METHODIST SYNOD OPENS

Chronicle (Levin), 12 November 1947, Page 4

METHODIST SYNOD OPENS

VISITORS WELCOMED TO LEVIN

It was delightful to be able to,hold meetings in the beautiful Levin Methodist Qhurch, said" ^he president of the Wellington District Synod Qf the Methodist Church,thq' Rev. W. A. Burley, at last night's welcome to the gathering. He complimented the minister and church oflieigls on the beautiful uouditiou of the church and groundS- ■ • . • ' Mr. F. H. Hudson m turrn welcomed the ministefial and 'lay members of the synod on behalf of: the church of St. 'John. Mr. Hudson mentioned that the last synod held in Levin had feeen on Novem-" ber 19, 1940, He thqn cordially welcomed the synod" to the church. On behalf" of all churches inLevin, the Rev. A. Salmond extended his weleome. He was speaking, he said, not oniy on behalf of the churches, butalso. on behalf of the niinisters. There was in the district a ynique organisation called the Tararua Mimsters' Fraternity. It was unique because it asked for no subscription, only a little thought. > i It was 19 years -ago, to the day that he hyd been ■ accepted as a candidate for the ministr-y, said the guest speaker, the Rey, W- H. ereepsla.de. His examination had taken place in the Qentury Hall. Lohg befqre World War II, most so-ealled Christian nations had qeased to be seriously influenced by Christianity. In the vaeuum left three main socio-politicar faiths or religious emerged. The first was

Na&srn and Fascisrp, wperepy rne people bowed' to race and blood, and then the Marxist faith with an avowed world programme. The third could be called "democratic huipauism," running on the left overs of past generations' Christian faith, yet itself bowing before the god of science and human reason, believing in the inevitability of progress". . "Nazism has gone and virile Communism with a world programme is left facipg a shaken ^democratic humanism,' " said the speaker. "Conventional religion and pious deplorations, reiteration of society's sips — these will not do any good. , "The church must- strip for the fight, take the wounds and boldly get into the stream of life and direct it." • • The London Literary Times had onqe written that "up until 50 years ago there was sufficient respect for the Bible to hold. the British Empire together." They had called ihe Bible. the cement of the Empire, said Mr. Greenslade. An outstanding American theologist, Rheinhold Niebuhr, in his book "The Religious Level of the World Crisis" said; "Our age is hovering between the necessity and the" impossibility of creating a world community." Such a time, the speaker asserted, was most critical. Many dictators in the past had enslaved their people because they had seemed m just such an atmosphere to offer them a faith and hope which the traditional religion could no longer provide. " "It is not a question of faith versus no faith or Christianity versus unbelief, but rather of which faith a demoralised society will 1 embrace."