RELIGION IN AUSTRALIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21362, 16 June 1931, Page 8

RELIGION IN AUSTRALIA

SIGNS OF A REVIVAL VISITING CLERGYMAN’S IMPRESSIONS. (Peb United Pbess Association.) WELLINGTON, June 15. On his way back to Scotland after preaching and lecturing in Australia, the Rev. Dr A. Boyd Scott, M.C., accompanied by Mrs Boyd Scott, arrived in Wellington to-day by the Makura from Sydney. Dr Boyd Scott is a minister of the Church of Scotland and his parish is in Glasgow, where he has had charge of the Landsdowne Church for 21 years. He went to Australia on the invitation of the Scots Church in Sydney to preach for a period of six months, which terminated last March. Since then he has preached and lectured in Melbourne, Brisbane, andNew England (Northern New South Wales). “The people with whom I had most to do were the Presbyterians,” said Dr Boyd Scott in an interview, “ and I was greatly impressed with the impact which they make on the community relative to their numbers. I think I may say that the depression is certainly turning the nunds of many to things spiritual. Indeed, in New South Wales in particular there are, in my judgment, definite signs of something like a revival of religion. It seems that there is a lesson here for a country like Australia where, in new districts and new suburbs, churches are apt to be planted which really operate in competition with each other. Presbyterians, Congregationaliets, and Methodists attempted union some years ago, but the movement came to little, but once again they aic exploring the field, and it is to be hoped that something definite may come out of these new negotiations. Mr Boyd Scott and his wife will continue their journey on the Raugitiki on Saturday.