ANGLICAN SYNOD OPENS

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17752, 2 July 1929, Page 8

ANGLICAN SYNOD OPENS

WAIKATO CHURCHMEN ASSEMBLE. PICTURESQUE SERVICE IN ST. PETER’S CATHEDRAL. BISHOP’S COMPREHENSIVE CHARGE. Amid picturesque ceremony, the Waikato Synod was formally constituted In St. Peter’s Cathedral last evening. The long line of clergy moved In a procession from the parish hall and entered the Cathedral by the West door. Evensong followed. When the roll was called there were only three absentees from the clerical list and about a dozen from the laymen’s 11st. After his Lordship the Bishop had duly constituted Synod, the sermon was preached by the Rev. H. D. A. Major, D.D.

This morning Synod spent a quiet time In meditation and study under the guidance of Canon G. H. Gavin, of Waltara. The Bishop, in his charge, presented to Synod In Alexandra Hall this afternoon, reviewed the progress made In the Church and touched upon many questions relating to religion, science, sociology and ethics.

MODERN OUTLOOK. WAIKATO BISHOP’S VIEWS. VARIED SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT. Views on the latest movements of the Church of England throughout the world were expressed by the Right Rev. C. A. Cherrington. Bishop of Waikato, in his charge to the Diocesan Synod this afternoon. His Lordship said it was now a commonplace to say there were many who thought and hoped that in the providence of God the Anglican Communion might be the instrument by which the reunion of all Christian ohurches, for which they all prayed and of which some of them dreamt, would ultimately be brought about. The fact of her wonderful comprehensiveness lent support to this thought and hope. There were, he supposed it was correct to say, three great ideals or modes of thought in the English Church to-day. They were labelled for want of a better method of delineation with the titles of Catholic, Liberal Evangelical, and Modernist. Each of these modes of thought was necessary to the .wellbeing of the whole, and it must be remembered that every one merged into the others. Thus the most thoughtful Christians of the Anglican Communion shared in aIL of them to some extent. It was perfectly true that there were extremists in each of these directions whom for the time being it was so easy to condemn, he continued. We were so impatient with some supposed eccentricities that we were liable to condemn off-hand what might prove to be, if we had a little more patience, an emphatic, though perhaps for the moment unbalanced, statement of what Was really an underlying truth.

changing conditions. Above ail, there should be that fellowship implied by the general parish Communion on the Lord’s Day. As to ritual, it should be as stately and teachable as was necessary for due decency and order. The whole chapter was well worth reading, said his Lordship, and tended to show in the direction of ideals of worship the tremendous influence for good that the Catholic school of thought had had on the Church at large. Continuing, the Bishop said it was unnecessary to claim that the Catholic ideal or viewpoint had Us due place in the fold of the English Church. And yet a great many people, in spite of the advancement of learning and spread of education, when this particular aspect was dealt with, the imagination immediately flew to matters of ritual and controversy. The spectre of the Scarlet Woman and the dread of Papal interference were not yet dead, added his Lordship. Such phrases as “High Church,” “AngloCatholic,” arid the like, still aroused in some people’s minds the idea that the position of the Church of England was in danger. It was a matter of history, however, that the Catholic viewpoint was, and always had been, one of the great features of the cleansing of the Church generally called the Reformation. In proof of this it was unnecessary to go further than our own Book of Common Prayer, which was as Catholic a formulary of worship as any in Christendom. The Catholic Party. "The Catholic part of the Church had stood for this: That the Church of England is an integral part of the Church of Christ; that with the great churches of the East and West she holds her place: that she maintains the full liberties and doctrines of Christians, while tier ministry, creeds and sacraments are as they were at, and have been from, the beginning. The Church is a spiritual society, free from State control, of spiritually-minded men, and is guided by the Spirit of God. She has a great reverence for the past and yet a readiness to move forward into the future. This is, or should he, the attitude of every Catholic-minded churchman.” His Lordship added that an enormous amount of doctrine, practice and interpretation, for which members of that school had fought, lived, and died, were now commonplaces in the ordinary atmosphere of the Church. The necessity of the three-fold ministry, the importance of duly using the sacraments, the legality of prayers for our departed friends, the value of the doctrine of incarnation, the close connection between the sacrifice of Calvary and the blessed Eucharist—each of which had been a plank In the platform of the so-called Catholic Party—were accepted for the most part by everybody. Those who did not know imagined that there was much lack of unity in the Church of England. Those who did know were aware that there was never a time when men of various points of view had worked so well .together. Modernist Tendencies. Referring to the Modernist movement, Bishop Cherrington said many people were disturbed over this, and in, view of some of the stafements made by some of the so-called Modernists there was no wonder. It was as well to remember that fresh ideas or fresh ways of stating ideas had always disturbed people. He supposed that no greater stir was ever created than by “Essay and Reviews” in last century. For being a contributor, objection was made to the consecration of the great Archbishop Temple to the See of Exeter. “All of us must be Modernists to some extent." he added. “For example, the. rejection of verbal inspiration of the

