CORRESPONDENCE.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 20 July 1916, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

[Correspondence is invited on any matt6i 3 of public interest. We do not, however, necessarily agree with the viewß ex- _ * pressed by correspondents.!

THE CHURCHES,

TO THE EDITOR

Sir, —The complaints from the Churches have been frequent and bitter in. the matter of irreligion and non-attendance, on Sundays. The congregations have grown callous and careless about their attendance at the religious services, and the clergy are powerless to bring the people to a proper sense of their responsibilities in that respect, and why ? In the writer's opinion, His Lordship, Bishop Averill, touched on the main cause the other day when he said that he hoped before long to see^Bpouse of God free for everyone to en^pwithout cash; And that is where' the pinch is now. In the writer's opinion the present methods of raising funds are the most crude and contemptible, and a plate pushed under one's nose at once makes him feel mean and hypocritical, inasmuch that all his higher and purer feelings are sent flying, and he at once thinks, not of God, but of pelf, and, • moreover, this makes him feel that the whole ceremony has been leading up to this act of spoliation! Surely some other means could be devised for raising i sufficient to support the Churches, such as a poll tax. Not long ago the writer was in a Church where it was agreed by resolution that each adult should pay two shillings for the privilege of attending that service. Now, how on earth is a poor man to take his family of sons and daughters to a Church in making such a prohibitive charge ? And where is the humility and reverence that one was taught to expect in those who meet there to worship their Maker? Talk of Christianity!—l am, etc., Argonne Papa.