GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23350, 16 November 1937, Page 7

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH MISSION WORK DISCUSSED APPEAL ON CHINA’S BEHALF (Special to Daily Times) AUCKLAND, Nov. 15. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church met in St. David’s Church, when the Rev. D. M. Cattanach presented the report of the Missions Committee. Dr A. L. Sutherland, who addressed the assembly, said the medical mission work was doing with what resources were available to help the needy in India. The hospital accommodation was seriously inadequate and qualified doctors were far too few to meet the work clamouring for attention. The Jagadhri Hospital was the only one in the vast area, and the nearest X-ray plant was 100 miles away. It was never God’s will that such things should be, nor that the Indian people should suffer from so many preventable diseases. Sanitation was non-existent in the villages, and half of the patients in the hospital were infected by hookworm, due to bad sanitation. Dr Sutherland gave instances of cholera, malaria, and other common but preventable diseases. Self-supporting hospitals in mission districts were an impossibility, for the people were too poor to pay fees._ rie said the church must keep her vision of the mission flelds/dear or her own life would become diseased. Mr Cattanach said that all the reports from foreign fields indicated that the work was going forward vigorously and the missionaries were doing their job calmly and courageously. There were problems in China due to the war, while in India political ferment was causing unrest and consequent difficulty. In the medical field, there was a possible development, owing to the training of Indian doctors, and in the evangelistic realm there weie now whole families with Christian upbringing. The hope of the future lay in increasing the n T m H ei L c 2f Indian Christian workers and witnesses to the power of the Gospel of Christ. Maori Missions Speaking of the response to the Maori mission appeal, Mr Cattanach said that if the church were informed the money required would come. An ignorant church could not be expected lo contribute funds. , The Rev. John Laughton said that the response to this appeal was the first really earnest response to Maon work. He considered it an indication that the duty of the pakeha to the Maori was beginning to be recognised. Appeal for China Pastor Y. S. Chan addressed the assembly on the Chinese station. He said that the immensity of the subject precluded adequate treatment. He endeavoured to show how the church could pray for China, but he urged prayer first for the work among the Chinese in New Zealand. If the worn: seen was not prayed for, how could the work unseen in Canton be remembered? He said that out of 100 leaders in China 70 were Christian The generalissimo was a Christian. He had been brought up in poor circumstances. He had seen the whole of China suffering, and had joined the Revolutionary Parly and sold everything for the cause. Later he chose soldiers for a military school at Whampoo, and with 500 soldiers he cleared out the war lords from Canton. Later, military training schools were opened throughout China. General Chiang Kai-shek was manifestly chosen to do great work for China. He was a quiet student of the Scriptures. Mr Chan urged the assembly to pray for the soldiers of China. In five months Japan had sent out hundreds of aeroplanes and many ships, but General Chiang Kai-shek said that the Chinese armies were united and not afraid to die for their country. Chinese outside were helping their brethren at home with money, and, further, the whole world was seeking to help China. For these reasons the people were making such a fine defence against Japan. Shanghai had been captured, but for three months the Japanese were kept out and the Chinese were well satisfied. They should remember how Belgium had kept Germany at bay in the Great War. Mr Chan urged that an economic boycott should be placed on Japan, saying that this would be more effective than sending soldiers. Bible-in-Schools, League At this point a deputation from the Bible-in-Schools League was received. Dean Fancourt, a member of the deputation, said that the morning papers brought sorrow to all, for God seemed to have been forgotten. If any good were to be done to meet the need, then the Bible must be brought back to the schools. Miss Small spoke of schools in which opening devotions were held, saying that in one case of a school of 500 pupils only eight children were asked to be excused. The headmaster had said that the tone of the school had shown an improvement. The opening exercises made religion of matter of every day, and not something taken off* with Sunday clothes. Further, the sharing with the children of the deepest things in life had brought the teacher and the child much nearer to each other. Social Service At the afternoon sederunt the report of the Presbyterian Social Service Association was presented by the Rev, J Paterson, who commended the assembly on the work of the superintendents, matrons and staffs of the homes He stressed the importance of watching over the boys who left the homes to enter upon business careers. If homes for these were not instituted, much of the good work done during the earlier periods of their lives would be lost. Sometimes it was asked what results had been obtained by the work in the homes? The answer was that the children had been cared for, helped to their feel and set on the right road Finance was required to extend the homes and to provide some necessarv accommodation. The Rev. J. F. Strang said that this branch of the church’s activity was not widely enough known, and steps should be taken to make public a knowledge of the work being done. Concerning the establishment of a Presbyterian hospital, Mr Paterson said that in view of the movements in con-

