship, an Anglican body developing the social principles laid down at the Malvern Conference; and the Catholic Social Guild with an active study group organisation up and down Britain. All the above bodies have as their main aim the carrying of Christian principles into the social and economic structure of Britain now and after the war. The enormous response of the people of Britain to this lead from the churches is evidenced by the religious vitality throughout the country, the immense popularity of services broadcast each Sunday evening, and the huge attendance of men and women of the Forces at services in all parts of the country. SERVICES IN FACTORIES. Mass religious services are also held regularly in war factories throughout the country—as many as eighteen thousand people at one factory. At an Industrial Christian Fellowship meeting at the Albert Hall on September 26 there were over twenty thousand applications for seats. This same moral purpose to refound society on Christian lines, both nationally and internationally, is active in the nation's political as well as religious leaders. Sir Stafford Cripps, at the Industrial Christian Fellowship gathering at the . Albert Hall, said: "Either the Christianity in which we believe is no more than a whited sepulchre of Pharisees or else ■it is the most real thing in our lives. Nationally and internationally we must have a world consciously planned for better standards "of living for the great masses of peoples whether British, Russian, American, Chinese, Indian, or any other race." Mr. Eden and Sir Kingsley Wood, Chancellor of the Exchequer, have spoken in similar vein. In commentaries, talks, etc., England can be shown as restarting her Christianity as a positive—indeed revolutionary—faith. England is determined that every child, everywhere on earth, shall receive "a pint of milk per day," food and education for full spiritual and physical development, and that the father of every child shall have a job with a decent standard of living. Britain proposes to continue her wartime taxation and wartime hard-living into peace in order to ensure along with the other United Nations these objectives. It is this determination that makes Christianity in Britain today a more living force than it has been for centuries. It is this moral purpose of the whole nation that ensures Britain's moral leadership of mankind after the war.