BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Wairarapa Age, 6 August 1930, Page 3

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

AGREEMENT BETWEEN LEAGUE AND CATHOLICS. ADDRESS BY REV. E. O. BLAMIRES The Rev. E. O. Blamires, secretary of the Bible in Schools League, addressed members of the Optimist Club at their weekly luncheon yesterday on the recent agreement reached between the League and Roman Catholics as to religious instruction in schools. Mr. Blamires referred to the conference of church representatives, officially appointed, held in Wellington last March to consider matters relating to the Bible in Schools movement. He stated that the differences between Protestants and Roman Catholics which had confronted the League for many years had now been settled. The proposals put before the Roman Catholic leaders, embodied the exemption of Roman Catholic teachers and pupils from participation in the Bible lessons and also freed the Catholic taxpayers from bearing any portion of the additional expense which might be involved in the introduction of the Bible in Schools, and provided that the lesson in religious subjects be alternative, so that exempted pupils should receive instruction at the same time in secular subjects. Various points of agreement between the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and the New Zealand Bible-in-Schools League were found in the following principles:—-(1) The secular view of life is incomplete and no nation can achieve a true and enduring greatness without basing its life on a religious foundation. (2) An entirely secular system of education does an injustice to child life, being unscientific as well as irreligious, treating as non-existent the most vital part of the child nature. (3) The spiritual life requires to be nurtured in association with all other elements of child nature to develop harmoniously a full personality. Hence education in secular life alone, or by the separation of the processes of religious development from the processes of secular instruction, is education of the child on a totally unsound principle. (4-) There is inevitable interaction between home life and school life, which cannot be reciprocal to the best advantage without a religious atmosphere in both. (5) In the teaching of our Saviour, He sets the little child in the place af paramount importance in which He so identifies the child that an injustice to “the little one” is an offence against Him. (6) The spirit of the religion of Our Lord Jesus Christ is that of equity, brotherhood and tolerance. ■ Mr. Blamires said that Archbishop Redwood had declared by manifesto that if the conditions as agreed upon were observed, there would be no opposition from the Catholic Church. It was hoped that an Act in regard to the Bible in schools would be placed on the Statutes. Protestants and Catholics, said Mr. Blamires, were agreed as to the great value of religious training in developing the best character. Religion was a basic foundation on which rested the highest ideals of citizenship. The child was not wholly developed unless religious instruction formed a part of its training. Mr. Blamires was thanked for an interesting and informative address.