CHURCH OF ENGLAND SYNOD.- CLIPPINGS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 245, 14 November 1873, Page 6

CHURCH OF ENGLAND SYNOD.CLIPPINGS.

ESTABLISHMENT OF DENOMINATIONAL SCHOOLS. ; The Rev. R. L. Stanford moved—" That ' it is desirable that every effort be made by the Church of England in Otago to promote the introduction of denominational i schools everywhere throughout the dio- , cese." He had been led to introduce , this resolution, owing to the series of circumstances with which they - were all . familiar, and which had taken place during the last few days of the session. He was one of those clergymen who voted for the resolutions unfortunately thrown out upon Friday, which declared the advisability ■ ° f S lvin g religious instruction to the chii- , dren of thejr own communion during one portion of the ordinary school day; and when he proposed this resolution, that denominational schools should be started everywhere, he did so for reasons he would presently explain, but also because the resolutions he referred to : were thrown out. Had they been carried, they would have 'satisfied him better than the .resolution he now proposed. His present resolution had two objects. The first was that he was anxious to obtain-from the laity a clear expression of .their opinion on this momentous question. He believed the object with which he had introduced this resolution would be carried out bv a triumphant majority, but still it would ' be only partially, carried out if he did not carry the .lay members ot the Church with him,--and gain from them a clear expression of their minds. What he meant by denominational education was that education in which secular and religious instruction were given under one roof, in many instances by one people 'and under the direction of one clergyman. The point that naturally suggested itself to him was :, what is religious instruction —this religious instruction which ' he meant to give as a clergyman in a denominational school? What he meant by "religious instruction" was the morality of the Gospel, with sufficient explanation to give it the -substance—the bones—of a single dogma. But he must not be misunderstood. To conceive that the clergy would teach children of six, or seven or eight years _ old that creed about which so. much controversy had lately arisen,, was to imagine .that clergymen were devoid of all common sense. Passing from the definition _of religious instruction, he would go on to speak of the necessity for this religious instruction being given. First, he conceived that it was a i necessity, because all true'morality was I absolutely dependent on the conception of religion. He would cite a passage from ™? work of Mr. Fitzjames Stephen, ' On Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity," as an illustrious authority for the position he maintained, that " morality and religion must m the future, as they always Had in the past, stand or fall together/'—(Hear, hear.)- Then, again, their,laws as men in ' ?7 e^ om ., mo n wealth were < funded upon' { the Word of God; and, he; would, ask , them as Colonists, and as subjects<of >the Queen, were they prepared to goto the rising generation and teach them not one word of that upon which the Church- of , England rests ? The necessity for rejig- \ lous. instruction— for He must still harp e upon this Be* shown to those who were parents in this way*

There was.one dogma inculcated in. -the,sth Commandment—a dogma taught to.' most of them many a year ago--whicb7 bade them, honor their father and mother. He maintained that the rising generation in Otago : had : W '' their actions, that they had never learned that lesson.—(Heari) Parental authority is and must be founded- upon,thatiiconimahdment, and. where, that commandment was not taught.to a again, and again; and impressed .by precept example—their familyjife would continually tend "towards that miserable 'statethat wretched, lamentable" ! it : was now coming to in Otago, where parental authority -out of sight,.and a sort of voluntary, compact—an., ,mutual :inteiesj;-^hact'.' taken its loss of both parents and children alike I .' The- only argument he Had heard whichweighed one iota against the carrying out of;the resolution he now put before them was this: men told him that they had seen the Roman Catholics* make such a v mess-, of~denominational education 'that'; they hated and detested the very name of > it. He saw many were convinced that denominational education meant servility to the priesthood, and that if. the system! were adopted* it would lead tosuch; ■■ *- state of things. But he would only" asktliem-: didthey refuse to, eat their.dinners; because; some! idiots would eat unwholesome food ? The motion was carried.