CLERGY AND THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2642, 13 December 1915, Page 6

CLERGY AND THE WAR

(, In the courso of his sermon at St. Paul's Anglican pro-Cathedral yesterday morning the Rev. A. M. Johnson announced that on Sunday next the Bishop of Wellington (Dr. Sprott) would ordain nine men —five to the priesthood * and four to the diaconate. This, said Mr. Johnson, would be the largest ordination over held in the diocese. Some people 'might be inclined to think that it would be better that these men should be sent to the front before they took vows which would make them non-com-batants. ■ Mr. Johnson said he was in a position to know that they had reached their decision in this' matter only after a big moral struggle. It meant a greater sacrifice to th'eni to stay at home than to go to the war. But chaplains had to bo sent with each body of reinforcements, and the Tanks of tho clergy in New Zealand—which had never been overmanned —were becoming seriously depleted. It felt that the clergy chosen for the office of chaplain should possess wide spiritual experience; that they should be men who had learned to understand men and their religious needs. The young men who were to be ordained next Sunday would help to. carry on the work ( of the Church at home, and enable more qualified arid experienced men to go tothe front. '