CHURCH & SOCIETY.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 May 1923, Page 2

CHURCH & SOCIETY.

ANGLICAN SPOKESAIAX. [DY TELEORABH —rER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] CHRISTCHURCH, May 23. At k mass meeting in the Cathedral to-night in connection with the Anglican liureli Congress, tlie Bishop of Goulburn and Mr W. Nash (secretary of the New Zealand Labour Party) were the speakers. The Bishop of Goulburn said that tlie Church’s business was to he a training school of character, of the conscience of the individual. The Church must insist on the highest standard of private life in public men, and of public service in the life of private persons. The layman should go into municipal councils and parliaments, lint take his coat off inside, in order to clean things up. He might have literally “A Hell of a Time,”” hut it was the only way to make a heaven of the plate he entered. The only place where the bitterest opponents might meet without enmity was the Communion table. All should unite to make God’s Own Country the home of God’s own men, and God’s own people. Mr Nash said that family life was the basis of the country’s life. Homes implied houses, and some of the conditions prevailing in New Zealand, absolutely precluded home life. Seven people in Pctono, lie said, lived in one room. A returned soldier and his family were housed in a stable. These were instances of what the speaker meant. Messages from Auckland concorning the housing conditions were a frightful indictment, not of the Church, hut of the members of the Church. There was no reason why any child in New Zealand should go short of food or clothing. The Christian’s duty was to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. The job of the citizen who wanted Christ to rule was to extend liis vision to the ends of tlie earth. The man who loved his own country more than his God could never enter his Kingdom. International life was the vision winch Christ had—all nations doing all things together for God. Every individual should have sufficient essentials of life to make a decent home. The establishment of tlie Kingdom of God was possible the day after the people of tho world believed it was possible.