LOYAL CANADA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20047, 20 September 1939, Page 4

LOYAL CANADA

CHURCH AND WAR A RECRUITING AGENCY “Canada is in this war to a man, as she was in the last war, and the Church is backing the State to the hilt,’’ said the Rev. Dr. John Gibson Inkster, recently retired minister of Knox Presbyterian Church, Toronto, who has arrived in Auckland, accompanied by Mrs. Inkster. “Canada has gone into the war because she feels the cause —justice, freedom and humanity—is a righteous one.”

Dr. Inkster referred to the Church as a great recruiting agency. It would, he said, keep the home fires burning and stabilise the faith of members in God. Over 600 men enlisted from Dr. Inkster’s church for the Great War, his church being the spiritual home of the Toronto Scottish Regiment, of which he was chaplain.

“The Church in Canada is not suffering from persecution and poverty, but from sheer apathy, carelessness, indifference and lack of co-operation,” said Dr. Inkster. “This is seen in the lack of attendance, especially at evening services. In many places the evening service is given up during holidays, and in a . few cases all the year round. “The cause of this is the hustle and hurry, the stress and strain in every sphere of life,” he added. “Men and women are so exhausted at the end of the day and at the end of the week that when evening and Sunday come they are all in, physically, mentally and spiritually.” Dr. Inkster’s visit to New Zealand is in fulfilment of a boyhood wish. He was born in the Orkney Islands, and went to Canada at the age of 18, studying until he entered the Church in Bristol, England. He later accepted calls to London and Vancouver, and spent the last 19 years in Toronto. Now at the age of 72, he has accepted an invitation for six months’ ministry at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Wellington.