CHURCH & INDUSTRY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 201, 23 May 1944, Page 3

CHURCH & INDUSTRY

Chaplains Helping As Factory Workers

The rift between people who follow religion and those who do not. in New Zealand was underlined yesterday afternoon by the Rev. J. M. Bates when speaking of suggested reforms in religious and industrial life at a meeting of the Wellington Women’s Social Progress Movement. He said that approximately bl) per cent, of the community, shunned the churches and organized religion and added that this was a fairly liberal figure after •discounting regular attenoers. “The Campaign for Christian Order, or the Christian Order Movement, as it has become known, should pc regarded as an endeavour by the Christian churches to pursue the introduction of Christian ideals througthout our national tile on a long-term basis,” he said. Such things as special broadcasts and manifestos had to be endorsed by what he J er *!| e( L,, a kind of consolidated preachtug. The average industrial person had not niucn interest in Christianity at all. Sometimes there was wholehearted faith or wholehearted opposition, but tljere. was not much hope for the merely disintereb At’ the time of the industrial revolution Great Britain was prosperous, technically' advanced, and in the process she had demonstrated the tremendous Power that lay in industrial expansion. In IboJ came liarwin’s “Origin of Species, making a theory long on the scientific horizon seem workable to the average cultivated reader. This idea of development carried with it the idea that- progress was always toward something better. The idea and practice together bred an idea and attitude, specially in the minds ot working people, that the Church was backward. Among primitive peoples the god who appeared to have the power baa lhe precedence. “YV hat could he do for them?” The average man was apt to reason that, way even to this day ana looked on God as a sort of emergency precautions denartment in terms of “What has God done for the working man?” Present conditions in this country made it extremely difficult to establish contact with people like that. Mr. Bates described meeting hundreds of men in camp who. he said, knew nothing of religion and only knew of the word God as profanity. Disregard of religion was specially noticeable in industrial areas. It was difficult to find people to bridge the gap. and it was no good preaching to people unless one talked their lan- " “We may have to take a leaf out of the book of the people in England and Scothind who are experimenting by sending chaplains into the factories. This is a new way of doing things, but seems ou the surface to be very sensible, he said, citing how chaplains were directed for the benefit of the armed services. . “The problem of Christianity and industry has come to such a pass that there are two essentials to its solution, concluded the speaker. “Whatever the Church does, it must speak and act as one. It must speak to people where they are the Church must go to industry. It made her ashamed that tn a socalled Christian country only 20 per cent, were religious, said the president. Miss L. Watson. She added that New Zealand might well think about copying the example of ministers in Great Britain who laid aside the prerogatives of the clergy and acted as factory workers before assuming appointments as factory chaplains. A vote of thanks to Mr. Bates was proposed by Mrs. Herron. Mrs. A. Bryant, who sang a bracket of songs and was accompanied by her husband, was presented with an autumn, spray, both artists being specially thanked by Mrs. Bate.