“THE CRISIS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND”

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 118, 16 February 1928, Page 11

“THE CRISIS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND”

Sir, —There have been many letters appearing in your columns re the Crisis in the Unurch ot England. I have tried to wade through this mass of verbiage, but it has all left me baffled and amazed. I am on neither side. All this about transubstantiation and black rubrics makes my head ache. I fancy that the great Founder, when He looks down and sees this squabble, must be constrained to say, "Thank God I am not a Christian.” In the eyes of those who are quite detached in mind from this controversy, it appears to be the most amazing thing imaginable. ’To see, otherwise sane men working themselves up into a white heat about things that no mortal man can ever shed any light on, makes the bystander marvel. Is Christianity a thing of vestments, mummeries, etc., or it is an active life of doing good? It is what those in authority make it. Therefore, if the stress is all on the non-essentials, the fundamentals will go by the board, and what is left will only bo dark superstition. My advice to the Church is, leave all that childishness behind. Bring the golden rule back again as an active principle of life. This old world which at present looks like a wilderness, of hate and suspicion, will then blossom like the rose. Why should men be divided over matters that are of no earthly, or, for that matter, heavenly, moment, and their souls filled with primitive hate for their fellow-m?n when, by discarding all the useless unproveable ritual and dogma, which has grown up around Christ’s teaching, they may arise from this nightmare of hate, and spread brotherhood among all the nations of the world. The prospect is beautiful, the work so fascinating, and the harvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few. Youth calls to the Church to find where she stands with regard to social conditions, and its attitude to the League of Nations. To grapple with poverty, find its cause and cure, is the work of Christianity. To propagate the idea] of a united world. United against suspicion, bloody, senseless warfare, and greed. These would make the Church a living factor, and put new life into its dry bones. The question of what sort of rubrics thev ought to wear and the colour of them tif they are worn, I don’t know) would be seen in its true perspective. Youth is intolerant of superstition, and demands the truth, whatever that may be. If the Church wrans itself in dark superstition (and multi-coloured rubrics) it is doomed, and only a hindrance to the sun o" truth arising, which will guide this world of terror and inhumanity to man, to brotherhood in reality.—l am, etc., A. J. F. Pahiatua, February 13.