LANGUID WORSHIP

Evening Star, Issue 20316, 26 October 1929, Page 5

LANGUID WORSHIP

ARCHBISHOP’S APPEAL “ Can wo fail to have the hope that at this new stage in the history of the church there may come some renewal of its life and power?” writes the Archbishop of Canterbury (the Most Rev. Cosmo Gordon Lang) and the Archbishop of York (the Most Rev. William Temple), in a pastoral letter to the Church of England. The letter, written “with the knowledge and goodwill of our brother bishops,” was read at Church of England services throughout the country. It said: “Wo are enclosed by a material civilisation great in its achievement, confident in its self-suffi-ciency, in which no place is found.for God or even for the, spiritual life of man. The Church of Christ is called to give witness to the reality and claim of the things unseen and eternal. How can it give witness to these things unless they are manifestly real and powerful in the lives of its members? “ Among our own people, not least among the young, there are many who are perplexed by difficulties or haunted by the fear that new knowledge _ is shaking the foundations of their faith. To them- the church owes a two-fold duty. It must give them in ‘ fuller measure chances of learning what the Christian faith really is. It must show them that through new light thrown upon the Bible and new discoveries of science rightly understood we are reaching a new knowledge of God and of His ways of revealing Himself. “Within the church there are many signs of zeal in the cause of our holy religion. Yet sometimes this zeal is narrow in range and in effect. It tends to be given to sections and parties rather than to the whole body of the church. Aspects of truth, and experience when they are isolated become onesided and exaggerated. It is only through the study of the whole Gospel that each aspect finds its place in the proportion of the one faith. “Here may we speak a word about the difficulties in the ordering of our common prayer which recent events have brought about? It shall be only a word, for our eager hope is that the church may rise above them to a higher ground and an ampler air. Suffice it then to say that the true way of solving these difficulties is that men of different outlook and traditions should not-only tolerate but learn from one another, should come together, pray together, study together, -so that all may bring whatever truth or experience they severally prize as ah offering for the. enrichment of the whole church.”