Waiapu Church Gazette. Friday, September 1st, 1922. MORAL WITNESS.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XIII, Issue 3, 1 September 1922, Page 402

Waiapu Church Gazette. Friday, September Ist, 1922. MORAL WITNESS.

At the last meeting- of the Northern Hawke's Bay. Clerical Society several suggestions were made for infusing into the proceedings of Synod more spiritual significance. Our Church assemblies from meetings of Bishops, and General Synod downwards concern themselves . too little with the problems of the day and spend undue time m discussing the financial concerns of the Church and questions of Church organisation. Some members of Synod regard the meetings as a feast on dry bones, though, it is to be feared, there are a few who regard the discussion of great spiritual questions m Synod as so much waste of time that should be devoted to ''business." An able article m the "Church Standard" enumerates ways of killing interest m Synod. One is the prominence of what it calls "canon-tinkers." Canons do occasionally need revision and the business of doing so has to be gone through. After all, proper organisation of details is only the machinery — the work of the. Church is. to save the world ,to convert sinners, tQ build up the saintly character m individuals and. to impress the world around with the beauty of the Christian life and ideals. The machinery for doing this is important but we must not stop at making and repairing machines, we must use them, for the purpose for which they have beenbuilt. The clergy feel that the Church should, m its assemblies, as a light set upon a hill, bear witness to the world of Christian principles and morals. She is not sufficiently clear and. definite m her official pronouncements on great moral questions, and the^world gets the idea that she is^ too intent on financial and business matters to r spend time m

considering the weightier things, and the things which concern the world arouhd. -Perhaps the root of the trouble lies m our parishes. Vestries consist often of laymen. who are concerned" with the finances only of the parish, and who too frequently do their utmost to "put the brake" on a zealous Vicar, whose spiritual vision leads him to emphasise the missionary work of the Church or who wishes. to.. improve "the services so as to express deeper devotion, who ignores the wishes of the less spiritual members of his congregation for things that tickle the ear arid; make for business success, and urges repentance, faith, due observance of Sacraments and greater reverence. The Anglican- Church is- timid arid flabby, and any priest or bishop who dares to speak out boldly against the evils of the day becomes a mark for attack to hundreds," sometimes thousands, of the nominal: Churchmen who claim membership m the Church but whose belief and practices do not conform to her teaching and standards, and whose lives and ideas are foreign to her spirit. Haziness m faith and reluctance to lead m the -solution of moral problems' have weakened the Church's appeal and influence until she is m danger of being despised by men for her vaccillation, and of being thrown aside by the Master as an instrument inefficient for the work entrusted to her.