VICTORY AS SPUR TO ACTION

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 11, Issue 9, 1 August 1945, Page 14

VICTORY AS SPUR TO ACTION

"The victory of the United Nations m Europe can never be a cloak for complacency, or a signal to stand easy. It must be a spur to thought and action," said the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt. Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland, m his address to toe second annual session of the 30th Synod of the Wellington Diocese. Hitler, Jie said, quoting "The Times " had changed the world profoundly. He had compelled mankind not indeed to think with him, but to think again He recalled the illusion after the last war that a future of unchallenged safety, prosperity and progress stretched ahead. The opportunity of "thinking again" was lost —with tragic consequences When one looked now at the postwar world doubts and queries arose: "Can freedom be retained within a planned society?" "Can democracy be trusted to create the better world?" "Can the Charter of the United Nations secure stable and harmonious relations between the nations?" They were terrific questions, closely intertwined. A First Priority "It is true that democracy m the world of Anne Domini did not m its first beginnings claim a Christian sanction; superficially it sprang from the sturdy independence of the taxpayer m demanding a voice m the spending of the money which the State took from him. But m that very attitude he staked a great claim; he did not exist for the benefit of the State, but the State existed for his benefit. There he came right into line with Christ's teaching on the nature of man. Christianity never speaks of individuals, but of persons. An individual may be a cog m the political or the economic machine; a person never. A person is an end m himself, he is the first priority m the s^ale of human^ values, and no government can claim any support from Christian thought which does not conform to this priority. - Freedom Of Citizen "The freedom of the citizen, and the safeguarding of his rights, depend ultimately on the fact *that there is always a Cabinet and an anti-Cabinet facing it, ready to take office as soon as a government loses the confidence of the people. In a true democracy the party system is essential; there must always be an opposition whose duty it is to criticise, to keep the nation aware of defects and" dangers which it thinks it can see m the government's legislation. "Here m New Zealand we can take a conscious pride m the courage and initiative of our people. We have a

great record m the two great wars. Here, as everywhere, we face a postwar world m which many adjustments must be made to meet new situations, m which it is inevitable that a certain amount of planning— by which I mean a stricter control of the economic life of the community—is essential, and m which more radical' approaches to problems which have assumed gigantic proportions will be requisite. But through it all the Christian Church and Christians individually must never relax their vigilance; they must see to it that the wisdom and the experience of the ages is not abandoned, and that democracy does not degenerate into a form of government which makes man a nut, or a bolt, m a vast State machine. It must rather treat him as a child of God, thinking of him no less tender.ly than a human father would. "That means attending to his bodily health and making sure that he has a job with fair wages.- But beyond all this it must provide him with the conditions which will give him the stimulus and tHe opportunity ■to develop to the full that responsible manhood which is both the goal and the prize of his earthly life, and the very texture of the life which .is eternal. You may say these are only common-place opinions. If that is so, thank God that they are. These things cannot be said too often. But, believe me, they are a very great advance on what I and my contemporaries thought after the last war."