CHURCH UNION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22987, 16 September 1936, Page 4

CHURCH UNION

fO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —Your correspondents who have written on the subject of Church union overlook the fact that the British churches, with their many branches comprise only one third of those professing the Christian faith—that is. the Church of the New Testament. Concerning the branches of the English Church, it must be remembered that no branch has ever been turned out of the parent body, which holds her door and her service open to all. In the Old Country there are countless examples every year of advantage of this being taken by Nonconformists who still prefer to take their infants for baptism in the parish church. It must also be remembered '.hat the Church of England is the church of the united English people, in that, through Parliament, every adult of every denomination (or none) has a voice in its government, and quite rightly so, as it is the national church. This is not an out-of-date nation, and was instanced on June 14, 1928, when the country refused to sanction the new Prayer Book. Thus, although the non-conforming bodies all have their voice in the State Church affairs, and the full privileges of its services, it is not a thing necessarily to be lamented that they have their own form of worship, for this has the great advantage of offering alternative forms of the same worship, sufficient surely to please every individual who will. But of them all, probably the Salvation Army is nearest to church unity, for all those officers are too busy saving souls even to inquire into doctrine, which split the others. Before a united church can be arrived at there are the Jews and the Mohammedans to be absorbed, and beyond that again there are the other great and small religions that do not yet worship the God of Israel, but are all to be gathered into the one fold. How is this great uniting to be achieved? There is no need to go to China to And a gathering of denominations into one mission. There is in our very midst a mission consisting of members of every denomination of the whole Catholic Church, who stand on a common platform, and preach the gospel of salvation and of the Kingdom. When all the churches as a body—and not individuals only out of every church as at present —understand and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom as Jesus taught it, then there will be no such thing as a disunited church. The true church throughout the world must be united as the one body of Christ when He returns to earth to remarry His Kingdom.—l am, etc.. G. Steel. September 12.