A Creedless Christianity

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 36, Issue 6, 1 September 1945, Page 14

A Creedless Christianity

"A creedless Christianity which creeps like a serpent through the grass — I "might almost say through . the spiscopal lawns and palaces of England"— this, m the words of Fr. Biggart, C.R., was the main subject under consideration at the annual. London meetings of the Community and Fraternity of the Resurrection, held at the Mary Sumner Hall, Westminster. Fr. Raynes, Superior of the Community, who presided, said there was a sense m which Christian, people ought not to be ashamed to be narrow-minded, and^ that it was' their duty to be so. v Proposals open to serious criticism were being made concerning morals, education and faith, but the faithful were largely unaware of them because they did* not take the trouble to study them. One example was the South India reunion scheme. Christian Education. Speaking on Christian education, the Rev. A. H. Rees, vicar of Chiswick, said that m their anxiety to see that children were given at least the A.B.C. of the Christian religion Churchmen must beware of letting it be thought that this minimum satisfied them. There was cause for profound dis-turbance-in the demand made by some Churchmen, aided by representatives of the Nonconformist bodies, for the recognition of the State school as a worshipping community. There was only one worshipping community known to Christians, and that was the Church of. God. It was m Christian worship that all education found its inspiration, its illumination and its fulfilment. "Because man has lost faith m God he has "lost faith even m himself." Woman m the Pew. Miss N Upcott, general secretary of •the Girls' Friendly Society, treated of Christian morality from the point of view of "the woman m the pew." Man's belief that he could not exist without God, she said, was the. start of his morality. But to-day even those who ought to know better were infected by the popular belief m goodness without a creed. She maintained that it was no use giving a person sex instruction without a Christian background. Morals were not made right simply by knowing the facts.

Injustice to Africans. Brother Giles, a lay member of the community, drew a painful picture of the poverty and injustice which Africans suffered m the slums of Johannesburg. "The African," he said, "pays rates, the same as white people, but he has no vote and no voice m the government. His wages are about £4 a month, of which one-third goes m rent. Sometimes 16 people live m one room. The Government spends £20 a year on every white child, but only £3 on an African, and that comes out of the pockets of Africans m the form of taxation. — "Church Times."