CHURCH UNION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17693, 2 August 1919, Page 8

CHURCH UNION.

The meeting in furtherance of Church Union held this week in the TCing Street Congregational Church, was, like a previous meeting in this city with the same end in view, noteworthy in being a meeting of laymen. We should be glad to interpret this fact as marking progress. Resolutions in favour of union passed by Presbyteries, Synods, General Assemblies, and other church courts are little more than the expression of a pious opinion in which even the Church of Rome might concur. From the Vatican Council to the Salvation Army there is no ecclesiastical authority or organisation that is not willing to absorb competitors. All alike they bewail division; all alike they desire union, but each pretty much on its" own terms. Not in that way will union come. The one thing essential is the disposition to compromise on non-essentials. It may be that in this matter the judgment of the laity is of more value than the judgment of the clergy. Certainly the "dissidence of dissent" is not among the essentials, and the laity are perhaps less likely than their spiritual pastors and masters to be enamoured of that disastrous principle.

Moreover, it is to the lay mind that a movement corrective of waste, overlapping of agencies, and inefficiency should make its readiest appeal. In city populations the number of church buildings may not as a rule be excessive, nor the number of ministers appointed to officiate in them. There arc few urban communities in which the teaching of religion and the ministrations of charity associated with church agencies outrun the needs of the people. But it does not follow that in every village there should be church or chapel for every religious denomination. From a point of view that is purely secular this means waste of money and misapplication of energy; from a religious point of view the loss to ministerial efficiency and the strain upon charity must be deplorable. It is true that for extreme examples of division and subdivision we must look elsewhere, — to some of the Western States of America, for instance, "In one county"—says Collier's—"a population of 35,000 is blessed with considerably more than a hundred Protestant churches; and exactly twenty different denominations. Does a man find himself a trifle lacking in agreement with the particular Baptist church which he has been attending ? Thero are four different

kinds of Baptist churchcs for him to choose among. Is his sturdy Presbyterian conscience offended by some figment of the creed? There are three other kinds of Presbyterian churches, all different, and he may take his pick. Perhaps ho is a Methodist; if so, his freedom of movement is somewhat, limited; there are only two denominations of Methodists in the countv. But there are three different sets of ' Holiness ' churches and two sets of so-called ' Christian' churches. And if none of these suit his special fancy he has still the Episcopal Church, the Congregational, the Christian Science, the Apostolic, and tho Millennial Dawn." In another county 40,000 people have 178 Protestant churches; in yet another 55,000 have 180. The collector of these statistics suggested to "a prominent member" that perhaps some of the churches might with advantage "get together." The prominent member replied with some heat, " Not as long as I have any breath in illy body." That appears to be the kind of Christianity developed.

At the meeting of laymen this week the denominations represented were the Congregationalists, the Methodists, and the Presbyterians. It would aeem natural as a beginning of general reunion that the smaller religious bodies—tho Baptists, who are 2 per cent, of the population, the Congregationalists, who are 1 per cent., and the Methodists, who are between 9 and 10 per oent.—should join up with the next above,—the Presbyterians, who are between 23 and 24 per cent. Union with the next above again—the Anglicans, .vko ore 40 per cent.—may come later. The denominations lowest in the census returns are manifestly on the economic "margin of subsistence," and, though often represented in the cities by preachers of conspicuous ability, with difficulty maintain their ground. In the interests of good citizenship and social harmony the gathering together in one of Christian people is a consummation devoutly to be wished.