AID OF THE CHURCH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 73, 23 February 1945, Page 4

AID OF THE CHURCH

REHABILITATION TASKS

(Press Assn.) DUNEDIN. Feb. 22. The annual conference of the Methodist Church of New Zealand commenced this evening. Rev. A. H. Sorivin, of Auckland, being inducted as president for 19-15. Rev. W. E. Burley, of Epsom, was elected vice-president and Rev. W. G. Slade, of Dunedin, secretary for the ensuing year. In the course of his inaugural address Mr Serivin said they extended their gratitude to all who had fought, suffered and laboured that New Zealand might be spared the horrors of Nazi and Japanese domination and the ruthless aggression suffered to an appalling degree by the Jews and by the countries overrun. “The sincerity of our thanks," he said, “will be tested by the degree to which we in turn are prepared to serve and suffer, if need be, in the rehabilitation of all who have a just claim upon us—our own servicemen, the widows and fatherless, and those in Europe and Asia whose homes and lands have been desolated in the common cause. Nor may we forget the claims of the Solomons, which stood as a bastion of defence' to New Zealand when we were in imminent peril of Japanese invasion. “Wc have gladly paid heavy taxation and subscribed to Government loans to maintain the war effort: with yet greater gladuess let us continue our effort on behalf of those who have served and suffered. Real sacrifice is inevitable if justice is to be done. We delude ourselves if we imagine there will be no serious reaction to the loss of hundreds of thousands of the best manhood of the nation and thousands of millions of pounds sterling. As we adjust ourselves to new conditions, let us be oil our guard 'lest we forget our indebtedness—first of all to our Heavenly Father unto Whom we have cried ill our distress and Who has never failed us, and next to those who have served and suffered on our behalf.

“The task of the Church will be one of unparalleled difficulty, not only in giving a moral and spiritual lead to the world in restoring the immediate ravages of war and fostering a real and permanent peace, but also in combating the aggravated evils that ever follow in the wake of war—grave social and moral ills,, the growth of the hideous drink traffic, divorce and gambling, child delinquency, and the lack of moral fibre exemplified in widespread theft. But on the other hand we are encouraged by the Atlantic Charter, the Four Freedoms, the Eight Points of the United Churches and, above all, by the proud fact that amid the unprecedented horrors of persecution, concentration camp, torture and death in Europe the Church of God has been the one institution that has maintained resistance to the brutal dictator.”