Christian Army Lacks Recruits

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 44, 14 May 1927, Page 15

Christian Army Lacks Recruits

OUTSPOKEN ANGLICAN CHURCH’S IMPERFECTIONS (Special to THE SUN.) WANGANUI, Friday. According to the Rev. J. F. Coursey, vicar of St. John's, Christchurch, the Church was imperfectly Christianised. This opinion was expressed at a public meeting last night in connection with the C.E.M.S. conference now being held, when the ’’world call” was discussed.

Mr. Coursey pointed out that the “world call” was sounding plainly from the countries of the world which had no Christianity. They were seeking, groping for light. Just as reinforcements went in the years from 1914 to 1918, so reinforcements were needed to filll the gnus in the front line of the armv of Christianity. The position in India was that thousands were seeking the light, and the missionaries had no one to send. One big missionary society was forced to reduce its activities by 15 per cent. Sixty thousand pounds a year was required- to keep the thin red line in India.

All the men required from New Zealand were 71 recruits to fill existir" gaps—sl each year as recruits and 50 new missionaries. Ten thousand men had flown to the flag in one day in 1914, but although the call had sounded up and down New Zealand, the speaker had heard of only one recruit. This was a significant fact. It signified that the Church of New Zealand was imperfectly Christianised. In the Moslem world alone there was only one body which was able to deal with the race problem, said Mr. Coursey, and that was the Christian Church. Until the Church dealt with this problem there would * still be festering sores in the body politic. Moslems were daily becoming more and more accessible to Christian culture and Christian teachings. The war had been a great disintegrating factor in Islam, because the Mohammedans from north of Africa fought side by side with French and British soldiers against Mohammedans in Turkish trenches.

The Government of Japan was favourably disposed toward Christian teaching-, and. regarding China, the speaker considered that the outcome there would be the establishment of a Chinese Christian church.