The WORLD of RELIGION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22142, 22 June 1935, Page 5 (Supplement)

The WORLD of RELIGION

The recent en 11 iron em en t of the Most Reverend Arthur Hinsley as the new Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, in succession to Archbishop Bourne, was carried out with the most ancient and beautiful rites of the church. The great Westminster Cathedral was crowded with a distinguished congregation, and the Archbishop, having been received officially at the main entrance, passed up the central aisle beneath a white and gold canopy borne on gilded staffs. After the celebration of High Mass and the bestowal of the Papal blessing, Archbishop Hinsley delivered his allocution from the chancel. He spoke of the work of his illustrious predecessor and of the loyalty of his people to the Throne. He then referred to the appeal which he brought from Rome from His Holiness to a world torn with strife and international jealousy. "The efforts of statesmen and economists are vain to secure peace unless there be a turning to God," he said. Toward the close of his address he emphasised the pressing character of the problem of education in the schools of his church. His words were: "There are tens of thousands of Catholic children in this great metropolis who have not the opportunity to breathe. the atmosphere of the faith in Catholic schools taught by Catholic teachers.' 1 and be appealed for help to place these schools in an unassailable position and to remedy, as far as possible, the "heart-breaking'' leakage which resulted from any insufficiency. The Baptist Church The annual Assembly of the British Baptist Union was held recently at Plymouth and was the occasion of great public interest. Among the fraternal visitors were the deputy-mayor of the city (the Mayor being laid aside with illness) and the Bishop of Plymouth, who delivered an address of "exceptional warmth." The incoming president was Mr. H. Ernest Wood, J.P., who for forty years had rendered conspicuous service to his church. His official address had all the candour and practical value of an observant layman and came as a challenge to the members. Never before, he said, bad the Baptist Churches been so well organised or so well provided with funds. "Why then was it that God's work languished in their midst, and so many of their churches seemed disheartened, their ministers depressed and restless, and the membership diminishing?" He suggested that perhaps many churches had become too secular and had allowed secondary things, good enough in themselves, to assume the primary place. Restlessness, a sense of defeatism, a self-satisfied spirit, were such obtained, must inevitably prevent successful work, and without the Christianising of social and business relations and the J maintenance of a morality markedly j above the average of the world, the | religious appeal must suffer. He there- ; fore urged "an overhaul of church j methods," suggested that open-air ser- | vices should take! the place of indoor ; morning worship in summer, advised ; cinema services, allied for "team-work" ; among ministers and for a bold forward movement in the new housing areas. In | appealing for an open mind that might enter upon such experiments, the president was carried beyond his manuscript, and cried, "Our denomination is the most democratic —and the most conservative. That is not in my printed address, but it's true."

Work of Missionary Societies The great Missionary Societies have been passing through anxious times owing to the shrinkage of their income during the world-wide depression, bnt the reports of some of them presented at the May meetings in London seem to indicate that the tide has begun to turn. Some interesting figures are made available by the Christian World. After seven lean years, in each of which there had been a deficiency, the balance-

By PHILEMON

sheet of the London Missionary Society showed an increase of £6324 for the past 12 months. Notwithstanding thi* the expenditure exceeded the income b~ some £II,OCX), but 'irith the aid o? legacies the total deficiency was reduced and now stands at £79,977. Hope was sufficiently high to prevent the adoption for the present of any withdrawal of missionaries from the field. The Baptist Missionary Society is rejoicing over an increase of nearly £9300 in its income. The Church Missionary Society has also had a good year and .shows a deficiency , of only £BB3, the lowest for 16 years. Unhappily some of the other societies have not yet experienced the improvement. The large deficiency of £50,000 which hampers the Methodist Missionary Society ' creates grave concern, and strong efforts, the renult of which will be reported to the annual conference next month, are being made to obviate large reductions in the mission staffs. The China Inland Mission, which during the seventy years of its existence has received five million pounds in support of its work without direct advertising, reports its lowest income for sixteen years and a fall of £ISOO as compared with the preceding y«ar. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel also reports a fall of £3630 in its subscriptions and donations. Jubilee Thanksgiving Service In the Free Church press the most favourable comments appear concerning the courtesy shown by the authorities of the Church of England in connnection with the Thanksgiving Service at St. Paul's on the occasion of the King's Silver Jubilee. We take the following from one of the most prominent: "The Church historian will note with emphasis the progress of the movement toward reunion during the reign of King George. The war had something to do with this, and the straitened circumstances of the after-war years have stimulated it. Certainl'y there has been nothing like it in modern church history .... there is a new atmosphere, the differences are vanishing, and there is an increasing clearness and warmth. The Georgian era will be noted as a time of real advance toward the consummation of a united Christendom." Women in tlie Ministry The Rev. Dorothy Wilson, M.A_, whose services at the Beresford Street Church impressed the large congregations that assembled to hear her, has recently addressed a gathering of women in Sydney on "The Place of Women in the Minisrtry." Old prejudices, she said, died hard and many of the taboos on the question arose from a totally erroneous interpretation of St. Paul's teaching, and from a failure to realise the changed status of women that had been brought about by Christianity itself and by the better appreciation of the Apostle's doctrine that in Christ "there can be no male and female." She pointed out that the mind of the Church; was gradually becoming more enlightened on the question. The Congregational Church was the first to ordain women on the same terms as men and there were now 12 Congregational women ministers in England. The Baptists and Unitarians followed. The Methodist Conference had defeated a proposal for the entrance of women into the ministry by the narrow margin of 1559 to 159. The Presbyterians had approved the principle but had referred the matter to their Sessions. The Archbishop of Canterbury had given his permission for women to speak "within strict limits and, after permission by himself, at services other than the regular services of the church." Canon Streeter has become an ardent supporter of the Group Movement and travelled by air to Copenhagen to attend the great gathering there. Interviewed by the Berlingske Tidente of that city, he said that he had come as a "learner." He had seen that the Groups were making bad people good and good people better and giving to men of goodwill new hope, and so he had thrown in his lot with them. "The reason that I am here to-day," he said, "is not so much that I want to address meetings, but rather that I want once more to join the Group in its daily work and learn more from them for myself, over and above srhat I have already learned."