VITAL RELIGION

Northern Advocate, 11 October 1928, Page 5

VITAL RELIGION

REVIVAL URGED “LIVING IN FOOL'S PARADISE.” ARCHBISHOP'S CHARGE TO SYNOD. (Special to “Northern Advocate.”) AUCKLAND, This Day. “Important as the revision of the Prayer Book may be in England or New' Zealand, it is of less importance than a revival of vital religion and real devotion to the living Christ.” In these words Archbishop Averill issues to churchmen, in his charge to the Synod, a new and hopeful outlook, in place of the spirit of despair occasioned in some circles by the defeat, in the House of Commons, of the revised Prayer Book measure, “Wo are living in a fool's paradise,” he said, “if we are satisfied to imagine that the revised Prayer Book is going to regenerate society. The most serious problem which wo have to face is the fact that the sense of God has been largely eliminated from the consciousness of men and women, When that sense becomes atrophied, materialism, superstition, disregard of moral law and selfishness are bound to assert themselves in the individual and national life.”