NEW IDEA FOR CHURCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20028, 18 August 1928, Page 11

NEW IDEA FOR CHURCH.

GOLFERS AND PLUS FOURS. TENNIS PLAYERS IN FLANNELS. SYDNEY CLERGYMAN'S PROPOSAL* [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.} SYDNEY, Aug. 9. Are the churches to stand still, Or are they to meet modern tendencies half-way, by offering facilities for wholesome recreations on Sundays as well as for divine worship. This is a point which has been discussed by the Eev. Howard Lea, of St. Mark's, Darling Point, Sydney, one of the most fashionable Churches of England in the Metropolitan area, Mr. Lea says he would like to sec a service commencing at, say, 9 a.m. on Sunday, for the special benefit of those who engage in sport. He would welcome golf players in their plus-fours and tennis players in their flannels, his idea being that they should be dressed ready to go straight to the links and to the courts after the service. As'a matter of fact Mr. Lea favours general sartorial reform among churchgoers. He says he believes that the custom of associating religious services with formal dress is quite wrong. He said: " I feel strongly that many men prefer an earlier hour for tho Sunday morning service. I like men to attend church in any kind of ordinary dress. It is the association of tho formal dress and the formal service, which, in my opinion, is tending to keep men away from church. It helps to keep out of the minds of people the fact that divine worship ought to be the natural expression of the highest part of man's nature." Eveiy facility should be given to those men who desire to attend church and also engage in some form of sport which is within reasonable limits, and I would be pleased to see some reform in the direction I have indicated."

Other Sydney clergymen also express the opinion that the top hat, the frock coat and gloves are not necessarily an adjunct to divine worship, that tho hour of 11 a.m. for service is not particularly sacred for religion, and that if an earlier hour were fixed a great number of men who feel the call of out-of : doors after a busy week, but who do not wish to neglect church altogether, would fill the pews that are now emptyOne prominent Anglican clergyman said:—"We have to meet modern tendencies half-way, by so arranging our services as to permit of the fullest facilities for clean, health-giving Sunday recreation. We cannot go back to the old Sabbatarian idea of sitting still on Sundays, As long as man does not neglect church I see no objection to his making the fullest use of Sunday in wholesome recreation and exercise. We must faca the position as we see it to-day."