THE DELIMMA

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4220, 6 December 1939, Page 2

THE DELIMMA

WHERE THE CHURCH STANDS. “It would be a grave calamity if the church,” writes the Bishop of Chichester, in The Times, “were for one moment to suspend its witness to that which alone can overcome war, or compromise its teaching by surrendering to the necessities of the day. “In the war of 1914 to 1918 its witness was at times surrendered. And a poet (still alive) put the criticism of the observing world in a poignant epigram called ‘The Dilemma.’: “God heard the embattled nations sing and shout Gott strafe England! and God save the King! God this, God that, and God the other thing—- " Good God,” said God, "I’ve got my work cut out. “I am not suggesting that the church has fulfilled its task in peace time. Nor am I suggesting that the church should fail in showing its solidarity with the nation in the proper way. “But I do suggest that there should be an honest recognition that the church an express this solidarity, not by saying ditto to the State, nor by stimulating patriotism, but by being ’•eally the church —that is to say, by being a fountain of prayer, and by offering what the church is divinely commissioned to offer to human beings—reconciliation with God, the worship of the family of God, the teaching of the oGspel about God’s purpose for human life now and the life of the world to come, and the proclaiming of the love of God for all men and all nations, as their common Father.”