Waiapu Church Gazette. MARCH, 1940. CARRYING ON

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 31, Issue 1, 1 March 1940, Page 4

Waiapu Church Gazette. MARCH, 1940. CARRYING ON

When it was learned that our Bishop was going abroad with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force it was plain that the Diocese was called upon to make a great sacrifice, as others have been called upon and will be called upon to make even greater sacrifices. For more than a year we have been getting to know him, and he to know us. We have been looking forward to a great strengthening of the work of the Church of God through his instrumentality, as he won more understanding of the possibilities of his position and waxed riper and stronger m his ministry. He was full of his plans for the advancement of God's work m this Diocese, and now all that has, for the time being, to be laid aside. A call has come to him which he feels obliged to obey, backed by the .counsels of those to whom he feels bound to listen, and other things must give way to that. And indeed it is a serious call enough. Those of us who care for boys who are on their way to the front will rejoice that one whom we know and trust will be there as senior chaplain to guide and co-ordinate the work of those whose duty and privilege it is to care for their souls. Steadily our young men are going and will be going m their thousands, for none of us knows how long, to face every kind of trial and danger, both to body and soul. That they may do their duty manfully to God and the King, that they may be preserved m and through all dangers ghostly and bodily they will need all the help that the Catholic Church can give them. And our Bishop is going to see that they get it.

But what about us who are left behind? We must do all we can to strengthen his hands and to carry out m his absence, to the best of our power, his hopes and plans. The first duty of us all is an obvious one, but quite easily neglected all the same. There needs to be much more prayer, first of all for the Bishop and the soldiers, including his brotherchaplains, and next for the Diocese and all its varied activities, parochial and other, not by any means forgetting the Commissary (Dean Brocklehurst), on whom a heavy responsibility is going to fall. Among other difficulties, there is a shortage of clergy, which is likely to become more acute. Three of bur diocesan clergy are already with the forces, and some young men, who were looking forward to ordination m the future, have enlisted. Obviously, it will be the duty of the laity to make use of what clergy are left for their proper work and free them from outside and less important duties. By their proper work is meant the teaching of the Faith and the administration of the Sacraments, which ought to go on at all costs. With those things must go the united prayers of Christian people. In times of stress it is good to remember the special blessing promised where two or three are gathered together m His Name. Finally, there is one object very dear to our Bishop's heart, on which he hoped, and still hopes, to build for the future progress of Christianity m this Diocese. That is the Church Congress at Hastings m April. Elsewhere m this issue the plans and arrangements for it are set forth. A Church m earnest, with a vision of a new world — that is the aim.