RATANA CULT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5074, 12 January 1927, Page 3

RATANA CULT.

POSITION IN WAIAPU DIOCESE. A CRISIS COMING. “The Bishop of Waiapu in his address to his Synod made some important references to the Ratana cult as observed in his diocese,” states the Church News (Christchurch.) In two settlements in the Tauranga district the Church people had gone over to Ratana wholly, but these two were exceptional cases. “All along the East Coast among the Ngatiporou, and in the part of the Bay of Plenty ministered to by Canon Pahe.wa, the Church people are untouched’ by Ratana’s influence, and there is little, evidence of his influence in the ’Rotorua district In other’ places where the Ratana movement has affected the Maori there is a strong body o'f Church people standing firm, and there is marked evidence that the. disaffection of some has been the means pf stiffening up and drawing together our Church people. “Efforts have been made by Ratanists to obtain the use o'f our churches for their worship, but the Bishop has resisted this on the ground that they have, been built for worship according to the Anglican .rites only. This has had the desired effect, and the Auckland Court case has cheeked the organised attempt to seize and use the churches. None, of the Maori clergy of the diocese has joined the movement, but a fair number of the licensed lay readers have done so —mostly elderly men. ‘Many 'followers of Ratana have poured their money into his so-called bank.’ There are many sad cases where they 'have parted with every available penny. The boast that while the Anglican Church is always asking for money from its members Ratana and his followers ask for nothing, is both absurd and untrue.

“Ratana holds thousands of pounds of the people’s money. ‘Many Maoris, some personally know® to me,’ said the bishop, ‘realising the. 'fallacy of their action, are asking for their money back, but this is, of course, refused. The money is being spent, most of it already spent.’ The. bishop declares that the movement is weakening, and Ratana’s actions are prejudicing his mana. There is no religion left in the. movement, said a thoughtful, educated Maori to the bishop. ‘There is the form of service, but the. talk is’ of land and money and what they # can get.’ “On the other hand the Ratanists, while admitting that a crisig is preparing in the movement, are confident that they will emerge from it stronger than ever. A Christchurch newspaper correspondent at Wanganui indicates that they admit that the power which established Ratana’s prestige among the Maoris, his. ‘faithhealing,’ is departing from him, but they point out that Ratana anticipated this. The question is whether his mana will withstand the shock of failure. A general assembly of the movement was gathering as we went to press, and the daily papers, no doubt, will bq. giving reports thereof. The newspaper correspondent reported that whereas ‘at one time, nearly every denomination claimed to have something in common with Ratana’s teachings, now that the/ movement has reached to such large'dimenlsions, they can say nothing too bajl of it.’ It is rather an amusing way of putting it. The truth is that Ratana borrowed something from several existing ‘denominations’ to form his ‘creed,’ but has departed from the rule common to Christian churches, namely, that nothing shall be added to Scriptural teaching. Ratana, for instance, has added inexplicably, the angels t,° the. baptismal 'formula of our Lord. And surely the fact that the ‘denominations’ can say nothing too bad of the movement is ominous. Meanwhile the great apostacy of Ratana is raising for itself a great concrete shrine in his village up the Wanganui to hold 1000 people.”