CHURCH AND SOCIETY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 72, 22 February 1940, Page 9

CHURCH AND SOCIETY.

ARCHBISHOP’S CONCERN. AUTHORITATIVE VOICE. Per Press Association. NELSON, Eeh. 21. A Bill aiming at an amendment to the constitution to provide for meetings of tlie General Synod every four years, to replace the present provision for triennial sessions, was defeated on a division at the General Synod. ‘The debate showed there was a marked difference of opinion on the matter, Archbishop Avorill suggesting that annual synods would give greater opportunity for the voice ot the Church to be heard in economic, social and moral questions affecting the community generally, while others, including the Bishop of Dunedin, who moved the Bill, contended that the General Synod should be a legislative body, meeting every four years, with Church congresses in the intervening periods. The Archbishop said it was the usual custom for other controlling bodies to meet annually. He could not help feeling that they were losing a lot in the Church of England by not having a representative body which met annually and was in a position to announce the opinion of the Church as a whole. His Grace felt it was very necessary and important in these difficult days that there should be a definite voice of the Church, and that was why lie had ventured in his charge to the synod to mention annual sessions, though perhaps not with the present constitution. “I want progress,” said the Archbishop, “and, in spite of all that has keen said, we want onr Church to speak on the social, economic and moral questions of the country. As soon as we mention those subjects people say we are dabbling in polities. Well, let us dabble in politics, if it is necessary *o bring Christ into the general lives of the people.” The result of the division was:— Bishops, ayes 3, noes 4; clergy, ayes 9, noes 15; laity, ayes 10, noes 15.