CHURCH OF THE SPIRIT

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21416, 7 March 1935, Page 3

CHURCH OF THE SPIRIT

CRITICISM OF STERILE ORGANISATION ADDRESS TO CONGREGATIONAL ASSEMBLY "There is abundant evidence in Western Christendom of a feeling after and a desire for a more spiritual representation of the worship and work inaugurated by Jesus Christ. The restlessness and discontent within the Christian Church are signs of returning health. . . . The position is this: the Christianity of the churches is not vital, and it has to be made vital in a world which needs and demands vital religion." Taking as his subject, The Church of the Spirit," the Rev. A. Mead, in his presidential address last evening to the fifty-second annual assembly of the Congregational Union of New Zealand, emphasised in the above terms the need for a different method of interpretation by the churches of the teachings of Christ. The speaker remarked that although he was concerned in his address with a more domestic matter rather than with the national and international problems of the day, the latter had been m the background of his thinking. After expressing his especial debt to Congregationalism, and his debt also to Anglicanism, his association with which' had assisted him to aim at a catholicity of spirit, and had enlarged his views concerning methods and order of Church worship, Mr Mead discussed the Jewish, Greek, and Roman influences, which had affected the Christian Church. He argued that the emphasis placed upon Church order and tradition, upon Christian creeds and dogmas, had often savoured more of Greek dialecticians, Roman lawyers, and Jewish theologians than of Jesus Christ. The rejection of the churches by those who claimed themselves followers of Christ gave evidence of a _ widespread desire to return to the simplicity of the faith of the Nazarene. A Religious Crisis "This constitutes the religious crisis which we are now facing," continued Mr Mead. "A crisis is an opportunity rather than an ominous failure. All [too easily has it been declared by many that 'Christianity has failed,' and with equal superficiality and misunderstanding even some of the avowed supporters of the Church have, through a false patriotism, con- | firmed the world's statement. Perhaps we should first recognise the truth of Dr. P. L. Jack's words: 'Man ! js a crisis-facing animal. He came into the world to face a crisis; he is never more himself than when he is facing it; and without a crisis to face man would soon become degenerate.' Christian Church history is composed of many crises, of Christianity dying and rising again in newness of life, thus evidencing the resurrecting power of her Lord." Religion at its fountain-head was an individual, psychological experience. The Church of the Spirit could be traced within the Church of the institutions and organisations. Western Christians to-day would see it most clearly if they looked toward the East, where the light of a new day was dawning for Christianity. That there was a feeling after a more spiritual form of Christianity was abundantly shown by the tendency of preachers and writers to emphasise personal religion. Movements such 0a the Oxford Groups movement and

the Barthian movement were calling men back more to that spiritual religion. Organisation was not, however, to be despised, for all life employed organisation of some kind for its own purposes. But it did not create life; it only provided for life, and the Church would make a grave error if it allowed the inspiration of the Spirit of life to become subordinate to organisation. "The Church of the living God" lived on dynamics, not mechanics. Unity Among the Churches "As long as our Church organisation is sufficient to keep us Christocentric," continued the speaker, "and to prevent us from becoming eccentric in Christian experience within the Church Catholic; as long as it is such as will unite us, as churches, for efficient action in and with the Church Catholic, on behalf of the Kingdom of God, let us employ it, regarding it as for the Spirit's use. We claim kinship with the Church of the Spirit, the Head of which is Christ, whose body we believe has many members, and with charity toward all we acknowledge that 'ln the Primitive Church thei-e was no single system of church order laid down by the apostles. During the first 100 years of Christianity the Church was an organism alive and growing, changing its organisation to meet changing needs.' For us to : day it remains that we seek to be sensitive to the Spirit and sensible to His wise guidance and vitalising power, avoiding sterile organisation." Mr Mead then discussed the marks of the Church of the Spirit, under the headings of "a witnessing Church," "a saving Church," "a teaching Church," "an experiential Church." It was only the Church of the living God, he said, which could effectively witness and work for Him in a distracted, devitalised, and demented world. That Church was a lifeboaat rather than an ark of safety. The deeper need of humanity was spiritual, not economic, and there could be no social reconstruction without spiritual regeneration, for the real problem of the day was the problem of human nature. The supreme function of the Church was the salvation of human lives. That Church would also have to be the interpreter of the mind of Christ concerning God, the, world, and man. Primitive Christianity was not merely evangelistic, it was also educational. Christian truth was not abstract philosophical speculation, argument, and conclusion. It was moral as well as mental, and its content had to be related to the whole of man's life. The Higher Criticism "There should be no real antagonism between scholarship and religious devotion," continued the speaker. "For many the Bible is no longer a book chained to traditional teaching and dogma, not even to an authority called infallibility. I thank God for the higher criticism, which, with an addition of philosophy and psychology, once restored my interest in the inspiring matter contained in the Bible. The Church of to-day must be a teaching Church, enlightening men and women mentally and empowering them spiritually. And finally the Church of the Spirit must be a Church in which Christian experience of God may be gained through acquiescence with His will. That experience is social as well as individual.

"The Christian religion," said Mr Mead in conclusion, emphasising the need for spiritual freedom, "began with a breakaway from organised religion, a religion of institutions affecting belief and conduct, toward something free and spontaneous. The peculiar fact is that it has reverted to organisation which binds and often hinders her movement and spiritual progress. Our Lord could not find a home in the institutionalised Judaism of His Palestinian days. His Christianity began in a revolt against the mechanical systems summed up in the legalism of the scribes and Pharisees. In the early Church there was also a revolutionary movement begun when Paul and others challenged the inflexible organisation of that time, which threatened to enslave Christians. As Free Churchmen, ans particularly as Congregationalists, we boast of our freedom, but what is the use of freedom if we do not use it?"