CHURCH UNITY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 69, 20 February 1931, Page 4

CHURCH UNITY

MINISTER’S APPEAL. , DUNEDIN, Feb. 20. “If there is one thing that condemns the Church of the past it has been her failure to keep Christ’s central law of love. Never can the Gospel of love make its full appeal to the world until it is convincingly and conclusively manifested in the household of faith within.” In these terms reference to the subject of church union was made by Rev. E. D. Patchett, the newly-elected president of the New Zealand Methodist Church, in the course of his inaugural address last night at the opening of the Church’s annual conference in Dunedin. All barriers, and they were but flimsy barriers to-day, continued tho speaker, were ready to break down before the touch of the finger of love. Surely the world needed, as never before, the witness of a united church. His own belief was that if the church of this laud would take their own cherished traditions and church loyalties, and lay them at the feet of Christ in a spirit of sacrificial love, in order that they.,, might rise up as one, the effect of their witness would be immeasurably increased, and the church would shine with renewed splendour. “We live to-day in a world,” said the president, “which confessedly has little love for the church. That does not mean that the world is to be roundly condemned, nor the church unduly pitied. Men to-day have fallen eagerly in love with the wonderful new life and liberty which are theirs. Hence their neglect of the church. But the church knows that her day is coming. Man’s nature is such that it is bound to come.” It was true, Mr Patchett continued, that a pre-occu-pied world was to-day captivated by the glamour of its own achievements and ambitions. It hurried past the church’s door, not with execration, but merely forgetful of the church in the feast of life. It turned a deaf ear to the church’s message, not because it believed there was no God to worship, no divine law to keep, but because it was carried forward on the flood tide of a new and captivating experience. Within the lifetime of the present generation the world had accelerated to such a degree that it seemed to have been projected centuries into the future. What wonder that many had been carried off their feet? But while the outward conditions of life had greatly changed, the heart of man was still the same, and because the church of God thought long, long thoughts, it could afford to look with a certain calmness and courage upon the present tendency. There was, however, a subtle danger to* the church in an indifferent age—that of accepting herself at the world’s valuation, of being intimidated by the indifference of men. Seeing the world flowing past her doors in ever-increasing flood she was apt to trail her faith as a broken wing. Yet the chief peril of the church had never been the presence or absence of the multitude; her chief peril had been that her own light should grow dim and her spiritual fervour abate. Let her hold on her high way of unselfish service to God and man, and great would be her reward. The more her message was scorned, the more necessary it became; the more difficult her day, the greater the call for her devotion. He urged that they should believe in the future of their church as earnestly and hopefully as they believed in God, for the temple they built could never be destroyed except, Samson-like they pulled it abput their own ears. Reminding themselves continually of the divine origin of the church, and her divinely-ordained purpose of bringing in the reign of God on earth, they should not lie too disturbed by the prevalence criticism that the church had had its day, that institutional religion was dying—a false prophecy. The only possible ground for a paralysing pessimism concerning the future of the church was the un-

thinkable fear that Christ had changed his purpose concerning her, or withdrawn his presence from her. Their thought of the church should not be governed by the uncharitnble prophecies of the world, but by the word of Jesus, Who had promised that the gates of Hell should not prevail against it. The Methodist witness was of groat value in an age of spiritual declension. It supported the veiw that the heart of man, underneath its modern veneer, is incurably religious, that human life is marvellously redeemable. In assessing the church’s problems to-day, had they reckoned with the Great War, and made allowance for the historical verdict that the harvest of a great war was always a bittre harvest? As the church shared in the crime of war, so she must surely share in its cause. It was no exaggeration to say that they lived in an age when nearly every moral and spiritual idea] had been tainted by the foul breath of war. That was part of the price they were called upon to pay for the world’s madness. But the price would be paid, and an unencumbered future emerge, for the dying of nature to live was a parable of the church. As a living organism the church, of course, must adapt herself to new conditions, proving not only that she has an unchanging foundation, but an expanding life. Then would come the fulfilment of the whole law of social brotherhood and love, the final outlawry of evils such as war and the licensed liquor traffic, the high enthronement of justice and righteousness for all. He urged that as a necessary condition of the application of the Gospel to the needs of the new age they must give more attention to an educated evangelism, and to the spiritual nurture of the young, who presented such splendid material to work upon. In this connection, believing in the inalienable right of every child in the land to grow up with a knowledge of God and His word, their churclr ardently supported the work of the Bible-in-Schools League. They rejoiced in the concordat with the Roman Catholic Church, believing that this amicable understanding had brought the promised land in sight. ANNUAL CONFERENCE. Per Press Association. DUNEDIN, Feb. 19. The annual conference of the Methodist Church of New Zealand was opened last night. In the absence of Rev. W. Greenslade through illness, Rev. E. D. Patcliett (Wellington) was elected president. A resolution was passed expressing sympathy with the earthquake sufferers. and especially with the Roinan Catholic Church in tire death of priests and students at Greenmeadows. The election of office-bearers resulted as follows:—President. 1932, Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt (Christchurch); vice-president, 1931, Mr W. S. McKay (Auckland); secretary, 1932, Rev. J. M. Haslam (Auckland!.