SPECIAL SERVICES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 40402, 16 January 1930, Page 4

SPECIAL SERVICES.

Whether it is right or wrong’ to appear in church in tennis flannels .or plus fours is a subject discussed in the January number of the Church Gazette for the Diocese of /Auckland in an editorial article on ‘•Holidays and Worship” : —“There is really no question to answer, in our opinion,” states the article. “It is purely a. matter of the heart. If my chief Sunday occupation is going to be amusement and I go to church ilirst just to sa.lve my eonscience, then I naturally regard it as a nuisance to have to change my clothes. But if my attendance at church is a real recognition of the claims of G-od upon me, if I go to church because I want to honour Him and be a witness to the faith /that is in me, f and if I am therefore content to let amusements take aproperly subordinate place, the mere question of dress will not arise at all. The appeal to ‘sporting’ people to come to a ‘special’ service dressed as they please seem to ps to lower the ideal of public worship, and to turn the service into a. sort of entertainment provided for their special benelit; it is an admission that, their -Sunday amusements are necessary for them, and that- God and His claims arc secondary, and they arc asked to be good enough to patronise God for a few minutes before they begin their real Sunday pursuits. The parsou becomes the entertainer and the congregation thb audience. Of course, in reality, the congregation should be the performers, and the audience —God Himself. The whole tualter turns on whether they come in a patronising spirit to listen to a sermon; the only question is one of motive, and the clothes we wear may be taken, as a general rule, as some sort of indication whether our atlendanpe at church is an act of patronage rfr an act of worship.