SIGNIFICANCE OF SABBATH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22905, 12 June 1936, Page 10

SIGNIFICANCE OF SABBATH

REV. MR BUTTLE'S VIEWS NO OBJECTION TO GAMES (Special to Daily Times) • AUCKLAND, June 11. Provided that the spiritual significance of the Sabbath is not lost sight of, the new chaplain of King's College, the Rev. L. F. R. Buttle, who arrived at Auckland this morning, has no objection to the playing of games on Sunday. Mr Buttle arrived from Wellington, having landed yesterday off the Ruahine from England. He saw no objection to the playing of golf or of lawn tennis on Sunday, but Sunday activities outside the Church must not be participated in to the exclusion of what that day stood for. The deep importance of the spirituality of the Church ran like a thread through all he had to say. In fact, it formed the basis of all his opinions. Yet he admitted the place of full life apart from the Church, and that was why he approved of what has been broadly called " Sunday games." Such approval, lie said, was his own personal opinion. He did not attempt to sneak for others. Ho did not know the feeling of clergymen in New Zealand, having only just arrived, but he did think that other Anglican ministers in England shared his views on that subject. This, too, was not grudging approval. It was not the result of a belated admission that young people would play games on Sunday whatever the Church thought, and that, therefore, the Church had better alter its views since this broader thought among young peopie had come to stay. Briefly, it was not making the best of a bad job. He was perfectly sincere in seeing no harm in outdoor exercises on Sunday. He recognised that young people were regarding their Sunday as a dav not set apart absolutely from other days, and he sympathised with them, but he reiterated that also a share in the inner and deep meaning of the day was essential. In his opinion the setting apart of Sunday was not of Christian origin. Speaking of the thought of young priests in England on other matters, he said that there was an increasingly large move towards the High Church interpretation of Anglicanism. He felt that the interpretation had more to-give the people of tilings spiritual. It made for a fuller life and a deeper sense of abiding issues. That had been* his own definite experience. ... Mr Buttle holds enthusiastic views about the importance of the chapel in college life It was the normal thing for an English public school to have a chaplain. He said that the chapel should be the actual core of the school life. It should not be like a classroom place in a bov's mind where a certain subject was taught, in this case religion. It should be the centre of the school life. the place he thought of when he envisaged the term "school." ft shoiih: ho part and parcel of the tradition, or rather it should embody the school tradition. .