Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 45 Years.] SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1920. CHURCH AND COMMUNITY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14129, 29 May 1920, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 45 Years.] SATURDAY, MAY 29, 1920. CHURCH AND COMMUNITY.

By a coincidence two speakers at tlie recent Presbyterian and Methodist Conferences in Sydney referred in the same afternoon to the same subject in the same outspoken fashion. Each emphasised the need of the Church to bring itself into the closest touch with the community; each said, in effect, that ‘ ‘ a fugitive and cloistered virtue ’ ’ is at the . best a negative virtue, that the Church has immense powers of influence and opportunities for their exercise, and that the church, whatever its tenets, will be unfaithful to its trust if it does not play its part in the social.as well as in the spiritual sphere. The Churches, in fact, must remember that their responsibility does not end wth their religious offices; if they are to maintain their authority they must move with the times and make themselves a force for reform whose voice will bo heard outside the circle of their immediate worshippers. Neither the appeal nor the argument is )w, but their repetition is opportune. The Churches, or, as we prefer to say, the Church, has sometimes been charged with remoteness from the affairs of everyday life. It has, averts its critics, little contact with realities. Its services {.'reach abstract councils of perfection; its influence is declining simply and solely because it stands aloof from mundane concerns. Criticism of th's nauire ignores the vast amount of work which the Churches are doing in philanthropic and educational iields. The cleric could reply with justice that j‘ preaching” is the least frequent and the least arduous part of his duty. Visiting organisation, the supervision of the manifold Church activities of the parish are even more exacting tasks than the propagation of his faith from the pulpit, although their importance is scarcely less. Still, there is a germ of truth in the criticism. The Church has not always taken that place in the community as a leader and moulder of opinion which it is so well fitted to assume. Dy this we do not mean that

the Church should essay any political role. Nothing could be more disastrous for its own prestige. There is no creed which would, for a single moment, claim to represent any particular section of the nation. The proud title that each enjoys in common with the other is that they are all-embracing. In the eyes of religion there is no distinction between classes and castes; all in the congregation are equal; social position and wealth enjoy no privileges, poverty carries no disabilities. Clearly the Church cannot interfere in political questions. If it does it will only weaken its influence. It is e\ er lays itself open to the suspicion of taking sides it stultifies its own efforts, for what is gained by the approval of one faction is discounted by the weakening of confidence in another. But while the Church has, with some unfortunate exceptions, rightly eschewed politics as a field for endeavour, it can, and should, raise its voice where broader issues are concerned. Quite apart from “politics,’’ an indefinite term, the Churches have a vast and legitimate scope in social service. We do not belittle what they have already done in this direction, but could they not do more? A devoted churchman has suggested that the Church gives too much attention to practical aid and too little, to the causes which 1 make the aid necessary; in its social work it alleviates symptoms rather than diagnoses the i disease. If this charge is true, it is an indirect compliment, for it show's that the Churches have been faithful to the precepts of the Founder of Christianity, Who did not. ask or enquire, but accorded His mercy to ail and sundry. But still the Church might say more on social questions than it does. There arc many matters which come within its intimate cognisance and upon which its experience would be invaluable if the Church chose to speak outright and in all seasons. If the Churches appear to close their eyes to conditions existing all around their influence will scarcely grow. The individual clergyman is not tempted to attack abuses; when he does he is assailed as a “wowser.” No description could be more untrue. We do not suggest' that human nature is worse thon it used, to be, but there is no doubt that reaction from the war has produced an impatience of sanctions and restraints which is reflected in the hospitals, the police courts, the divorce courts and the criminaL courts in every belligerent country. The Church can do very much to rectify this, not by noisy jeremiads, but by exerting its formative influence.