CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Wairarapa Age, 11 March 1930, Page 7

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

DISESTABLISHMENT MOVE. ARCHBISHOP’S OPPOSITION. Opposition to proposals for the disestablishment of the Church of England was expressed by Archbishop Averill when speaking at a farewell gathering tendered to him at Auckland on Fridayprior to his departure by the Aorangi for Vancouver to-day (states the “New Zealand Herald”). He deprecated very strongly the separation of Church and State in England. The archbishop said it would be a bad day for England if she did not have some practical and definite recognition of God and of religion. Whatever might be the benefits enjoyed in New Zealand, where there was no State connection, so far as England was concerned he wanted to see Church and State remain as they had been for many centuries past. He might be of some help to the .Mother Church at the present time by putting before it something of the situation here, especially since General Synod had passed the Enabling Bill, which had made it still freer and more independent. The more independent they were as a Church the more they loved and respected and honoured the old mother Church. It was ridiculous for people to suppose that because they were independent they lacked anything in love and respect and honour for their own Motherland and their own mother Church. He was going to tell England, as occasion presented, something of this deep love and veneration of New Zealand. The more the legal bonds went the more the deeper bonds seemed to him to increase. One of the ways in which they had been able to help England was through the Church of England Empire Settlement Scheme. There was a very energetic committee in Auckland and so far they had placed about 300 boys on suitable farms. The great majority of these had made good.