RELIGION TODAY

Southland Times, Issue 25328, 1 April 1944, Page 6

RELIGION TODAY

“Churches Stricken With Sickness” OUTSPOKEN ADDRESS In his inaugural address at the opening ceremony of the Presbyterian Theological Hall, Dunedin, the Rev. H. J. Rybum, master of Knox College, made some striking comments on the position of the churches. He said he had to confess that he could see nothing in the present situation of the churches that would give reasonable cause for optimism. On the contrary, he could see cause for grave apprehension. The churches, like the world, were stricken with a mortal sickness. _ Mr Rybum said there was no evidence that the Presbyterian Church was making progress in numbers at a greater rate than the natural progress of the population, and, indeed, there was some evidence to justify the view that the church was actually losing ground. Taking the most favourable view, it would seem that Presbyterianism was at present a static percentage of the population, and was being carried along by the natural increase of the population rather than by any supernatural power or vitality within the church itself. He had assumed that the experience of the Presbyterian Church was typical, and, so far as the larger denominations were concerned, this would appear to be the case. VITALITY OF SMALLER SECTS The only religious bodies which appeared today to give evidence o£ real vitality, Mr Rybum said, were certain smaller sects concerning whose orthodoxy there was doubt. It was tempting to draw the conclusion that either these smaller sects were of the true Church and the larger organizations were not, or else they were displaying the sort of vitality displayed by fungus growing on rotting timber. But if they were the fungus, the larger churches must be the timber. In either case the situation gave real cause for concern. It' simply meant that the Church had ceased to be missionary at home, and in that case could it really be missionary abroad? It could hardly be claimed that New Zealand had reached saturation point, and that no further' opportunity for missionary enterprise existed in the land. The churches relied for increase more and more upon the nurture of those born into the faith and , less on those converted to the faith from' outside. They placed more and more emphasis upon religious education and upon youth work generally, and the conversion of adults to the faith was. he believed, no longer a material fact in the growth of the churches. Prayer was no longer the natural reaction of the churches to their perplexity. - “A third symptom of the Church’s sickness is the apparent irrelevancy of her message to the ethical problems of today,” Mr Rybum continued. "This is a matter of widespread comment, and is closely related to the Church’s failure at her missionary task. How can the Church’s message win. acceptance when its relevancy to today and today’s problems is not perceived?” From all sides came criticism that the Church "failed to give a lead” out of the moral and social chaos of the day. The churches had been stung into attempting to do this very thing, but the results of church conferences upon social, ecOnoniic, and political questions had not been impressive. “What we lack today is not official leadership, but a belief in divine guidance, together with the moral enterprise, initiative, and courage which this belief engenders,” he said. “Here, once again, we detect the lack of belief in the supernatural. Where such a belief exists men do not clamour to the Church to give a lead; they do not hide their moral cowardice behind official pronouncements; they face the issues of the present, and they act in the fear of God and in the belief of His guidance." .REVIVAL OF PERSONAL FAITH The lack of vitality and loss of belief In her power and the loss of contact with modern life strongly suggested that denominational Christianity was suffering from a species of senility. He did not think denominational Christianity could be rejuvenated. Nor was church union by the mere uniting of denominations likely to do anything to restore religious vitality. More hopeful, perhaps, was the ecumenical movement, the action of which represented the highest common factor of the component churches.

“It seems to me that the times call for a revival of individual and personal religious faith,” Mr Ryburn said. "I am not pleading for a mere revival of nineteenth century romantic evangelicalism, which seems to me to be as dead and conventional as any other form of Christianity. Nor do I think that hankering after either seventeenth century Presbyterianism or even sixteenth century Calvinism will do us much good. The religion for the twentieth century people must be a twentieth century religion. This does not mean that it will have no relation to the past, but it does mean that it must have a pointed relevance to the present. A living faith must be a faith for today and not a mere memory, or tradition, or convention.”