WORLD SLUMP IN RELIGION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 30, 19 February 1937, Page 11

WORLD SLUMP IN RELIGION

Prew 'A««oeiation.)

New Conditions Need Ncw Methods METH0DI5T BELIEF

IBy Telftgraph—

AUCKLAND^ Last Night. - The annual Dominion. Methodis.t cpn.feronce in wihich 250 clergy and laity ara participating, opened ..tp-night whon the induction took plaee of the riew president, Rev. F.' Copeland, New/Plymouth; who oelivered- his presidential a'ddress. Jff. H. R. Freneh (Hastings) was appoihted vice-president, whlle>,tihe president-elect -for 1938 is Rev. If. R. Paris, oi Wellington, fprmar editor' of the Methodist Times. * The eonference will extend over ten days. - After paying tribnte to the work of the pioneers of New Zealand Methodism who broughfc the gospel both. to the Maoris and the early European settlers, the president made. reference to ' enrrent. religious conditiqns - and trends., • , : , j .. "Worid Slnmp" in ReUgion ' They wero at ;preseht ,confronted, ha said, ; witih wh&t ' might bie c:alled a world slump in. i, organised religion— a eeeularisation of life' |which"post"*war years had accentnated, but' which really began long before 1914. .. No inatfer bow . tupalatable it might bo, they wero faced wtth ihe . - fact— and be hbjfed thsy found it a profouadly dlBttirbiHg one-^that the main stream of life wae , floiring right past the Ghoreh. . Many, though owing so mneh' to it, appeared to regard the;ehurch. ai somotlhing which didn't really epunt^— a iisefnl lcind ot adjnnct to the conventipnal observance of weddingf .and funerajs, ;bnt having no placd in the puleing red« bloodedj factual lifo of'.eyery d*y. No f acile explanatiQn .eould , disg*ise this stark reality tha t^ for all practical pnrpoees, the church had sfemed powerless of late to stem' the- tide. of irreligion, and to tnrn men and women from' their gemi-pagan " state to , the' Christian yyroy ot life, . s r "■ : , , . Chnrehes hy TWr Witi^ Many of their churches seemed to be living ,by thpir wits, rathear than ...by their wortl^ their only arEculato ' _ msssage to a fandshing worid' seepiing to be, in! Dr." Ruseell Maltby'a words, "You'ria hungTy, and. we're -hnngry; , come inside.and let .na 'be' hungxy togetherl " With few ; exceptions this •gfineratioe of MethQdism,. had .heen marked by a n •absence of adventure, & succumbing to the present day love of ease, weariness of purpose,- and an.aversion. f rom anything.heroic save , talk about- heroism, and admiration of it in othprs. So it had' been ' a ease of wre*4uee-Mul,,,-'i»o ocean voyage, no venture, no ihazard— •and a resnltant mediocrity of achieve* ment. And;y«t, these faets notwithstandisg, let them^not-fear that the purpose of God, expresspd in the Church of .'Jesus Christ, would be ultimately thyrarted; for the astonishing, vitality -of the Christian faith had been abundantly demoiistrated in -history, in" perio'dical gforious resurrections and'self-renewaltt of .the Church, so o'ften by eritids and eroakers deemed tosbe on its dcath.'bed. Futnre of Metbodism. Turning. to the, futuro of New, Zealand Methodism, Mr. Copeland asksd whether.this was to be worthy. of, the (.^eurch'a earlier apd not negligible eontribution. to life ,and religiou.in this new land,- or whether thpy had as a Church exhausted- their niandate. . Quoting the Prime Ministor's New Year mossage, as in part applicable to the work that he believed the Methodigt Church was stili called to do in. New' Zealand, the speaker said faith, efiieiency, and some form or other Of eolfimposed discipline were not lcss hocessary to the Church 's cOntinued cxistence aiid effective' functloriing th'an Jlr Savage considered them to be fo the realisation of dempcratic. idpaJe. • ' Paith, Efliciency, -Sacrifice. They could not witn," any heayt 'f a.ce ' the futuTe as a church without .. confideoce — faith in God, in their own call • and eo'mmission, and *in thb . nltimate outcome of the task to' .which they had pnt th$ir hahds. JBut spirittial equipnient, he emphasised, xequired suppiementing with efficiency. One f e?t that church people wero not serving God with their brains to thV 'extent "that - His work demaiided. * ' , , There was urgent, noed, in tbe interests- bf • efficiency^ for a' de- . . tailed suryey of the cburch's , re- , sourcesi for the overlianl of con^ nexional maehinery, for an adapter tion of methods, as in Imsiness . : circles,. to changed conditions of the times. These conditions called not -ohly fdt ■greater pluck apd daring on the part of ministers, but equally for at least as. Piuch hard and .coristructive think* ing by the laity as' these latter gave to secular interests. Declaring that the principal business of conferepce was religion, the presi--dent closed his address with an appeal to. Methodist 'pepple to seek (a) A re- ; vived personal experience of religion: (b) a renewed, -adventurous evangejism;. .apd (c) . a re-paptured .moral enthusiasm. Hetquoted the .Oxford groun iriovement as indicating- a deepening sense of- spiritual need in the community, - and- said the passibn to communicate spiritual experience personally enjoyed wa$ charaeteristic of th« va*y aenius of Methodism,