Evangelical Tenets.

Taking its rise early in the 19th century as an offset on the part of churchmen to the great Methodist revival, the Evangelical school had now become in the words of its representatives to-day, Liberal Evangelical churchmen. In a recent volume of essays by representatives of this part of the Church, including such names as the present Bishops of Manchester, Hereford and Birmingham, the position of men called by this name was clearly and fearlessly stated. the book was well worth reading. It showed very conclusively how a school of thought which once stood for very definite and perhaps somewhat narrow principles admitted that it had been led by. the Spirit of God to a very much wider outlook, and to agree that views and methods against which once it protested were now seen to add their quota to the variegated presentation of the one faith To the Evangelical ’for years the Bible was literally interpreted, and the Thirty-nine Articles were the fixed points of his •authority, and there were many who supposed that these articles were their tenets still. It would be as well if all those-who labelled themselves still by the name of Evangelical could make themselves familiar with what their accredited leaders to-day were thinking and teaching. The Use of Ritual. With what the Bishop of Manchester said in his essay on worship there were few who disagreed except perhaps dhe method in which some of the statement's were put. Simplicity, beauty, liberty and fellowship were to be the, marks of our worship. It should be intelligible to all that colour, music, art, should have their due place, and there should be freedom to adapt the details of worship to

Bible, the acceptance of the theory of evolution, and the doctrine of the Divine Kenosis, to mention but a few of the.controversies which have caused some earnest people to think that the Church would be wrecked, are nowlooked upon as commonplaces.” The speaker thought that we should keep in mind what the desire of the Mod-ernist-was, and give full weight to his ideal. Modernists claimed to be Christians and members of the Church. Despite the arraigning for heresy of one of the Modernist leaders some months back by members of the Church of great piety and influence, few would find fault with the very careful way the'ißishop of Gloucester, before whom the charge was made, handled it.

Discussing Christian ethics _ the Bishop said what needed at all times and especially to-day to be emphasised unceasingly was that the Christian religion was not a creed nor a worship but a life. The teaching of Jesus needs to be again forcibly put before us in all its width and-wonder. As with every great cause, so every real and fresh presentation of the truth taught by Jesus had needed men who -would dare and do all. SOCIAL CONDITIONS. EFFECT OF CHRISTIANITY. .GREAT AWAKENING URGED. Commenting on business, in his charge to the Waikato Synod this afternoon, Bishop Cherrington said that it was true there were some men and women, old and young, who did their level best to do a real good day’s'"work in return for what they were paid. Could it be said that these were exceptions in the world of business, commerce and trade? The unfair and dishonest competition, the cheating of public bodies and private individuals by firms and contractors, the , thought that “anything will do” on the part of the employees—these are common knowledge and cannot fail to rob many professing Christians of any real value attaching to their Christian calling. “Indeed the whole of our social relations, capital and labour, employer and employed, nation and nation, and in particular those vast coloured peoples that throng our Empire, can only be properly dealt with on the basis of a fresh estimate of Christian ethics.”

The reasons for the present state of affairs were not far to seek. They were only too well known, and the worst' of it was that much of the prosperity of our Empire had been built upon them. The endless feud between capital and labour, the curse of unemployment and the deadly fear which must haunt many hearts of being unemployed, were the results of past wrongdoing and for the most part present apathy, liere and there voices were raised and schemes suggested, but, his Lordship asked, was the great bulk of Christian conscience awake; were the hearts of men and women who tried profoundly to honour Christ really aroused to a full meaning of the Christian life? Did they realise that each was his brother’s keeper and that the Christian life was one of brotherhood that must permeate all activities of work and play? NO MORE WAR. BISHOP’S STRONG PLEA;

