ORGANISED CHRISTIANITY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3861, 13 March 1928, Page 15

ORGANISED CHRISTIANITY.

THE TREND OF RELIGION. ADDRESS BY REV. L. B. FLETCHER ? The Testing of Organised Christianity was the subject of tbe address of the chairman of the Congregational union of New Zealand (the'Rev. Lionel P.; E letcller ) the °l le,l >ng session in Christchurch on Wednesday evening. The changes that had swept the world since the days of the Great War had been the most revolutionary that the world bad ever known in a like period. Our modes of life and thought and action could never be the same again. We had passed through an upheaval that would be graphically described by the future historians. In 14 years everything in life had been shaken to its very foundations. The churches had not escaped, and it was only because the vast machinery had been kept going by its own weight that we had not been startled more. But even the churches had not discovered the secret of perpetual motion, and at last the whole of Christendom realised that it was racing the greatest test in its history. Mutterings of alarm had been heard for years past—hardly an asembly of any denomination was held without some voice being heard in complaint or criticism or suggestion. But the overwhelming voice of officialdom had assured us that all was well.

But, in spite of it all, men knew that all was not well. Young and ardent thinkers met and talked together, and a growing wave of discontent had been mounting up, and now it seemed as if we were in the very whirl of the breaking wave as it roars upon the beach. The excitement and world-wide interest in the fate of the revised Prayer Book of the Anglican Church had revealed a sharp cleavage in thought and desire in the churches outside the pale of Roman Catholicism. The work of the Anglican bishops had been au endeavour to adjust the great organisation of their church so that it might face the tost of modern times, and it was admitted that the great and noble Church of England was passing through a crisis, the outcome of which uo one could see. The three books which had had the greatest sale in the English speaking religious world of late monllis hs.d been “The Christ of the Indian Road,’ “The Impatience of a Parson,” and “ God and the Groceryman.” “In tbe Christ of the Indian Road,” Mr Fletcher went on, Stanley Jones fearlessly faces the fact that Christian missions and the Christian Church are being tested. He asks a great question (and because he dares to do this many misguided people who pride themselves on their orthodoxy denounce him in the bitterest terms they can employ, forgetting that the first principle of Christianity is “He that hath not the spirit of Christ is none of His"), and here is the question: — “ Will the Christian Church be big enough, responsive enough, Cliristlike enough to be the medium and organ through which Christ will come to India? For, mind you, Christianity is breaking out beyond the borders of the Christian Church. Will the Christian Church be Cliristlike enough to be the moral and spiritual centre of this overflowing Christianity? Or will many of the finest spirits and minds of India accept Christ as Lord and Master of their lives, but live their Christian lives apart from the Christian Church?’ Our biggest danger in New Zealand lies in the fact that we are shut off from the rest of the world more completely than any other considerable population in the world. We are therefore apt to become self-centred and self-satisfied, and unless -we are careful we shall eventually find ourselves facing a world crisis that we never dreamed was so close at hand.

The denominational barriers in some ways are higher here than other parts of the world, where a more cordial relationship has been steadily developing since the war. In Britain and ?»ustralia, for example, the non-Anglican ministers have exchanged frequently with their Anglican brethren. Dr J. D. Jones and Dr Jowett and other Free Churchmen have preached in cathedrals, - and English Anglican bishops have preached in the City Temple and Westminster Chapel and other nonAnglican places of worship. The Rev. J. E. James, of Melbourne, has preached in Victorian cathedrals, and the Melbourne archbishop and Victorian bishops have preached for him in the Collins Street Congregational Church, Melbourne. In New Zealand we have not this kind of thing, nor anything approaching it. The fact it that organised Christianity is facing a changed world. It is facing a challenging world—it is facing a cynical world —it is facing a Christless world. We are facing these conditions with a strong clnuchianity and a weaK Christianity.” The speaker dealt with the subject at consfderable length, and concluded by making a plea to all Christian people throughout New Zealand to sink their differences. “Let us this year come together without reservation,” he said. “ Let us turn again and seek the Lord, and surely He will hear and He will revive us again. There has never been a great spiritual revival shaking this country, but there is no reason why there should not be. Let us turn to the Lprd with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and prove Him and see if He will not pour us out a blessing as He has promised. Then anything 'will be possible.” ~