DENOMINATIONAL RIVALRY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9695, 25 June 1917, Page 10

DENOMINATIONAL RIVALRY

In opening a Methodist sale of harvest produce in Alosgiel, Dr Bedford referred to a matter of considerable importance concerning tho relatione of the churches to the war. After emphasising the need .of economising human and material resources in home occupations with a view to increasing tho man-power and wealth available for war, he stated that the churches might well consider whether the time was nor opportune for cutting down the expenditure of their households. He did not urge tho reduction of the stipends of ministers; on the contrary. he_ would like to see tho salaries of poorly-paid clergymen raised even during war time. These men had suffered acutely through fixity of income m a time of .soaring prices. What he referred to was the waste of men and money arising from denominational rivalries of the Protestant churches. There were half a dozen churches in Dunedin, and more than a score in Otago that could he closed during the war. not only withput sacrifice to the spiritual well-be-ing of the people of the province, but with an actual increase in spiritual influence. Apart altogether from the bitterness occasionally engendered by ecclesiastical competition, it was a costly extravagance, and that was enough to condemn it to-day.