CHRISTIAN ORDER

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 289, 4 September 1942, Page 4

CHRISTIAN ORDER

Churches Start Campaign

Next Week

PUBLIC MEETINGS TO HEAR SELECTED SPEAKERS

Next week will see the opening of a period of unprecedented public activity by the churches of New Zealand, witn mass meetings of citizens, and simultaneous preaching from pulpits throughout the country.. The churches describe the movement as the offensive in their campaign for Christian order. The campaign was announced on March 22 and then began a period of several months’ intensive preparation and planning within the churches themselves. The active phase of the campaign will begin with a public meeting at the Christchurch Town Hall. Thereafter, on each Monday in September, there will 'be a public meeting at one of the other main centres —in Auckland on September 14, in Dunedin on September 21 and in Wellington on September 28. Except in Wellington. Where other arrangements will have to be made because of earthquake damage, the meetings will all be held in the town halls of the respective cities. Each meeting will tie broadcast by the four YA stations on a national link-up and it is likely that the mayors of the cities will preside. At each meeting there will be one principal speaker. At Christchurch the Ven. Archdeacon W. Bullock, Wellington, will speak on the subject, “Let Justice be Done.” Archdeacon Bullock, who is well known as a forthright speaker, holds Hie opinion that religion and (politics are inseparable. At Auckland the speaker will be Professor F. Sinclaire, M.A., whose subject will be “Who Wants Freedom?” Professor Sinclaire, who is prominently known to radio audiences, is professor of English at Canterbury College. At Dunedin, the Rev. H. J. Ryburn, M.A., 8.D., master of Knox College, will speak on the question “What About Politics?” He studied theology at Lincoln College, Oxford, and later at Union Theological College, New York, and in 1941 took up his present position.

At Wellington, the Rev. J. J. North, D.D., will speak on “Chaos or Christian Order.” Ever since he became minister of the Central Baptist Church, Wellington, early in tlie century, Dr. North has been before the New Zealand public as a preacher, platform speaker, and publicist. For the past 16 years he has been principal of the New Zealand Baptist College in Auckland. The Campaign for Christian Order is sponsored by the National Council of Churches of New Zealand, the participating Churches being the Church of England, the Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Baptist, and the Congregational Churches, the Associated Churches of Christ, and the Society of Friends. The Roman Catholic Church has expressed its sympathy with the movement. In addition to the four main public meetings, other centres are arranging gatherings along similar lines. Following these meetings there will be, in October, a period of simultaneous preaching, when practically every pulpit in the country will echo the message of the campaign that the Christian gospel has a solution to the world’s problems and is a necessary basis for new social and economic order and for a just and durable peace.