CHRISTIAN ORDER CAMPAIGN

Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22790, 14 January 1944, Page 4

CHRISTIAN ORDER CAMPAIGN

Results Comparatively Small “Great things were hoped for from the Campaign for Christian Order when it was inaugurated in 1942. But, though much money had been spent, much printer's ink used, and praiseworthy activity in its interests engaged in here and there, the results have been comparatively small,” states the “New Zealand Methodist Times.” commenting in its New Yea? issue on the religious outlook in 1944. “It is true that in many places the co-operating churches have been drawn closer together, and in that respect good has been done.” the article continues, “but in regard to the promotion of anything like religious revival the verdict, it has to be confessed, is ‘nil.’ The campaign bn the whole has unquestionably been disappointing. It has not produced the effects that many anticipated, and we doubt whether New Zealand religious life is appreciably different because of the activities of the campaign, and that circumstance is symptomatic.

“We are passing through a grave moral slump in New Zealand to-day,” the article says. “The Christian Church here, in common with other countries is having a difficult time. The prolongation of the war. with all its tragic tale of slaughter, misery, and woe, is producing a synicising effect upon many. It is not tending to promote religious earnestness. While many individual churches are thriving and can speak of large congregations and earnest memberships and progressive movements, the majority, we imagine, would have to confess to the opposite. Many churches feel that in their work they are practically ploughing the sands. Too many are satisfied if. in melancholy phrase, they are ‘holding their own.’ ”