A Church Fund.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume V, Issue 2, 1 August 1914, Page 17

A Church Fund.

One of tile needs of the Diocese is, a strong, Church |und to ena,We further J3ome Mission work to be undertaken, and to. help districts' in need- of nelp. In many of the Dpceses m the Home Land such; funds are m existence. At a meeting, m aid: of the South London Church Fund, the following speech (reported m the " Church Times '') was made by the Bishop <6i< Chelmsford, who stated, that the conditions of his Diocese were similar m many respects to those of South London :-^- The Working Classes and Infidelity. They were all part of this vast city, London, which presented such great problems to the Church every year. He was thankful to feel able to say that London was not an infidel city. The working classes of this country were not infidel. Evidences of that were the very few funerals that took place without a religious ceremony, the very small proportion of children withdrawn from religious instruction m the day schools, and the millions of children sent to the Sunday Schools throughout the country. On the other hand, it was quite evident that our working people were not a church-going people, nor was I/ondon a Sabbath-observing city. He thought the fact that the average number of Sunday passengers on trams and 'busses; amounted to 4% millions sufficiently proved that. But. there were signs that the working classes were interested m Christian subjects, and a good open-air speaker on religious matters was sure of an audience. He thought the Church's work of influencing the. masses should be divided into two parts— inside the buildings called Churches the work of preparation should be done ; outside those buildings the real fighting, effort would have to be made. Both sides of the work required the best conditions. The South London Church Fund existed to make that possible m its area. A Mission to Architects and Vergers 1. " Th£; Churches,.' ' he continued, ought to be welj ventilated, 'vvithout dfaught^, just warm 'enough,; arid^neyiet too; hot. (Ajpplausej I think sonietimeis we ought tq ftaye a mission to architects and vergers

for to both combined I believe we are' of ten indebted for the bad effects of our sermons. (daughter and applause.) Then the services should be rendered as beautifully as befits the worship of God ;, and the clergy m charge, of . the parish should be sufficient m number to cope with the work, so that none should go into Church to minister to others oppressed, tired and harassed with overwork. The Church is the place from which to get bur ammunition, so to speaik. We must have Churches ; we must build more ;■ but that is not our main object. The Apostles did not spend so much time on their Churches as on going outside to convert the world. The main object of this fund ought to be to enable this ' going out ' to be done, and done well. In a parish of 10,000 souls, if }^ou get a congregation of 800 m Church, you say ' We had a good congregation at the service.' Is it not time we began to concentrate upon the 9,200 outside ? I commend to you some words once spoken by Hugh Price Hughes, who said : ' The main work of the minister is not so much to coddle the saints as to save the sinners,' If we carry that out we shall find the saints becoming more robust as they find themselves . surrounded by hearts the I^ord has touched and lives the I/ord has changed. Open-air Speakers. 11 The Church must be. aggressive, and its open-air work must be of the best. If you have got two speakers, one good and one bad, send the bad one to speak inside the Church where the people are praying for patience, and let them have an opportunity of exercising it. (I/aughter.) Use the good speaker outside. Don't let young men use the open-air platform as a training ground. Some of the things I have heard speakers say m the open-air have made me feel that if I were a sceptical or indifferent layman who heard them I should say, 'Well, if this is a sample of how you talk m .your Churches I'm glad ; i don't go near them. ' ' The Income of London Church- people Proceeding the Bishop said that another aspect of their work which he put m the forefront was house-fto-house yisitatipn. It was. supremely important to get at the people m their homes. Very often it meant room-to-room; visitation , m the overcrowded conditions of

ma^r parishes; > Ssji M |must £$$ done, and the people who 'did it, especially the devoted women workers, ought to have the help of their constant prayers. But the workers were all too " few. ( What could one clergyman do m a "parish of 10,000 people ? They must have more money if the work was to be done. It had been credibly estimated that the income of London Churchpeople aniounted to one hundred millions sterling a year. If. that was the case could- it be said that a proper financial response was being made to the claims of Church j work ? How could they, he asked, hope to win South 1/ondon on a year) He was astonished at the meagre income of the Fund. He reminded them of the story of the Scotsmen on a visit to l/oudon who attended the service pi the E&iglish Church, and arriving m good time, looked through, the /Prayer Book, with which they were, totally unacquainted. -Suddenly one of them turned to his companion, and indicating the section containing the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, exclaimed; "Aye, mon, did ye ever see the like— CoirJect, collect, collect ! We shall never have a bawbee left." (daughter.) " Well," continued the Bishop, "that is the sort of religion I like, with a collection between every two prayers, and you will notice that after the ptiiertory m the Holy Communion service we have the prayer for the Church Militant. Why is it that that prayer is not answered ? Is it hop. cause God sees that we do not do our part to bring about what we are praying for ?" After S . Peter's first sermon 3,000 men m the street were cohr verted, but we never found that happening no\v. Why ? Because we were not filled with the Spirit as S. Peter and his companions were. When we were filled with the Spirit as they were there would be no need to appeal for money, it would be poured m, and both his Diocese and South London woulcl be won for the I^ord. (Applause.), The Bishop expressed the thanks ■of the meeting to the speakers,, aid then closed the proceedings with the Blessing.