CHRISTIAN UNITY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 114, 16 May 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHRISTIAN UNITY.

It is nearly forty years since a pop- I ular English composer-lecturer instruct- I cd audiences in New Zealand—and presumably elsewhere —to omit from “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” the verse I which proclaims that “we are not I divided, all one body we.” As he said, it simply was not true, and he preferred that it should not be sung. If in * the interval not much has been done j in actual achievement of Christian j unity, a good deal has been accom- j plished in preparation for it. The very impressive declaration made to the Council of Christian Congregations last week by Archbishop Averill redirects attention to this progress. Archbishop Averill spoke with intense conviction for the movement that seeks to accomplish spiritual union between the different parts of the Christian Church, so that the Church, without 1 sacrificing the characteristics of these I parts, would work as one fellowship both in the home and mission fields. Alorc and more are men and women coming to realise how futile and was 1 c- I ful, and, indeed, anti-Christian has been , much of the rivalry between the ' Churches, and Archbishop Averill is able to show to what an extent this feeling is being expressed in policy.— Auckland Star.