FUNDS FOR CHURCHES

Taranaki Daily News, 19 September 1931, Page 14

FUNDS FOR CHURCHES

CARD PARTIES AND DANCES. ANIMATED DISCUSSION. There was a lively discussion at a recent session of the Anglican Synod in Sydney on a motion, submitted by the Rev. J. Bidwell, strongly condemning card parties, raffles and dances as means of raising money for church purposes, and protesting against the State Lottery Act, which, it was asserted, “legalised the demoralising methods of gambling to provide public funds.” Mr. Bidwell said that he would rather go out of the Church than build it up with the aid of card parties, dances or raffles. It was most undignified to liavq churches running “sixpenny dances” and giving valuable prizes to attract crowds to church functions. They would not accept horse races as aids for church work, yet these were no more demoralising than the curse of gambling. He was surprised that a Labour Government should legalise a lottery which had for its object the giving of large amounts to a few at the expense of the many. Archdeacon Davies, in seconding the motion, said it would be as legitimate for the Government to legalise burglary as gambling. Both were equally a menace to the nation. The gambling spirit had been largely responsible for the uneconomic borrowings which the nations and people of Australia had been indulging in during recent years. Several speakers, lay and clerical, protested against card parties and dancing being bracketed with raffles and lotteries. They contended that card parties and dances were no more,inimical to morality than were church tea parties and games. Canon Langford Smith said that dances and card parties were not lieing condemned as such, but as a means of raising funds for church purposes. The trouble was that the world had got such a hold on some churches that people were wondering which was the world and which the church. It was probable that in 10 years—possible in five years—the Church would bo fighting for its very existence; therefore this was not a time for temporising with such worldly evils as lotteries afid raffles. After other speakers had urged the redrafting of the motion the debate was adjourned.