Morals, Or Mere Convention?

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31119, 23 July 1966, Page 2

Morals, Or Mere Convention?

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 21. The Anglican Church had done a complete about face in its attitude to the use of contraceptives in marriage and he would not be surprised if another church soon followed suit, Canon Hugh Montefiore said in Auckland today.

Speaking on “Morals, or Mere Convention?” to an audience of about 400 students and members of the public at the University of Auckland, Canon Montefiore, Vicar of Great St Mary’s, Cambridge, said that in the changing technological world of today ethics, in some cases, must be thought out again from scratch. In England there was a changing attitude to suicide, abortion and homosexuality. There was also a differing attitude to authority among the young of the world. The young must be convinced there was a good reason before they accepted authority and a reason was needed for moral actions just as a reason was needed for belief. Canon Montefiore said he believed firmly that there were moral decisions to be made which differed from mere conventions or from “taboos." “Morality is not the same as convention, and indeed morality often makes people act contrary to convention,” be said. There was no blueprint in the Bible for all moral decisions to be made in modern life. “If it is very difficult for both Christian and nonChristian to know what to do in a complex situation, it is ridiculous to think we can receive a telegram from heaven.

We must use our own minds, but we are accountable for the purity or impurity of our motives,” he said. It was entirely reasonable that there should be Christian codes of behaviour, Canon Montefiore said, "but as soon as a rule is kept for its own sake we are undone. We are putting outward observance over the feelings of the heart.”