DAY OF OPPORTUNITY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27383, 8 May 1950, Page 6

DAY OF OPPORTUNITY

The Church In The East INTEREST OF PEOPLES Special to the Dally Times ALEXANDRA, May 7. “East Asia, the area from Pakistan to Japan, is in turmoil. It is the great storm-centre of the world at the present time. In the last few years five great empires have lost their hold over vast areas there: Britain, France, Holland, USA, and Japan, while six new nations have come into being: Pakistan, India, Ceylon, Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines. That has meant a tremendous political and social upheaval. Trying to stand on their own feet, these nations have been greatly impressed by the, to them, new concepts of justice, the worth of the individual, and political democracy, which they have gained from the West. “ They are seeking within their religions for some kind of spiritual basis and sanction for these ideas which have captured their imagination. And they seek in vain. As a result there is increasing disillusions regarding the old religions. Many of the Eastern peoples are more disposed to seek the meaning of Christianity now than ever before, because they see its results. Many see in the Christian way of life the only effective defence against the advance of Communism, which, militant and aggressive, is sweeping like a red flame through all these lands.” This was how the Rev. J. S. Murray, foreign missions secretary of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, summed up his impressions of his recent visit to the mission fields in India and China, and to the Missionary Conference in Bankok, Siam. He was speaking to a combined meeting of the Presbytery and PA of Central Otago at Alexandra. Mr Murray said that the two outstanding impressions he gained as a result of his tour were of the difference the Christian made to an individual life, the home and the community, and of the urgent need of the newly-awakened peoples of the East for the opportunities which Western peoples have enjoyed as a result of their Chirstian democracy. Hospitals, schools, orphanages and churches, established by Christian missions, stood in marked contrast to their drab and tragic surroundings. Since Western control had been removed from these countries, the people had been able to see the Christian faith in a truer light, not as something foisted on them from the capitalistic West, but as an indigenous possession which met their own needs. It was true Mr Murray stated, that Communism was gaining ground much more quickly than Christianity. That was because Communism offered a way of quick material returns, whereas the social programme of Chirstianity was a by-product of a deeper change in outlook and spirit, and therefore a slower growth. “This is a day of opportunity for the Christian Church in the East,” the speaker concluded. “If it can succeed, it may make a decisive contribution towards the solution of problems which seem otherwise fuff of menace. Its claim upon us is thereby immeasurably increased.”