THE CHURCH’S GREAT OPPORTUNITY

Shannon News, 15 January 1924, Page 4

THE CHURCH’S GREAT OPPORTUNITY

BISHOPS COMMEND FEARLESS PULPITS. Monday, 7.10 p.m.) LONDON, January 14.

A manifesto sighed by the Bishops of Lichfield, Woolwich, 'Winchester, Chelmsford, Liverpool, Manchester, St. Albans and Southampton, on behalf of the Industrial Christian Fellowship, formed in 1920 to bring religious influence to bear on industrial and social problems, states it is no exaggeration to say the Church is presented to-day with the greatest opportunity since Pentecost, if only it can effectively proclaim the Kingdom of God to statesmen, employers, controllers of combines, trade unionists and labourers as 'offering the key to the true relationship of "than to man , and nation to nation. It is time every pulpit reference to-a public question ceased be called politics. The word •is often used disparagingly of the purest and most elmentary' application bf 'Christian ethics to affairs. The Church should seek freedom from party 'politics, but every pulpit should re. spiind with national politics. Avarice,, unwillingness to work, and hard, selfish indifference to others’ sufferings, ! lie at the root of political and economic evils. Against'these, as well as against dishonesty ana intemperance; the Church 'ought' to" Wafrn men and fleclttfe the