RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Evening Star, Issue 19550, 7 May 1927, Page 23

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

[By Forward.]

** The magnet of God is the man of God, magnetized by the Spirit of God.”

YOUNG PEOPLE’S DIVISION ASSOCIATION.

This association will continue its monthly meeting on Monday next in the Baptist Church School, Hanover street, at 7.30 p m., when the following subjects will be considered: —- The Local'Church Organised for Religious Education ’ (general section); t The | Principles of Administration ’ (inter- j mediate department); 1 The Way and How of Organisation ’ (junior and senior I Bible classes). This will be the lasttime that members will have an opportunity Of hearing Mr Robert Blair, 8.R.E., F.R.G.S., prior to his departure for America. Those engaged in work among young people (twelve to twenty-four years) will find these meetings inspiring and helpful in dealing with the practical problems of their work, and all general superintendents, intermediate department superintendents, teachers, Bible class leaders, and others interested should become members, and so take full advantage of this great opportun- j ity for more thoroughly equipping i themselves for their great and sacred task. CHILDREN’S DIVISION ASSOCIATION. The monthly meeting of the Chil- j dren’s Division Association will be held \ in Hanover Street Baptist School on Monday, at 7,30 p.m. Mrs Robert Blair, M.R.E., will speak on ‘ Organising a Department.’ The devotional period will take the form of a primary worship service, while in the sectional meetings the following subjects will be discussed:—Beginners, ‘Planning and Working for Beginners’; primary. ‘ The Order of Service ’; junior, ‘Storing the Memory.’ THE SCHOOL LIBRARY. The school executive is fortunate in being the custodian of Mr and Mrs Robert Blair’s general and religious education library. This has been handed over unreservedly for the use of our students, administrators, and friends of religious education during the period of their absence from New Zealand. The library, together with its school library, will be housed in the council’s room, 33 Jetty street. The librarian, MiSS Doreen H. Ross, Frame street, North-East Valley, will be pleased to meet, by appointment, those desiring information and help. OTAGO SCHOOL. The school, as a southern pioneer in religious education, has endeavored to fix definite standards for graduation, and to have these well within reach of those having fundamental capacity for leadership and yet requiring very definite and rigorous disciplines on the part of all who are admitted. The school’s objectives have been stated as: (1) The furnishing of . leaders for a national system of moral and religious education; (2) the training of for all lay professional positions within the local church and community, at home and on the mission field; (3) the equipping of lay voluntary leaders in the local church and community. To these ends the specific requirements are: (1) All students must be at least seventeen years of age, in good health, and of High School status or the equivalent. As the work offered ranges from normal training to full university status the _ wisdom of such a condition will be evident. (2) Students must have completed eight school courses of instruction, plus any outside practice, or research work that may be required. A course or unit of instruction represents one lecture hour per week -for twenty-four weeks, plus a minimum of two hours’ preparation for each lecture period. In ail_ cases individual instructors must satisfy themselves that all assigned work, including collateral reading, periodic and final tests, and the like, have been well and truly done. Much more store is set by faithfulness than by ability to make high marks. This does not mean that high marks are disrated, much the reverse. (3) There must be a proper balance in the courses elected. # That is, there must be a due proportion of Bible study, departmental study, and work, and general subjects, ensuring that the students will be firmly based in theory, efficient in practice and balanced in general outlook. (4) Attendance at all class periods is stressed, as frequent or periodic breaks not only discourage the student but tend to break the morale of the school. One of our mottoes is. “ Be there, though the heavens fall.” Such faithfulness has its reflex effect upon teachers and taught. (5) Along the way and at the close of the formal period of study there must be sound evidence of strong moral character and a profound _ and sane Christian faith. While there is no attempt at uniformity or creating a type, evidence is sought that at the various stages of the way each student is orientated to the work. (6) This task may be completed in from two to four years, according to the amount of time a student can give and the copestone represents an accurate thesis in some suitably limited field, approved in form and content

In general the pre-requisite courses are: ‘New Testament History and Religion,’ ‘ Old Testament History and Religion,’ ‘Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ, or the Beacon Lights of Prophecy,’ ‘ Principals of Moral and Religious Educatoin.’ ‘Organisation and Administration of Religious Education and the Theory and Practice of Physical Education.’ For the benefit of mature workers who cannot see their way to cqpiplete the full diploma requirements a certificate course covering approximately one-half the work may be arranged. The course will be so moulded, however, that it will constitute a unity. This work may be compassed in

from one to four years, according to the number of courses carried. The practical aspect, or ability to do, wul be stressed. -

IN RETROSPECT.

[By Roberx Blair, b.r.b., v.r.g.b.]

