CHURCHES AND THE WORLD CRISIS

Evening Star, Issue 23723, 2 November 1940, Page 17

CHURCHES AND THE WORLD CRISIS

TOWARD WORLD UNITY

[Written by A. L. Haddom, for the , ‘ Evening Star.’]

Sixty-five of the leading churches of the ■World, including practically all the nonKoman bodies, both Eastern and Western, have now taken membership in the Work! Council of Churches which is in process of formation. Amongst recent additions have been the Church of England, the American Lutherans, the Swiss Protestant Churches, the Presbyterian Church of Australia, the United* Methodist Churches of the United States, the British Baptists, and the Churches of Christ in both Great Britain and United States. No attempt- is being made to secure uniformity of thought and worship. All have been invited to join who " accept our Loid Jesus Christ as God and Saviour,” and wish to work together in expressing His will to mankind. Already between 200,000,000 and 300,000,000 Christians are represented, and, as these speak with one voice on world affairs, a potent new influence will be at work. In a recent bombing of Geneva a bomb fell, in the gardens adjoining the headquarters of the World Council of Churches. The buildings were damaged, but no personal casualties were suffered. FRENCH CHRISTIANS. Uaniel-Rops, the author, in a “ Letter from French Christians,” says: “All that makes us what we are is now at stake. The present position reveals how deep are the roots of the issues which are being fought out. We owe the Europe which we love to Christ. And what seems most certain is that the forces which would destroy Europe are those which have also fought most violently against Christ. The pagan who deifies flesh and blood through race commits treason . against Christendom. 'We cannot think without emotion of those who are forced into silence and who realise of what treason they are the mute accomplices. The whole of-Christendom is being challenged. This is the moment to repeat the words which Michel, de THospital spoke at another crit cal moment: “ O-these diabolical names of parties and sects—Lutherans, Huguenots, Papisis. Let us hold on to the name of Christians.” “But can arms alone save that menaced Christendom? The sufferings which they cause have no meaning if they have only to do with the body, but they have a deep meaning if the soul knows that its life is involved. There must come a great purification of this divided Christianity. Through the trial whole peoples may discover the greatness of the loyalties to which they have become unfaithful. Let those who are, as yet, not visited by the trial participate spiritually and by self-sacrifice in that necessary purification, and so rediscover the vital source of the brotherhood which unites us.” EVEN IN GERMANY. The religious Press in Germany has spoken on several occasions of tentative rapprochements between Catholics and Protestants. At Cassel, Potsdam. Berlin, and elsewhere discussion groups have been formed in order that they may come to know each other better. Moreover, joint services have been organised _ such as that which took place in the Dominican Qhurch of St. Paul’s. On the subject of this ( ecumenical meeting, the Catholic weekly, ‘ Der Neue Wille,’ writes as follows; — “ Catholics and Protestants filled the choir stalls before the high altar. The organ was played by a Protestant pastor who is also a composer, and whose ‘ Missa Crusis ’ (Words from the Cross) was recently performed in the Catholic Church of St. Hed-

wife’s. Berlin. Hymns were sung, of which several were composed by Protestants, and one was even • a hymn by Luther. Catholic priests then read passages from the Bible in a translation reminiscent of that of Luther. The Dominican prior read Chapter xvii. of St. John’s Gospel. A Catholic priest, well known as a -writer, read some of his poems. The Jesuit, Prince George of Saxony, gave an which was followed by one from an eminent member of the Protestant Church. Representatives of Catholic and Protestant organisations also spoke. The final prayer and the Benediction were spoken by a Protestant pastor, The Lord’s Prayer was said aloud by all, as was the Doxology, though it is not the •ustom to do so in the Catholic Church.” These efforts at rapprochements between Catholics and Protestants have aroused certain criticisms in the German Protestant Press. SMITTEN RUMANIA. Both the Orthodox Church and the Lutheran have been affected bv the cession to Russia of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. The Lutherans in these areas were descendants of colonists. After the last war the members of five different churches united to form a single Lutheran body. This

has now been cut off from fellowship with the Rumanian Church, though great numbers of the members have chosen to migrate in order to retain their church and national connections. CHRISTIANITY IN THE SOVIET. Since Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina have come under Soviet control the question of the situation of Christians in U.S.S.R. has again become one of the prominent concerns of Christians abroad. In this connection a striking document has just been made available for publication. It is a letter written to Stalin by Mgr. Vissarion, Metropolitan of Bukovina, and sent to him through the Soviet Legation in Bucharest This letter surveys the phases of the struggle, and calls for a reconciliation of Soviet political principles with religious principles. After having pointed out that the distance of 20 years makes possible a truer estimate of the facts, the letter of the Metropolitan shows that many measures were spontaneously and rapidly taken in U.S.S.R. at the moment of the' revolution, which later on were gradually modified and revised by the Government Only the policy towards religion has undergone no change; and the Metropolitan asks the question: “Was it necessary for the Russian revolution to shake the church as well ? . . . “ We answer our question in the affirmative. As church reforms which had been demanded years before by many clergymen and even by several heads of the Russian Othodox Church, without having been considered by the authorities of the Tsarist regime or by the superior church government (a truth acknowldeged even on the eve of the revolution by the convocation of the great General Church Congress, held in Moscow in the autumn of 19X7 —i.e., on the eve of the revolution), were not introduced by peaceful evolution, it had to be done through revolution, no matter to what extent. . . “ That is why, acknowledging the first consequences of the Russian revolution as being the forced necessity of a beginning of a reform of the official Russian Church (having in view its separation from the form of State which subjugated it, as well as the raising of the level of the social-reli-gious life of the-Russian people) we believe that now, after 20 years of experience and postponement of the true reforms necessary to this institution, is the propitious time for proceeding to their realisation by means of civilised and logical measures, a thing absolutely necessary to the soul of that eminently religious people, as well as to the consolidation of the new State of the Soviet Republics. Can religion be of use to the new Russian State? We answer in the affirmative. All the religious creeds can help, but from considerations of superior principles none of them more than the Orthodox Christian Faith. I affirm that truth the more that now, when one can observe more clearly the aims of the present political regime in its organisation of the State, and when internal peace seems to be guaranteed at least in appearance, we can maintain that to a very large extent the clergy, and especially the Russian Orthodox Church, would not have been nor would they become a hindrance, but, on the contrary, one of the most powerful levers for the desired State reforms. . . . For just as because of its doctrinal extremes up to this day and because of the State conception of contemporary Russia, it has been opposed by the nations of tho world in the most categorical way, just so, after a reconciliation with the church of the Russian people, the present regime would gain at home as well as in the whole world a sympathy easily understandable.

“ This reconciliation may bo brought about the more easily in that the Christian Church will never be hostile to the social reforms intended by a State. . . . And also because religious libertv has been destroyed, the Russian people does not participate integrally and spiritually in the changes which are imposed on them. The restoration of that liberty and a universal religious reorganisation would become one of the most powerful guarantees for the future consolidation of the new Russian State.” THE NEAR EAST. The Near East Christian Council, with headquarters at Beirut in Syria, forms the centre for Christian activity in Mesopotamia, Iran, Arabia, Syria, Transjordan, Egypt, Sudan, Abyssinia, North Africa, and the Balkans. It reports several hopeful movements in its area. The council considers the present day is an esnecialiy challenging opportunity to press for co-operation° among the different Christian forces and actual union of the churches. The whole effort of the council is to make united work possible at this time of need. It stands for an unshakable faith in the spiritual amidst the conflicts of material forces.