LAMBETH CONFERENCE

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18258, 20 February 1931, Page 3

LAMBETH CONFERENCE

THE BISHOP’S LECTURES. CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF GOD. SOME WARNINGS AND COUNSEL. The first of a series of lectures on the work of the Lambeth Conference, which he attended, was given by His Lordship, Bishop Cherrington. at St. Peter’s Hall, Hamilton, last night. His Lordship said the Lambeth Conference was unique in Christendom and the last conference was unique In Lambeth Conferences. Of 400 bishops Invited 303 attended from all parts of the world. The Lambeth Conference had no synodical authority. It met every ten years and discussed questions that seemed to be important at the time. , . His Lordship said he considered the reports on the first three subjects were the most important—the Christian Doctrine of God, the Witness of the Christian Church, and the Unity of Christendom. His Lordship described the procedure of the conference and said he regarded the various reports as the most essential part of it. The hook containing the whole of the reports was well worth buying and could be obtained in New Zealand for about 3s. The importance of the subjects discussed could not be gathered from the reports in the newspapers' —either lay ,or church journals, because of the fact that, they had of necessity to be condensed.

Christianity Supports Science.

The Christian doctrine of God was felt to be so vital that it was dealt with under four heads —its relation to modern thought, its relation to other religions, its relation to teaching and study and its relation to worship. The chairman of the committee which had to prepare a report on this subject was the Archbishop of Armagh, one of the most learned ecclesiastics in the world. The report held that the Christian doctrine of God, properly understood, would sum up all questions and searchings after something better and higher and would solve ail the perplexities that beset many. The report also stated that science in all its branches exhibited to all thinking people an ordered sequence of creation, down through the ages and in process now; that the? Christian doctrine harmonised with the best of human thought in every direction and that science was not' contradicted by the Christian doctrine, Ibut rather supported by it. It was felt that the Bible so far as its account of creation went, could not be taken literally and that a book written 500 years before Christ could hardly, in the light of modern thought, be taken as authoritative. It was the centre of the Bible’s teaching that was important, said Ilis Lordship—that was, the gradual unfolding through prophet and psalmist of the majesty and goodness of God.

Two-thirds of the people of the earth, proceeded His Lordship, did not plrofess the Christian reiligion—'this after 2000 years. The two chief religions that" were non-Christian were Mohammadanisin and Buddism, chief because they alike claimed to. be universal. Whereas Christianity felt that it offered a complete satisfaction for all spiritual needs the fault of Islam was that it taught fatalism while the fault of Buddism was that it taught, that God was all and all was God—that God was responsible for good as well as evil. Both these religions, therefore, did not subscribe to the freedom of the individual. While seeking to he catholic, Christianity could not be catholic in the full sense of the word until it embraced all nations and all possible apprehension of the truths revealed by God.

Spreading Misconceptions. Dealing with the third phase of his subject, that relating io teaching and study, His Lordship said the report stated that the teaching office of the church had been overshadowed by other activities, and by misguided sections within the church, who spread the misconception, for instance, that great calamities were sent by God for liis own purposes. It was such misconceptions in the minds of groups within the church that resulted in people who shou'd be attracted to the church being repelled. The last section of the report, dealing with the Christian doctrine of God in relation to worship, set out, said His Lordship, that one could not possibly worship unless one sought earnestly to discover what God really was. The view we had of God must inevitably raise our sense of worship. The simplest exposition of Christian worship, and the most profound, was the Lord’s Prayer. The first few sentences set the tone of worship. Many people imagined that the chief part of worship was listening to somebody else, but we had to learn that the best form of worship was to ourselves enter into communion with God. The climax of Christian worship "was the eucharist, which commemorated the Cross, that which removed the final barrier between man and God. Christian worship was an essential and not an accidental element in our acknowledgement of Almighty God. His Lordship said the report concluded with a warning against the tendency to become Christo-centric in worship, that was, paying too much adoration to Christ while forgetting that it was through Him we approached nearer the feet of God. At the same time it was not inlended to belittle or minimise the 'devotion to our Blessed Lord. We should worship the Father, through the Son by means of the Holy Spirit. His Lordship was listened to attentively and was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his address.