It is good, on occasion,_ to look backward that we might gain momentum for the tasks confronting us. At times of crisis it is specially fitting that we should review the past, investigate the present possibilities, and plan for the future. ' » ■

On May 20, Mr and Mrs Robert Blair will sever their formal connection with the Otago School of Religious Education, in order to prepare for carrying on to the next stage an adequate system of moral and religious education for Australia and New Zealand, extending from the home to post-gradu-ate work and embracing both Sunday and through-the-week activities. The school as the pioneer in New Zealand has come to its present status through great tribulation, and before we ask, in a subsequent article, ‘‘Where do we go from here?” it is fitting that we should give thanks and enumerate some of the results. 1; It was a bold and prophetic stroke that established the school with its farreaching consequences. What these have been and will be through the years may never be fully known, because we have here, in embryo, a trained consecrated leadership for our total task throughout these southern lands. The more immediate results have been: (a) We have, as the outcome of four years’ intensive work, a group of* trained workers known as the diploma students of O.S.R.E. These students are fast coming to a fine appreciation of the task confronting them and. with their constantly increasing numbers and advanced standing, aro_ a fine asset to any land, (b) The Advisory Board' of the Otago Council has been steadily augmented, until to-day, it represents as fine an academic and professional group as could be marshalled in any city of like size, (c) There is a graduate group of something like twelve men and . women trained and in training for this most significant task, and it is hoped that within four vears all of these will be available for higher teaching and administrative work. Suitable scholarships are the big and urgent need. Up to the present four small amounts are available, all from Boston University, representing a capital sum of £2,500 to £3,000. (d) A determined movement is afoot to establish the work upon a proper financial basis. This will take effect during the latter part of the current year. Under this arrangement all administrators and teachers will receive appropriate remuneration. 2. The denominational dovecotes have been seriously stirred, and. such terms as “ Too ambitious.” “ Sententious and didactic,” “American fads,” etc., are not so frequently heard as hitherto. On the other hand there is coming to be among the more enlightened denominational leaders, at any fate, a consciousness that there is something here worth attending to, and that we are beset by problems which can only be dealt with by those who have the requisite theory and practice. Some of the matters that are claiming special attention, as exclusive of many-others, are:—(a) An investigation of the nomenclature in current use. A revaluation and revision of this is' imminent, leading to a modern approach to the whole field of religious education, (b) Social service is coming to be more than a meie catch word, and it is being appreciated that most definite and accurate preparation is required for all aspects lending to a modern point of view in this great project, (c) Missionary education has been affected, and must, through contacts with the home-base and with more modern methods in the field, come to much greater coherence and efficiency, (d) Theological training, in its present structure, cannot much longer survive the impact, and the English Bible and social sciences must increasingly take, precedence of a thirteenth-century curriculum, with its core in scholastic theology and dead languages, (e) The first formal course has been given in educational and vocational guidance of college grade, and this is specially prophetic, speaking, as it does, of the opportunity for every young person to come to the highest stage of avocational and vocational self-realisation, (f) There will bo no more appointments of untrained denominational conveners, secretaries, superintendents, directors, etc. The day of the specialist for the specialist’s job is here. Advance preparation for filling such positions as they fall vacant is well underlay. This ushers in a new era.

3. A fine object _ lesson has been given in denominational co-operation. After all, most of our denominational differences are but carried over vestiges of past days, and will not stand the light of modern and honest investigation. While we do not at this stage seriously stress- immediate organic union, we do with all our strength push for a fine spirit of interdenominational comity in harmony with the principles of unity, coherence, efficiency, economy, etc., and preparing for the time when there shall be at least one Protestant fold and one Shepherd.

4. Under miscellaneous might come the great amount of publicity work that has been carried on, thanks to the ‘ Otago Daily Times,’ the ‘ Evening Star,’ and the various church periodicals. The Children’s Exhibition and the Dunedin and South Seas Exhibition offered special avenues, which were well capitalised. The Otago Council’s room at 33 Jetty street, with its excellent library, promises to bo a great boon to all interested in this field. We have in sight the beginnings of regular practice and demonstration schools. The school calendar, 6,500 copies of which have been circulated in four years; copies of special lectures; thousands of multigraphed addresses, plus a large directed correspondence indicates something of the school’s peripheries. 5. Looking to the immediate future we see similar schools springing up in all primary and secondary centres, with colleges offering facilities for research work in Dunedin and Auckland. These will eventuate just as soon as the required leadership is available. 6. Largely as an outcome of our pioneering work, Australia is planning for a great interdenominational’ State and Federal system of moral and religious with colleges for supplying the requisite leadership in Melbourne and Sydney. It is safe to say that the religious education consciousness has been stirred “ in spots ” at least, and that the “ unphilosophic, partial and perverse,” in theory and practice are being crowded out before the fullorbed coherent view.

We are sure that tlfe whole movement, initiated under the Spirit’s guidance with an idea whose time had come, while not spectacular, has gone deep and wide, and that the vital elements—sacrificial service, loyalty, courage, the will to conquer, increased efficiency, and the desire for oneness with Christ in all His plans and purposes, even the Cross —must in His good time prove victorious over’ all enemies and obstacles. This will he followed by some notes on the pertinent question, “What about 1937?”