ARCHDEACON ATTACKS CHURCH “MALCONTENTS.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18641, 19 December 1928, Page 8

ARCHDEACON ATTACKS CHURCH “MALCONTENTS.”

PRAISES BISHOP’S WORK IN WAIKATO DIOCESE. (Special to the “Star.”) HAMILTON, December 18. Amazement at the statements made by some of the speakers at the meeting of the parishioners of Claudelands Church of England last Wednesday was expressed by Archdeacon F. G. Evans, of New Plymouth, in a letter published here to-day. “ Can these people who seemed to be the chief speakers at the meeting, really be Christians?” he asks. They neither manifest common decency nor any sign of esprit de corps. Do they realise they are trying to injure God’s own Church? Although I give them credit for not knowing what they do, I don’t wonder that people are leaving the local church to which they belong, for what man in his senses, with the slightest particle of Christian charity, would remain in such company? It is time they were told the truth, and I am endeavouring to do it. “ Their actions do not hurt the Bishop, because his position is assured as long as he likes to occupy it. When they withhold their paltry offerings they are hurting the poor clergy or the congregations in outlying parts of the diocese, and not the Bishop. It is quite true that the Bishop has his faults, and who has none? But it is always the most faulty who are most ready to find fault with others. “ The Bishop is trying to do his very best for the diocese at large. No man who has ever tackled such work has been more maligned or harshly treated than he has. I know that he has extreme views on certain matters of Church order, but I do not think he ever forces his opinions on other people. My views and his about certain matters are diametrically opposed, and yet he has always treated me with the greatest kindness and consideration, and placed me in the highest position next to himself in the diocese. “ If the malcontents in Claudelands district would suffer a word of advice, it would be this:— “ When they say their prayers let each ask this petition: ‘ Lord, show me myself as I really appear in Thy sight.’ “If the prayer is in earnest it will be answered, and I fancy that it will be some time before they will be able to look their fellow churchmen in the face.”