THESE TIMES OF OURS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19163, 21 November 1927, Page 9

THESE TIMES OF OURS.

A PESSIMISTIC BISHOP. LAYMAN'S DEFENCE OP DANCING. (FROM OUR OWN COBBESrOHDKST.) LONDON, October 8. Two or threo points raised at tho Church Congress at Ipswich have had more than h local interest. For instance, Dr. Hensley Hensou, tho Bishop of Durham, who is a man of strong commonsense, took a profoundly pessimistic view of modern civilisation. "Tho rift between civilisation and Christianity has widened into a oreacli which threatens to become total—a great gult hxed," he said. "The sinister signs which arrest our notice to-day —the secularisation of the Lord's Day, the decline of attendance at publio worship, the openly expressed disregard of the Christian conception of marriaga —may they not co-exist with a reawakened hold on the fundamentals of the Christian religion? Are they more than a rathe* over-emphasised reaction from unwarrantable clerical pretensions, and the irrational moral conventions? lamby no means convinced that the answer is as reassuring as we could wish." Brutality of Bolshevism. In parting company from Christian* ity, civilisation was restoring tho features of pre-civilisation —its essential cruelty, the prevalence of suicide, its) squalid superstition, and, above all, its unbridled sensuality. In Russia Western theories were being expressed in practice with the brutality and lack of discrimination distinctive of tho Slav genius. Could it lie pretended that Russia's experience had no significance for English folk because the Russians were backward, and even barbarous? The saddest and most menacing feature in the relations between organised Labour in Britain and Bolshevism in Russia was the absence, so far as he could see, of any indication of disgust, resentment, or alarm at the Bolshevist treatment of religion, marriage, and childhood. No doubt allowance had to be made for the ignorance of our people and the credulity which had ignorance as its root;bbutt t it Russia were left out of the reckoning, was there no other cause for apprehension in this country P Let them consider tho direction of sex relations in current literature and the.conversation of society. A great revolt against the morality of Christ's religion was proceeding; and had in rocont years gained formidable force. It was important that the stumbling-blocks which they themselves had created should be removed. This was the essential significance of Prayer Book revision. The Rev. H. W. Blackburne, for many years a military chaplain, a D.5.0., and an M.C., now vicar of Ashford, Kent,, read a paper on the parson's life in a county town. Then, speaking with extemporaneous vigour, he declared, "One protest against the laity I must make. You are the absolute limit. The way you expect parsons to live in utter degrading poverty is disgusting. Most people expect a good vicar, a nice curate, a charming vicar's wife, services that are not too long, but just long enough, and a church comfortable and warmall for a penny a week. "It cannot be done, and you ought to be jolly well ashamed of yourselves." A Defence of Dancing. Agaiu a defence of dancing by Sir Harry Verney, D.5.0., v helped to enliven the congress. ".Instead of assuming that dancing means doing down the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire," he said, "why not treat it as an art to be encouraged?" He read a very racy paper on methods of improving social life in the .villages, and most of his suggestions were clothed in epigrams. Some of these were:— Dullness in a village is worse than woodworm in the drawing-room chairs, and more difficult to cure. Do not allow anyone in the village to get' the idea that the Church means the clergyman. The Church cannot do everything. The Boy Scout movement is more' successful than the Church Lads' Brigade because it is undenominational. The less vociferous the leadership of the Church in village social life tho more effective it is likely to be. A lamp in a dark corner all through the winter has been found more efficient and much cheaper than a policeman. Dancing at its worst is. abominable, at its best a very fine art. Saying that here was a chance for the Church, he quoted this from n parish magazine: "It has been reported to us (note the 'us') that during last winter dances were not always conducted in the'way we should wish. This winter, therefore, dancing in the church hall will not be allowed." Dancing lessons should be given in the village .to improve ballroom manners, with the last lesson of the season turned'into a competition.