CHURCH UNITY

Evening Star, Issue 22363, 12 June 1936, Page 12

CHURCH UNITY

ADDRESS TO COUNCIL OF CONGREGATIONS The Rev. C. F. Andrews, of Bengal, India, who is at present in Dunedin under the auspices of the Student Christian Movement, was the guest of honour at a luncheon given in the Y.M.C.A by the Council of Christian Congregations to-day. There was a large attendance of members and representatives of religious bodies, presided over by the Rev, W. A. Hamblett. Mr Hamblett introduced the speaker and welcomed those present, particularly Miss Addy and Dr C. J. Rolls. Mr Andrews, he said, would speak on the necessity of unity of the church. When he first went to India, said Mr Andrews, he was narrow and bigoted as far ns religion was concerned.. He had left Cambridge a very high churchman. He had been weaned from that bv an Indian, and he was shaken profoundly by the state of utter disunity in the church. There were 350,000,000 Hindus in India, but the Christians were split into 100 or more sects. Christ was not divided, therefore His Church should not be divided. The speaker learned that in India what made a man of God was the “ light within.” The beginning of a great change in his life was when he had taken Communion from the hands of an Indian saint. The Indians should be allowed, he said, to follow Christ in their own waj; and according to their own consciences. There was still the barrier of colour at the Lord’s table, but it was not nearly so severe as it was some years ago. The first thing that must be remembered in India was that Indian Christians did not think in the same terms as the West. They thought as Christ thought. The Westerners should therefore be humble and seek to learn from the Indian, not to teach him. The Indian found the disunion amongst Christian churches most illogical. The East was going to teach the West to unite in churches. In conclusion, the speaker urged his listeners not to preach their own religion to the Indians when missionaries were sent out by the various associations, but to preach Christ. The Christianised natives in all parts of the world made the Westerners feel ashamed of their church disunion in view of their own unity. On the motion of the Rev. J. P. Smith, a rote of thanks to the speaker was passed...