UNION OF THE CHURCHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18249, 16 November 1922, Page 8

UNION OF THE CHURCHES.

QUESTION ONLY POSTPONED.

MUST BE BASED ON SACEDJIOB.

" It is well-known that the negotiations for union with the Congregational Church I have broken down," said the moderator, I the Rev. W. J. Comrie, in his address at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, yesterday. Nominally the failure is theirs; really it is ours. They approached us with frank and liberal proposals, and we met them in cold business fashion, without a spark of generosity. Our experience should have taught us two things. Union cannot be hurried, and it must bo based on sacrifice. President Harding's words to the assembled delegates at the Washington Conference are worth recall* ing : —'The world demands a sober contemplation of the existing order and a realisation that there can be no. cure without sacrifice, not by one of us. but by all of us.' " The union question was* not done with, said l the moderator, it was only postponed. Discussions were inevitable, and it would be wise for them to exrwiine well and to be prepared to surrencTrr some things they had held dear. They might have to admit that the divine right of Presbytery was no more necessary to the being or the well-being ol! a Church than the divine right of kings to that of.. a j nation. ... i ========== ,