CHURCH'S INFLUENCE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 153, 16 July 1937, Page 4

CHURCH'S INFLUENCE

-Prcs* Awociation.)

Producing a Christian New Zealand THE ART 0F LIVING

(By Ttlegraph-

WELLINGTON, Thi. Day. "I want to recall the whole Church to a new understanding of what 4H influence it would exercis© if all its members were willing in tlieir contact* with ordinary life to admit that they stand unflinchingly for a Christian New Zealand," said the Rt, Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland, Bishop of Wellington, in his presidential address at the opening of the Anglican Diocesan Synod, at Wellington, yesterday. "The Church has ' lwks with all grades and ranks of society, thraugjh its members. Cannot those membera as they take their place in the sorial and business life of the nation stand iirmly and uncoinpromisingly for Christian standards? Are they not all too prone to-day to give a presentation of Christianity from which the note oi sternness, has been eliminated, suggesting in Father Ronald Knox's phrase, 'The milk of human kindness beaten up into butter and served in • lordly dish.' The virtues of kindness, tolerance and broadmindedness have been extolled out of all proportion to the sterner virtues. ' t "I want the younger married men and women, losing none of their gaiety or love of life, at the same time to show to isbe younger generation that they want their , own lives and those of tlieir friends to be controlled by the outlook and spirit of Christ. I want to see the youngjer men of the Church giving unstinted service to the freedom-1 loving and adventurous boys of to-day in recalling to them the glory and joy of Christian manhood. 1 want to see the younger marired women not leaving the work among the girls of this generation to those older than themselves, who cannot fully understand them, but giving themselves to aetive service in their private friendships - aud through organisatioos such as the Giris' Friendly Society, in order that they may help re-establish the Christian view of sex, marriage and parenthood. "The Church has to-day a noble opportunity of giving a lead in the tremendous problem of training the coming generation for the use of its new-found leisure. Here we have to create a whole oorps of people pledged to voluntary service in training the young for the use of their newlyacquired leisure and in teaching them the 'art of making a livelihood,' which is what our State education must inevitably have as its primary aim. "What a worthwhileness it would add to life if many of our younger and gifted men and women could escape from the weary and ultimately upsatisfying round of the cocktail party, the bridge party, the pictures, the dancee, and the Stmday golf, all or some of which have their place in life, into, an atmosphere of service for a compelling cause. We must come off the fence, aud take sides in the great fight between the tuTP.es of God aud the force# of evil in ti# world."