EMPTY PULPITS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4920, 30 December 1925, Page 3

EMPTY PULPITS.

THE POSITION IN ENGLAND. REMARKS BY DEAN INGE. - “Tlie committee appointed by the Ai’chbishops to report on the supply of candidates, for Holy Ordeis have recently issued their report. We need not' dfceiuss the opinion of the eommi> tee that the decline ‘is intimately connected with shortcomings in the Life of the! Church as a. whole, and weakness in its’witness for Christ, ■ wlltes Dean Inge in the “Morning Post.” “Shortcomings always exist, if we set up lan ideal standard. But if i«cannotibe proved that these are greater now'than at times when there was no shortage, it is, obvious that other reasons must be found for the present deiiciency''of candidates. “Let us consider the facts, as shown by thejreport.. The number of men ordained to English dioceses, during the las/iten years (1914-1924) i$ less by 2850|than the number ordained between 1905 and 1914. It is difficult to attribute, this decline wholly to the war, wih'&i we find that the figure for J-923 is j7O below the lowest figure in the years before the war, and that 1924 saw a further decline of 27. “Ln ISI4 the number of deacons, ordained jvas 685 ; in 1924 the number had shrunk to 488. As a result of this, shortage the average age of the clergy on the active list is now 52. In the diocese of Manchester there are twenty parishes with populations exceeding 10,000, and no assistant curates. ; 1 “The committee enumerate, among possible causes, indifference, the decay of religion i» the home, other openings of service, intellectual difficulties, and financial difficulties. The last-named is the one which will, occur to most people, and we may briefly consider it here. “The laity would have no difficulty whatever in keeping their ministers in modest comfort if .they wished to do so. If there are four million adults who call themselves Anglicans, an average contribution of ninepence a week would relieve th parochial clergy from pecuniary anxiety. “The drink-bill of the nation is between .three hundred and four hundred millions a year. If, then, there are many hundreds of parish plies,ts who cannot buy enough food to keep themselves, and their families in health, .the reason is that their congregations are content to have it so ”