THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 72, Issue 6239, 7 June 1946, Page 5

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

ITS GREAT OPPORTUNITY “If the church is to play any vital part in national and world reconstruction, it must abandon its historic pre-occupation with the saving of its own soul, and share the burden of mankind,” said Mr G. G. NGooday in the Wellington Salvation Army Citadel on Sunday. He described as a “distorted caricature of Christianity” a church which consisted of pious people meeting together with other pious people to discuss the inner movements of their souls, while the great wrongs which Christ challenged went unrebuked at their doors. Later in his address Mr Gooday said the Christian Church was today presented with the greatest opportunity in history—an opportunity of awakening conscience to acceptance of those standards of human justice and that regard for spiritual values which alone could save the world from reversion to barbarism. “But he said: “if this is to be accomplished, there must be an end to the paralysing compromise whereby the church in days past had tactically agreed to leave all social and economic issues to the State, while she confined herself to the saving of men’s souls.”