nection with the National Health Scheme, it was unwise to take any steps in this direction in the meantime. Concerning the relation of individual associations to the presbytery involved and to the assembly, he said that there was much difficulty. Some associations were almost independent of control. The assembly’s committee had no power to exercise control, but the necessity existed to co-ordinate the work if any real progress was to be made. Local associations were jealous of their power and refused to allow it to pass from their hands. The honour of the church was involved in each association, and the assembly must secure control of some definite sort. Ecclesiastical Architecture The Rev. W. Lawson Marsh, speaking to the report on ecclesiastical architecture. said the committee desired to assure the assembly, that it was not tied to any theory of design or arrangement. The committee was merely advisory and no more. Slavish reproduction of plans or furnishings was_ to be deprecated. Variety in the design and the material used was to be desired. There was room for diversity in church design and the order of service. Public Questions Report The Rev. J. T. Macky presented the Public Questions report at the evening sederunt of the assembly, ue said the Nelson system was being worked to a very full extent, almost as far as the church’s manpower allowed. Sunday trading was on the increase, especially in small country towns and seaside resorts, but the fault lay with the public, some of them church people, who demanded service. It was lamentable that church people did this. Speaking upon criminal abortion, Mr Macky said that economic conditions would not alone have caused the eyil if a decline in the moral and spiritual life had not manifested itself. To stamp out the evil must mean a deepening of religious life rather than more vigorous legislation. The church was not touching the sources of life deeply enough. The Gospel covered a full range of life and this must be emphasised. „ , The Rev. Gladstone Hughes said that realism in regard to the facts of our day must be the part played by the church, which must give to man a moral purpose, reminding him of his duty to himself and his duty to the race. Economic forces were not the really motive forces to-day. The moral outlook was far more importarlt. The church must stress the Christian altitude to life. Dr Dickie expressed appreciation of the service of the report on public questions to the church, which he termed courageous.

Bible-in-Schools The Rev. J. T. Macky said, speaking of the Bible-in-Schools, that whereever the opportunity to open school with devotional exercises was used it was appreciated, and became more and more part of the day’s work. Dr Merrington said that secularism was' the true enemy of men to-day. Men were realising this, and were more eager to overcome it. All denominations were facing the common enemy and beginning to combine against it. Dr Merrington said that the bulk ox the teachers were sympathetic to Christian teaching and the Church. The assembly expressed disapproval of any attempt to interfere with the prerogatives of boards or committees in granting facilities for the opening of schools with devotions. The Minister of Education had declared that he would alter the Education Act so as to render illegal such devotional exer--01 The Rev. J. T. Macky said that this was against the wishes of parents, who wanted their children to have the safeguards of religious teaching. The Rev. A. B. Kilroy said that these devotional exercises were of more value than teaching under the Nelson system. A headmaster of a secondary school had said that he would give up his office if he was not allowed to open school with prayers. Motion Carried Dr J. D. Salmond moved that the assembly should urge the Bible-in-Schools League to arrange a conference with the Teachers’ Institute and the Department of Education with a view to solving this question on the basis of a statutory and extended Nelson system of religious instruction, whereby the Christian churches in New Zealand would accept the responsibility for religious instruction of children in the public schools of the Dominion. In addition plans must be developed on the lines of the Victorian system for utilising the present system with future extensions to the full. Dr Salmond said the Bible-in-Schools League must “re-think” this question from the beginning. Formal religious exercises and teaching might be absolutely harmful. Religion was caught, not taught, and if a teacher were not convinced religiously then his teaching would be harmful. At present the Education Department was suspicious of the league and the league was suspicious of the department. To get anywhere they must have the full backing of the teachers. A new Bill was being prepared, and the League must meet the department and the teachers to end the worry of 60 years. The church must accept this responsibility of teaching religious truth in the schools. The Bible-in-Schools Bill must be left out of sight. The church must not ask the State to do something the church should do. He stood for the voluntary principle. It was not the duty of the State to teach religion. The Rev. Alex. Salmond said the Bible-in-Schools League was not clear whether it was. advocating a voluntary system or sponsoring the Bill of its old political issue. The Rev. Murray Feist said that the churches of New Zealand could accept the responsibility for training children and do the work well. The church must concentrate more on the children. Dr Salmond’s motion was carried by an overwhelming majority. Criminal Abortion The assembly stressed the point that criminal abortion was due to widespread neglect of moral ideals, which were the outcome of personal religion The solution of the problem was in a return to God and a consequent recog nition of the body as the temple of His Spirit. It was decided to urge the Government to take steps to make the machinery of the law relating to criminal abortion more effective. It was pointed out that a dying declaration by a patient might be taken as if spoken on oath, the argument turning on whether the patient really knew she was dying Every step taken was fraught with difficulty, and the criminal found escape easy. Juries generally took a lenient view, looking "on abortion as no more than an ordinary operation SLAUGHTER OF CHINESE CANTON MISSION’S APPEAL • Per United Press Association) AUCKLAND, Nov. 15. “ Cannot the Christian people of New Zealand do something to make this sort of barbarity impossible—to-day in China and to-morrow in New Zealand? This strong appeal from the Rev. G. H. McNeur. written in Canton, China, on October 20, was read to the Presbyterian Assembly to-day "For some weeks now this province almost daily has been invaded by Japanese bombing planes, but the depredations of the enemy in South China have been slight compared with the fearful carnage and destruction in and around .Shanghai and North China.” The report of the Canton Village Mission work was presented by the Rev. E. M. Catlenach. of Takapuna The Rev. Y S. Chan Chinese missioner in New Zealand, urged Christian people to pray for the leaders in China. 70 out of 100 of whom were Christians. The Assembly passed a resolution appealing to the church to subscribe funds to alleviate the distress in China, such funds to be sent to the Canton Village Mission.