UNION OF CHRISTIAN FORCES

Southland Times, Issue 23947, 13 October 1939, Page 9

UNION OF CHRISTIAN FORCES

ARCHBISHOP AVERILL MAKES APPEAL i - ——. (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, October 12. “In bidding you welcome to what, in all probability, -frill be my last Diocesan Synod, I deeply regret that the history of 1914 should, to some extent, be repeating itself in 1939 and that my last synod, as well as my first, will be overshadowed by war,” said Archbishop Averill, Primate of New Zealand, addressing the twenty-ninth synod of the Auckland diocese today. He added tliat, unless the General Synod ordered otherwise, he would retire from the office of Primate of New Zealand in February next. He particularly wished no formal farewells and no presentations to be made and would prefer, after such a long period of service, to lay down his office with just the prayers and goodwill of all. “Although war has been forced upon the world again and New Zealand is called on to defend the principles which she believes right and true, yet the very existence of war and the possibility of recurring war should cause great searchings of heart in all who profess and call themselves Christians,” he said. “It is better for the Church to be a voice crying in the wilderness than to have no voice at all—which prompts me to refer to what I believe to be the greatest need of the world today, the organic union of all Christian forces so that God can really speak through His Church. It is useless to entrench ourselves behind our own separate ramparts and expect that the sound of our witness will go out into all the earth.”