STIRRING CALL TO PEOPLE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18646, 15 August 1930, Page 9

STIRRING CALL TO PEOPLE.

Lambeth Conference Report. VITAL ISSUES DISCUSSED. United Press Association—By Electrlo Telegraph—Copyright (Received August 14, 10.0 p.m.) LONDON, August 13. The Lambeth Encyclical Letter, in which 300 Archibshops and Bishops review the conference resolutions, numbering seventy, is a stirring call to church people individually and collectively to bear more faithful witness in word and deed to the faith, hopes, purposes and resources which are theirs, as members of the Church. The letter emphasises the remarkable progress lately made towards the reunion of churches, through important conversations, during the conference, with delegates from Orthodox Churches, Old Catholic Church, the Sweden Church, Scotland and other bodies. The most notable is the proposed Union of Churches of South India. Resolutions generally approving of the last named movement were unanimously adopted. The report stated that suspended discussions with the leaders of the Evangelical Free churches would be shortly resumed. In the meanwhile, the faithful are enjoined to persevere in the quest for the visible unity of the church.

A memorandum, comprising the resolutions, points out that the Conference decision* are mainly in the nature of recommendations, and are therefore not binding to any of the churches within the Anglican communion, until confirmed by respective church authorities.

The conference seriously impresses upon Christian people the necessity for banishing from their minds, all ideas concerning the character of God, as inconsistent with the character of Christ. “We affirm the supreme and unshaken authority of the Bible as presenting the truth concerning God, in its progressive relation throughout the Old and New Testament.

The conference presumes that public attention will probably be fixed on three other groups of resolutions, in relation to (1) Church Union in South India; (2) the attitude of the Anglican Church towards war; (3) remarriages of divorced persons The war resolution reads: “When nations have bound themselves in a treaty or pact for the pacific settlement of international disputes, the Conference holds that the Christian Church of every nation should refuse to countenance war, in regard to which its government has not declared its willingness to submit to arbitration or conciliation ” In cases of divorce, the Conference disapproved of re-marriage by the church, while the former partner is living. The Conference affirmed the duty of parenthood as the glory of marrleu life, but “where there is a clearly felt moral obligations to limit or avoid parenthood, the method must be decided on Christian principles.” The Conference strongly condemned the use of any methods of contraception from motives of selfishness, luxury, or mere convenience.

The memorandum concluded, with reference to unity: “Anglican Union is becoming a world-wide community cf free and self governing churches. Among these there stands already the churches of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, West Trudies, and India, in such a partnership that none can cr wishes to dominate others.”