RECTOR’S DESPAIR.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17579, 19 March 1929, Page 6

RECTOR’S DESPAIR.

VILLAGERS REFUSE TO ATTEND CHURCH. RESIGNS HIS LIVING'. 4. rector's resignation from his living in the little village of Hedgerley. Buckinghamshire, has drawn attention' to the growing apathy ol the country folk to the claims of the Church. Alter eight, years’ work, the Rev. W. O’Connor has resigned his living because his parishioners refuse' to go to church. He makes the announcement in the parish magazine. “There is only one reason for niv retiring.” he writes, “and that is the feeling of depression and discouragement which has been growing on me for the last three or lorn teats. Thero is in this parish a number of people who never enter Gods house; there is a large number who enter it very rarely. What grieves me most is to see so many of the boys and gii-Is following the example of their elders and cutting themselves off front j the means of grace. The worship of j God is a trouble to them, and they , seldom or never darken the door of s His house. I have failed to influence | them; i feel as if I were up against j a brick wall: and so I had better l retire. This is my only reason for j leaving Hedgerley. which I love, and where personally T have experienced j only friendship and personal goodwill during the last eight years. I Mr. O’Connor, who is ail elderly | man. with a friendly, courteous man- i ner. said that the only reason lor j his retirement is the- utter indifference - of his people to religion. “In the last four years I have be-, come increasingly depressed.’ lie said. “I have 350 parishioners, but 1 seldom have a. congregation of more than 30 although on great festivals, and particularly at the harvest, festival, it may reach 50. There is no other place of worship in the village; it is not a. question of farm labourers preferring chapel to church. NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION. “They simply won’t have anything to do with religion, and I have found it impossible to get through their apathy to any latent belief. “People are always nice to me when I go to see them,” Mr. O’Connor continued. “But if I ask. them why they won’t come to church they have all. kinds of excuses. Sometimes they reply that they ‘can’t be bothered.’ Or they will tell me that they are too busy, or too tired. Some’of the children go to church, but as soon as they leave school they leave church. “It is a vain fight,” Mr. O'Connor added. “They do not help with suggestions for deepening thet- spiritual work of the parish, or even propose a different kind of service. Some of the older people. I imagine, retain the old ldve of the Bible,"but most of them are neither interesting in the church nor in religion.” THE OLDEST INHABITANT, ffi ‘ It was left for the oldest inhabitant to attempt explanation (writes a press representative), and with it he gave his/ philosophy of life as he saw it and had seen it in this village for over half a century. He is Mr. Fred Arlett an ancient with a ready wit

and some strong convictions. “Why don’t 1 go to church?” lie asked. “Well, now, that’s funny; it’s just vyhat vicar asked me not a month age. I’ll tell you the same as I A*)ld him, young man, and that’s to mind your own business.” Alter a time, however, he relented, and agreed to think about it. “Well.” ho said. “I suppose it is because J was driven to go when 1 was young. Hut. mind you. I have a Bible which 1. won at Sunday school, and. 1 read that every day. If you do that, theie s no call to go to church. Parson cannot teach you more than that. After another long period of ruminatin. ho added with pride: “And. mind you. I’m a better man than many of them 'as do go.” . ~ One could not help feeling that the old Plan’s philosophy is one held by manv in the English countryside today. * “Yes,” be proceeded, “people used to (r o before the wav and make their kids go. too. But nobody ever seems to make children do anything j„. these davs. They just do what they like and it isn’t human nature that they' should go to church of thenown accord. P( )ST- WAR TEN DEN CY. He summed up on a note which is often struck by philosophers ana others who watch the way or the world from more exalted positions than this okl Buckinghamshire labourer. “Every-' hedv does just what they like now, he said. “They don’t care so much what other people think about them, it’s that war. It has changed everything.” . , Nebodv in the village had a worn to say against Mr. O’Connor, who is a courtly, scholarly clergyman of obvious sincerity—it is just that lie and tho church find no part m the villagers’ lives. He has held livings in Ireland, and was for many years actively identified with medical missionary work in India. His resignation took effect in February.