CHUROH UNION.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18778, 28 October 1932, Page 9

CHUROH UNION.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —While members of various Christian churches agree that church union da desirable, It is necessary that a favourable atmosphere should be created if anything .practical Is to be done. In a recent sermon reported in Monday’s Waikato Times, the Bishop of Waikato stated that the English Church Is faced with .“the difficulties of getting her erring children back to the fold.” His Lordship asked, “were certain ohurches, like erring children, to come back to the family on their own terms?” One wonders-which of the churches are Included in this erring family. The term can hardly apply to the Baptist or Presbyterian bodies, as these both claim a lineage at least as ancient and honourable as that of the English church Itself. If by any chance the phrase should be Intended to Include the Methodist church, then the preacher Is viewing the position from the wrong angle. If we may be allowed -to use the same simile as family life, then the plain facts of history show that the relationship between the English church and the people called Methodists -was that of an erring mother who had left the true fold, while some of her children continued In the faith. These faithful ones have grown into a great modern Methodist church of 50,000,000 members, the largest Protestant church of to-day. With the passing of the the relationship has changed; the erring mother has become a. greatgrandmother. The great-grand-children treat the old lady with the respeot due to extreme age, and sincerely hope that in her declining years she will realise that the children’s descendants are now grown to full manhood, and will also realise that union is only possible when both sides are willing to give as well as take.— I am, etc., ONE METHODIST.