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS’ CASE

“MARTYRS IN THE CAUSE." A strong pica for courageous attitude towards war was made by Bishop Cherrington in his charge !o ohe Waikato Synod Lius afternoon. “As Churchmen are our faces definitely and finally set against war?” he asked. "No one can deny that war and everything to do with it, the spirit of it, and the facts and suffering of it, are completely contrary to the mind and teaching of our Lord. We need not worry because it has taken a Christian world centuries - to find it out, nor because a so-called Christian world as a whole will not be agreeing with wfiat I say. For we are aware that it took the same Christian world 1800 years to discover that slavery was an abuse which could not be tolerated by Christian principles. There are plenty of other matters upon which Christian men for the most part have not had the courage nor the wisdom to pass any real verdict nor to see where the teaching of Christ must lead them. “As clergy we want to preach that war must cease, and as Christian iaity we w'ant to talk about it, and to do all that we can to leaven public opinion,” continued the Bishop. "After all, the late great failure in this respect was said to be the ‘war to end war,’ so that we are only carrying out the spirit of sacrifice of those who took part in it if we agitate in this direction. But then? will have to be martyrs for it.” Referring to the three young Presbyterians. who in obedience to the dictates of their conscience refused to have anything to do with war in any shape or form, the Bishop said their honesty and sincerity had to be believed, for want of any evidence to the contrary. They had suffered reproof at the hands of their Church and loss at the hands of the State, but he could not see how they had earned the cheap sneers that had appeared in some of the newspapers. They did not forget that it was opposition to the Church and to the State that had brought their Redeemer to the Cross. These young men, in endeavouring to carry their principles into practice i would be the last to complain of their lot. “There will have to be martyrs for a great cause like this if the conduct and ethics taught and lived by our Blessed Lord are to be accepted by Christian men,” he added. EVOLUTION THEORY. I WHAT genesis tells. BISHOP'S OUTSPOKEN VIEWS. “It would seem that there-are people in this enlightened and progressive age who are disturbed at the advance of scientific investigations and distressed at some of the hypotheses which science has considered to be pretty fairly established,” said Bishop Cherto the question of evolution in his charge to tbe Waikato Svnod this afternoon. ‘ His Lordship said he. believed considerable agitation was afoot to prevent .the teaching of the evolutionary hypo-

thesis to the children of our schools. “It seems to me that we might as well question the teaching of the laws of gravitation or the circulation of the blood. I presume that the reason underlying the objection is that in some way or other the hypothesis is supposed to affect some preconceived notion that we were created and have arrived at our present state by some other means.” The Bishop said the only other theory to account for our existence that he knew of was the “special creation theory.” It had been supposed ir. some quarters that the special creation theory had the authority of the Book of Genesis. It w-ould not matter if it had, since the early chapters of Genesis were quite a modern production, dating not much more than 400 years before the Christian era! As a matter of fact, the narrative spoke of an orderly process, a gradually perfecting growth, ai.d a bringing of cosmos out of chaos, which would fit the evolutionary hpyothesis quite as well as any other. One reason for opposing this hypothesis was that it was supposed it would destroy the “design” argument for the Being of God. At first sight, and with a crude presentation of ihat argument., perhaps it might. Further study showed that instead of destroying, it only enhanced that famous reason for believing in the Being of God. The Bishop commended to their notice a small but vastly important book on the subject, “Belief, Faith, and Proof,” by Canon Beibitz, a book read by all theological students in preparation for the grades for the licentiate of theology. His Lordship quoted extensively from this work, and said it was impossible for a Christian to be afraid of the discoveries, verdicts and methods of science of any sort. In conclusion, the Bishop said our final belief was in God, that this earth was part of the universe for which He was responsible, and that therefore the result of the labours of His creatures in His world must eventually be a larger and wider knowledge of Him. Neither evolution nor biology had as yet presumed to say a word as to the ultimate origin of life which we shared, and whether that life was something that could not be produced by inanimate matter. Whether it had been derived from matter inanimate so-called mattered not one jot. In the second supposition it would mean that we had not yet reached the end of understanding what material things are. “For the true scholar, humble and devout, all paths of learning lead to heaven,” quoted the Bishop in conclusion. TO-MORROW’S PROGRAMME. Morning: clerical members’ conference. Afternoon Synod _ sitting Evening: Synod sitting, elections for Standing Committee, Board of Nominations, Auditor, Diocesan Missionary, Committee and Pensions Board representatives. .