METHODIST APPEAL

Evening Star, Issue 22577, 19 February 1937, Page 13

METHODIST APPEAL

STEMMING TIDE OF IRRELIGiDN FAITH, EFFICIENCY, SACRIFICE “ Methodism is as ready to-day as ever to co-operate to the fullest extent with every other section of the Christian Church for the promotion of the Kingdom of God among men,” asserted the Rev. F. Copeland, Few Plymouth, in his presidential address at the opening, in Auckland recently, of the annual .Conference of the Methodist Church of Now Zealand. “ The church, whoso founder claimed the world as his parish, can never,” Mr Copeland continued, “ be limited in its outlook or self-centred in its sympathies.” At the same time, tneir primary concern, the speaker emphasised, was with the work of Methodism in New Zealand, and particularly in that sphere of service—the Western Solomon Islands Mission field—which had been its special charge for the past 15 years. In their care for wider vineyards they must not neglect their own. After paying tribute to the work of the pioneers of New Zealand Methodism who brought the Gospel both to the Maoris and the early European settlers, the president made reference to current religious conditions and trends, “WORLD SLUMP” IN RELIGION. They were at present confronted, he said, with what might be called a world slum)) in organised _ religion—a secularisation of life which post-war years had accentuated, but which really began long before 1914. No matter how unpalatable it might be, they were faced with the fact —and he hoped they found it a profoundly disturbing one—that the main stream of life was flowing right past the church. Many, though owing so much to it, appeared to regard the church as something which didn’t really count —a useful kind of adjunct to the conventional observance of weddings and funerals, but having no place in the pulsing, redblooded, factual life of every day. No facile explanation could disguise the stark reality that, for all practical purposes, the church had seemed powerless of late to stem ti;e tide of irreligion, and to turn men and women from their semipagan state to the Christian way of life. “ LIVING BY THEIR WITS.” Many of their churches seemed to be Jiving by their wits, rather than by their worth, the only articulate message to a famishing world seeming to be, in Dr Russell Maltby’s words: “You’re hungry, and we’re hungry; come inside and let us bo hungry to--gether! ” With few exceptions, this generation of Methodism had been marked by an absence of adventure, a succumbing to the present-day love of ease, weariness of purpose, and an aversion from anything heroic save talk about heroism, and admiration of it in others. So it had been a case of “ reduce sail,” no ocean voyage, no venture, no hazard — and a resultant mediocrity of achievement. CHRISTIANITY’S SELF-RE-NEWALS. And yet, these facts’notwithstanding, let them not fear that the purpose of God, expressed in the Church of Jesus Christ, would be ultimately thwarted; for the astonishing vitality of the Christian faith had been abundantly demonstrated in history, in periodical glorious resurrections and self-renewals of the church, so often by critics and croakers deemed to be on its death bed. Turning to the future of New Zealand Methodism, Mr Copeland asked whether this was to be worthy of tho church’s earlier and not negligible contribution to life and religion in this new land, or whether they had as a church exhausted their mandate. Quoting the Prime Minister’s New Year message, as in part applicable to the work that he believed the Methodist Church was still called to do-in New Zealand, the speaker said faith, efficiency, and some form or other 'of selfimposed discipline were not less necessary to the church’s .continued existence and effective functioning than Mr Savage considered them to be to the realisation of democratic ideals. FAITH, EFFICIENCY, SACRIFICE. They could not with any heart face the future as a church without confidence —faith in God, in their own call and commission, and in the nlimate outcome of the task to which they had put their hands. But spiritual equipment, he emphasised, required supplementing with efficiency. One felt that church people were not serving God with their brains to the extent that His work demanded. There was urgent need, in the interests of efficiency, for a detailed survey of tho church’s resources, for the overhaul of connexional machinery, for an adaptation of methods, as in business circles, to changed conditions of tho times. These conditions called not only for greater pluck and daring on the part of ministers, but equally for at least as much hard and constructive thinking by the laity as these latter gave to secular interests. As to personal discipline, the measure of their efficiency as a church in the future would bo the faith that not only inspired spiritual courage and adventure, but was expressed in sacrifice for the church and Kingdom of Christ — sacrifice of personal inclination, time, money, vital energy. Declaring that the principal business of Conference was religion, the 'president closed’his address with an appeal to Methodist people to seek (a) a revived personal experience of religion (b) a renewed, adventurous evangelism; and (c) a recaptured moral enthusiasm. He quoted the Oxford Group movement as indicating a deepening sense of spiritual need in the community, and said the passion tp communicate spiritual experience personally enjoyed was characteristic of the very genius of Methodism.