Waiapu Church Gazette. Wednesday, October 1st, 1924. OURSELVES.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XV, Issue 4, 1 October 1924, Page 443

Waiapu Church Gazette. Wednesday, October Ist, 1924. OURSELVES.

Circulation. The "Gazette," as usual, had to run the gauntlet of criticism by Synod, Something- _ must be done to increase our circulation or the extra pages will have to. go. In the meantime Synod was disinclined to reduce the size until everything possible had been done to improve the financial position. In the course of a debate it was shown that no Church paper m New Zealand, not even the Presbyterian "Outlook,'* with its large circulation throughout the whole of New Zealand, is able to pay its way without assistance. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that a paper which circulates over such a comparatively small area as the Diocese of Waiapu, should find a difficulty m making both ends meet. Nevertheless it is perfectly plain that this can be accomplished if the circulation is increased to such a number 1 as could easily be attained, if only a fair proportion of Church people became subscribers. An instance of what might be accomplished is afforded by the parish of Rotorua, where by proper organisation, there are 240 subscribers. There, are few districts that could not circulate 100 copies and some could easily emulate Rotorua. There are several parishes that could with profit issue a parish magazine with the ' ' Gazette " as a cover or inset. This is already done m Rotorua, Tauranga, Opotiki, St. Augustine's and St. An^ drew's, and possibly m others from whom we have not heard. Synod rejected the Committee's proposal to publish advertisements. The main objects of the ''Gazette" are:—

Unity and Mutual Sympathy.. < To help the sense of unity. The ] comparatively small concerns of a : parish loom very large, especially m { isolated districts. It is essential : that the parishes m a diocese should '. realise that they are but parts of a ' whole. The Bishop is riot an occasional visitor from outside, he is the' bishop of 'a diocese. The interests of parishes centre m the diocese. Unity is Strength. An army does not light m. platoons, it must advance as a whole, and have common objects m view. New work, rescue work, social work, educational policy, etc., etc., are the concern of all.' In these we must all Avork together. It is essential, for a proper conception of the Church, that every church- . man should know what is going on m other parts than his own. . The "Church Gazette is the most efficient means by which this Unity can ' be realised. Remote parishes can \>e brought into touch with one another through the columns of parochial news. Matters of interest to the whole are recorded m our News and Notes. The Church Catholic. But the "Church Gazette" has a still wider vision. It's articles from other diocesan papers and especially from other portions of the . Angiican Communion, England, America, Australia, the other dominions, and the Mission Field enable its readers to follow events of world-wide importance, and to feel that they are members, not of a little parish community, but of a great and noble part of the whole Church of Christ. Nor does it stop there. The Church of God is much wider than the "Church of England," and indeed than the whole Angiican Church. We are much too insular m our sympathies. The great churches of the East, the direct descendants of the : churches of the Apostles, the Roman Church whatever ita corruptions,the Nonconformist denominations however incomplete, m organisation and doctrine, are also parts of the Church of God. ' Every Churchman should be interested m their teaching, their successes and their failures, for they are fellow Christians with us. Especially .are we concerned with the great movement towards reunion between us and them. So far as its restricted pages will admit, the "Church Gazette" tries to give a general view of their importance and their work. It must also be realised* that our own Church contains men of very different schools of thought. It is ridiculous to hide our heads like ostriches and to take no account of the millions of others m our own Church whose views are not the same ' as our own. The " Church Gazette," while it has necessarily its own spe-

cial standpoint endeavors to be fail* m recording* what others think. Unfortunately a small monthly paper can give only a very partial and very imperfect view of even the most important events that are moulding the character of the Church to-day, but its aim is to help its readers to be more Catholic, more. broad, more sympathetic m their outlook on the Church of God, and to realise their unity m one ■■ bond of faith and love and m the fellowship of. the Saints. Parochial Notes. We cannot have mutual sympathy between parish and parish unless we know one another's needs. A- parish that has nothing- whatever to record each month must be a. very dull one. We want to. know the successes that each parish achieves, to sorrow with it m its losses, to rejoice with it m its "gains, to sympathise and pray with it m its difficulties. We .want parochial notes. We_ understand that some laymen have severely criticised the editor because the "Gazette" contains so few parochial notes. At the time of -writing 1 we have received notes this month from only one district. How m the wide world, is the editor to know arid to record what is going on unless parochial correspondents will send notes? We do not want detailed accounts 1 of functions such as concerts, daffodil shows, cake competitions and so on, or of things that have no spiritual value, or even weather reports; but we do want to know how God is blessing- the work m your district and whether other districts can help you. Progress. The "Church Gazette" aims also at being- a vehicle for "propaganda"; that is to say, it aims at giving- the Church's teaching- and explaining the Church's practice. With that object we give extracts from addresses, sermons, articles, > etc., that have appeared m other Church papers. Few people realise how tremendous" has been the recent advance m other parts of the Church m matters of religious devotion, Church music, Sunday School organisation, and similar parts of her work. We cannot afford to lag- behind m this general'progress. Some people still live m the dull and dead Georgian, period and refuse to realise that this is the twentieth century, and that elsewhere the Church is pulsing with life and energy, attacking- world problems, improving its worship, becoming- more Catholic, that; is, sympathetic m its outlook. The Angiican Church is s borrowing and ' lending. . We are • adapting devotions of proved value i from the g^eat Eastern and Western $ Churches a m d from the Nonconfor- ' mists, adopting whatever is good, ■ whatever may be its souyce. Non-

icQiifdi'mists similarly are adopting many of our methods, copying our services, even, m many peases, using our ceremonies. Their ministers even dopy our clothes. We use one another's books arid sing one another's hymns. All this tends to mutual sympathy and helps towards : ultimate unity; The old narrow religion of negation "and denialno longer appeals. We do not, for example, object to pray er meetings because they are' Methodistical nor to ornaments because we (erroneously) think they are Roman. Religion does not consist m denying the-: truths that others teach, nor m condemning the thing's they find helpful m their worship. It must consist m positive things, construction not destruction, fighting the common enemy not hindering other regimental units because we do not like their weapons nor their tactics. We remember our Lord's answer to the Apostle, /'Forbid him not." (Mark 9, 39). Controversy. We do not believe m excluding Controversy, or as we should call it, frank discussion from the ' ' Gazette. ' ' We do not expect the propaganda of the "Gazette" to please everybody. If everybody accepted it already there would be no need for it ; but if the "Gazette" is not to be absolutely colorless and insipid it must have a definite policy and a definite message. For the editorials the Editor alone is responsible. Reprint articles and . contributed articles set forth the views of others. In choosing or rejecting such articles the chief considerations must always be their length, their suitability, and whether they are interesting. We have no room for long, abstruse or uninteresting contributions, or such as would interest only a very small proportion of our readers. We believe m frank discussion. "Controversy" is a word m bad odour. The ' ' Gazette V columns are open for the discussion of religious problems from whatever point of view. Nothingbut good can result from the open discussion of our differences, we shall never agree till we know one another 's opinions, and the solid reasons behind them. We should be grateful if readers who think the propaganda of the "Gazette" one-sided will send us either original or other contributions setting out the other side. We stipulate only that these should be temperate, positive rather than negative, and not unreasonably long. :■;■