SUNDAY SPORT NOT SPORTING SAYS PRESBYTERY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 81, 2 May 1949, Page 5

SUNDAY SPORT NOT SPORTING SAYS PRESBYTERY

Is organised Sunday sport sporting? According to the Presbytery of the Bay of Plenty it is not. The whole que'stion was discussed at the last meeting of the Presbytery and concern was expressed at the strongly developed organised Sunday sport.

In a statement issued to the Beacon the Presbytery, which is a body of ministers and representative elders of the Presbyterian Church which discusses matters affecting the life of the Church and the community, that it held firmly to the view that wholesome sport in the right relation to their parts of life is of the truest value in developing fine, manhood and womanhood. To investigate the matter three members, Mr J. N. Smith, assistant superintendent of the Maori Mission, Whakatane, the Rev J. H. Starnes, Edgecumbe, and the Rev R. T. Dodds, minister of the Knox Presbyterian Church, Whakatane, were to bring the whole question before the public. The statement adds:—

“Presbytery believes that “to be a sport” is essentially to be fair. Presbytery is sure that at several points organised Sunday sport is not fair and so not sporting: Rest Deprived

1. It tends to deprive groups of people of the rest that they have earned, and requires folk to work to minister to a selfish pleasure. 2. “It makes an unjust conflict of loyalties in the lives of young players who wish to be loyal to their Church institutions and to God in honouring His day, but who also are pressed for loyalty to the team which chooses to play on Sunday instead of Saturday. Many Sunday players are inclined to deride and scoff at young people who have scruples about Sunday sport, forgetting manifest lessons of history that show how much more we owe to those who dare to be true to principle than to folk who are determined just to please themselves. 3. “It is quite unfair to many branches of the Christian Church, and indeed to religion ' generally, since by the continued development of Sunday competition it works against the activities and influence of the Churches, pushing religion and customs of worship aside. “And yet, ; with something surely approaching effrontery, these Sunday sportsmen will turn to the church whose work they have been impeding, to use its ministrations in Baptism, Marriage and Burial. Would it not be more consistent to send for a referee or umpire or lines man? “Surprising Indeed”

“If any thoughtful sportsman counts this “sporting” it must be surprising indeed. “As ministers and • elders of the Presbyterian Church who love sport and have done a good deal to support it, we nevertheless oppose as unsporting, organised Sunday sport. As convinced believers in the supremacy of the spiritual among all elements of life we are persuaded that the crowding out of worship and religion by work or sport can only do harm to all so engaged and be a great dishonouring of a very patient and merciful God. That He should continue to be kind to those who grudge Him even an hour or so for worship is surely one of the marvels of God’s grace. Yet common decency should prevent us making only a convenience of God,” the statement concludes.