ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 292, 7 November 1928, Page 4

ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH

PATRONAL SERVICE

SERMON BY REV. CANON JAMES.

There was a large congregation at All Saints’ Church last evening when the annual Patronal Service, in honour of the patron saints from whom the church takes its name, was conducted. Rev. Canon Percival James, oj St. Mary’s Cathedral, Auckland, preached a striking and stirring sermon emphasising the need for unity in the church. The conduct of the service was in the hands of various ministers, ltev. F. 'M. Kempthorne, vicar of Aslihurst, led the prayers; Rev. W. H. Walton, vicar of Foxton, read the first lesson ; Rev. J. C. Abbot, vicar of St. Peter's Terrace End, read the second lesson; and Rev. Canon Fancourt, vicar of All Saints, led in the closing prayer. There were also present Revs. F. Ashcroft, vicar of Marton, and H. S. Kenny, P. Wiltshire and J. R. Neild, of Palmerston North. The singing was a special feature of the evening, and the massed voices of All Saints’ St. Peter’s, Feilding, Pnhiatua, Foxton, Aslihurst and Marton choirs were mingled with the deeper timbre of the organ music, played by Mr J. Holmes Runnicles 1 , in adding to the beauty and reverence of the service.

CANON JAMES’S ADDRESS

Canon James, prior to the commencement of his address, said that ho was pleased to speak to the congregation that night and repay the compliment that Canon Fancourt had paid St. Mary’s, Auckland,, two years ago by preaching there. All Saints’ parish, for one so young, had attained a position that made it one of two or three in New Zealand, and the numerous church activities were evidences of spiritual life and vigour.

THE CHURCH TO-DAY

Mr William Watson, not least amongst the poets of our time had given a pungent account of the Church to-day:— Outwardly splendid as of old, Inwardly sparkless, void and cold, Her force and lire all spent and gone,

Like the dead moon, she still shines on.

Mr Watson was not a man of faith himself, and his indictment was plainly partial. Rut from within their own church they were constantly being reminded; more by the clergy than by the laity, of the" defects of the church to which they belonged. It had been said that she was out of touch with the people and the thought of to-day, that she needed more elasticity, that she was divided into hostile camps, and that financially she was on an unsound basis. The speaker thought that the last charge was true. He,, did not think that self-criticism was all harmful. It was better than deadly lethargy and a deadening self-complacency. But it could be overdone. Let them think of the five glories of the English Church. First of all there was its catholicity. He believed in “the Holy Catholic Church” and could not be content without such a belief. At the Reformation some mistakes were inevitable in a settlement that to be made in the teeth of narrow and bitter political and religious partisans, whose passionate turbulance disfigured that page of history. Now while she reaffirmed her old national independence, she re-affirmed, as in the days of St. Augustine-, her adherence to every doctrine held by the undivided Church, without adding thereto or taking therefrom.

INHERITANCE OF PROTESTANT-

Her second glory was her inheritance of Protestantism, la noble word that had often been misused or debased. Its true meaning could be found by turning to Magna Cliarta, where it was stated “The Church of England shall he free.” Protestantism denoted the liberty of the indvidual conscience, and the freedom of thought and inquiry. The Protestant claimed the free and unimpeded access of every human soul to God, and spiritual equality of all men in the sight of God. In this true sense the Church of England was Protestant, and the speaker prayed "that God would give her grace to keep her freedom.

The third glory was, that their Church was the most spiritual ill the world. A Sunday morning service, for example, contained Holy Communion, the reading of four passages of Scripture, Psalms and canticles. The Church of England pointed to Holy Scripture as proof for every sentence of her liturgy and article of her creed. Anglicans, forty-three per centum of the community, should see that the Bible was taught in our schools.. The exclusion of the Bible was a blot that should be removed from our educational system. \ THE PRAYER BOOK.

The Book of Common Prayer was the fourth glory. It gave a wonderful treasury of devotion, and formed a complete fiold-scrvico pocketboob for the soldier of their Church. They should got to know, use and love it more. In the controversies about its revision, one thing stood out plainly that it was loved by the great mass of English-speaking people.

UNION OF CHURCHES.

Its comprehensiveness was tiro fifth glory of the Church of England. Lightfoot, writing fifty years ago, had said : “Our English Church seems destined by her character and position to give the impulse to a great movement that should result in the union of divided churches and sects. Sire holds her unbroken orders in one hand and the open Bible in the other, and only under such a church can Christendom be united.” Lightfoot’s prophecy had been ful-

filled. The work had been begun at th© Lambeth Conference in 1888, and much had been done when the bishops of the United States called a world conference of all Christian peoples, which had been held at Lausanne. The Anglican Church had there been called the “breach church,” in the hope that i»b would one day be the means of closing the breaches between the different sects.

PARTIES IN THE CHURCH

Canon James did not suppose that parties in the church were to be considered in themselves as evils. They might, and did, express legitimate differences of opinion. It was impossible to disapprove of the existence of parties in the church, provided that the difference between the parties was not so wide as to forbid any essential unity of thought land life. People did not all think alike upon any subject; if they professed to do so, they probably did not think at all. Ever since the Reformation ithere had been three main parties in the Church of England—the High, the Low and the Broad. The names were not happily chosen as it was difficult to tell wlnat they meant. If it were .possible to unite the good qualities of the 'three' schools—the devotion of the High, the moral earnestness and simple faith of the Low, and the open-minded candour of the Broad —without the defects of any. the true Christian character would be more nearly exhibited in its completeness than it had ever been on a large scale in actual experience. The speaker appealed for the casting aside of petty sauabbling. The High Church on one side and the Low on the other were tending to cause a rift in the Church. Tire stage had been occupied by the extremists of both sides so that the moderates could not raise their voices. But unity was necessary if the Church was necessary to face the problems of the future, and march forward triumphant, the handmaiden of God.