CHURCH DYING FOR WANT OF HELP.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 2776, 26 July 1907, Page 2

CHURCH DYING FOR WANT OF HELP.

The Rev. F. TV. Cooper, rector o Prestwich, speaking at a rundecana conference at Lancaster recently, san that the Church Year Book statistic showed there was a steady decline ii church work in almost every direction The people who could help with mone; and personal service were leaving th towns for the suburbs and the coun try, and the oiiTside parishes wer benefiting, whilst the inner one were becoming helpless. The parochial system had brokei down, and it was not exaggeration ti | sav that in many parts the church wa | simply dying for want of help. Sid I by side with them the Nonconformist j were having comparative success, fo the conditions which the church ha< j failed to understand they had grap | pled with in a businesslike way. Tin | Nonconformists had formed strong i centres from which help was extend j ed to the weaker ones, and it alway | seemed to him that they had sue j cecded because they had adopte< ! church principles, and the church wa i failing because she was following Non 1 conformist principles. The church was committing its ok and inveterate sin. and was making i j money test for workers. In hundred: of parishes in England the first ques i tion the patron had to ask was wlieth I or the worker had got private means ! It was one of the worst scandals tliai , could exist, and it was this principh which was to-day their greatest hind ranee.