Vicar's Plea For Bigger Church Attendance

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 23, 10 August 1949, Page 5

Vicar's Plea For Bigger Church Attendance

Though able to record a considerable increase (just under 1,000) in the number of communicants during the year under review, the Vicar of Whakatane, Rev J. C. J. Wilson, L. Th., in his annual report to the parishioners’ meeting last week, strongly urged more consistent at_ tendance at Church. “These increases in the number of communicants are very encouraging,” he said. “But how many more of our people could so easily come; and how haphazard is the attendance of many who do come. Each person should have a rule that they make for themselves, and neither sport nor bed should be allowed to interfere. “Can anyone tell me why it is that Anglicans, I think more than those of any other Churches, will allow sport and other things to stop them going to their Church? Why, in fact, the sense of membership amongst us is so weak? “I should like to see our Church life more the family life it is supposed to be, each member having a strong sense of responsibility for its life and witness, the older setting an example to the younger; those with cars sometimes helping those without to come along, - and so on. “We are too individualistic, too half-hearted, to prone to allow al_ most anything to stop us from attending.”