DEARTH OF CHILDREN AT CHURCH SERVICES

Otago Witness, Issue 3006, 25 October 1911, Page 31

DEARTH OF CHILDREN AT CHURCH SERVICES

CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS AND SUPERINTENDENTS. A conference of ministers and. Sundayschool superintendents was held in First Church Hall on the 16th to consider the question of how to secure a better attendance of the young at Sunday morning services. There were representatives present from some 17 charges. Mr D. S. Beath, president of the Dumedin Presbyterian Sabbath Schools' Association, was in the chair. The Rev. G. Lindsay, convener of the committee set up by the Presbytery to consider the matter, was the first speaker. He mentioned methods which had come under his notice of inducing children to attend morning service, such as giving them booklets with a page for each Sunday on which to record particulars of the children's part of the service, the giving of attendance cairds to be punched at the church door as the ohild entered, and the giving of prizes to regular attenders. He thought that visiting parents and esking them to send their children had some effect. The real fault lay in the non-attendance of parents themselves. He referred to the League of Worshipping Children, under which a child promised to attend church each Sunday throughout the year. Such a league was wanted quite as much for parents. The Rev. W. Gray Dixon disagreed with the giving of prizes for attendance iiit church, but approved of the minister giving prizes for the best accounts of the children's sermons over a period of one or two quarters. He thought that the cause of the small attendance of ohildren could be traced to the absence of parents from church. The Rev. J. Kilpatrick ©aid he thought that the dearth of Sunday school children at morning services could.'be accounted for to a certain extent by the fact that a .verylarge percentage of the parents were not connected with the Presbyterian Church, or perhaps with any church. Superintendents and ministers should compare the communion roll with the Sunday school roll and see how many of the scholars were children of parents net connected, with the church. He instanced a case- where about 200 out of 339 children on the Sunday school roll were children of parents not oonnected with the church.

Mr Austin (Oaversham) said that his experience was that there. was a better attendance when prizes were offered for the best notes on the children's sermonettes. Mr A. S. Kennedy (Mosgiel) asked what was considered to be the object of children attending church? If it was to inculcate the habit of church-going, as had been stated, and prizes were given for it, then when the children Teached an age when the prizes ceased they would cease attendance, as the inducement previously held out to make them attend had been discontinued. He recommended a continuous series of children's sermonettes, and considered that if a child went for the sake of the sermon that interest would grow with the child till he came to understand adult sermons. . Mr J. W. Todd (Kaikorai) said that only about 25 per cent, of ' Sunday school scholars attended church. He quoted from statistics to show that the same condition of affairs obtained in Scotland to an even worse extent. He considered that the children should take part in their portion of the service. On. Young People's Sunday, for instance, they joined in the Scripturereadiruo-, and this gave them the feeling that they were part and parcel of the service. The morning service was frequently too long, and there was a rush for both teachers and children who attended to get home and; be back in time for Sunday school at 2.30. Mr J. B. Grant (Ravensbourne) said he thought that it was unnecessary to bring down tbo service too much to the level of the child. Although the habit of church attendance might be mechanical at first, it would grow on the child, and gradually he would find both profit and pleasure in attending. He suggested the holding of Sabbath school from 10 to 11 in the morning, and afterwards for the school to attend church until the conclusion of the children's portion of the service, when they would be at Liberty to leave if they wished. Mr David Todd (Knox Church) said that in tho ease of a large Sunday school it would be necessary to ®(*t apart a portion of the church for the purpose. He thought children should bs impressed with the idea that they were doing only half their duty by attending Sunday school, and that it was their duty to attend church also. The home department in connection with the new graded lessons should be brought under the notice of parents, and ministers might do much by bringing the matter before parents through the medium of the pulpit. Mr C. R. Smith (Oaversham) said he thought that if parents and teachers could get the children to go mechanically at first, the habit of church-going would be gradually formed. He thought the service should not exceed one hour, an that the order of service should be varied. Mr Struitlbers (First Church) suggested

that seats might bo set aside near the sid« doors fdr children not accompanied by their parents, these children) to bo allowed to ga out at the conclusion of the children'® portion ol tho service.

Mr GaJdo-w (Mornington) said that about half the children on his school roll were the children of parents not belonging to the church ! This was probably the experience of ether schools afco. and would to a large extent account for the small attendance of children at Ch*» morning church service. At the conclusion of the discussion a number of recommendations embodying seme of the suggestions thrown out by speakers were drawn up for transmission to the Presbytery.