EMPTY CHURCHES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 219, 5 December 1927, Page 16

EMPTY CHURCHES

PROBLEM IN ENGLAND A CONGREGATIONAL VIEW Half-empty churches and the politician’s point of view formed the basis of a striking address at the Assembly of the Congregational Union at Newcastle, England, by Mr. Bernard L. Manning, bursar of Jesus College, Cambridge. “We look at our half empty churches to-day," he said, “almost negligible from the politician’s point of view, treated by some parties with hollow patronage, by others with malicious insolence. ‘The butt of the third-rate novelist and the shortest way to a cheap sneer." He was speaking on “Christian experience throughout the centuries," and he asked, “Is there less or more Christian experence in our time than in the immediate past or in the remote past?" “We consider the world-wide missionary activity," he added, “maintained by this handful of Church people in an indifferent nation. “Contrast this with the grip the mediaeval church had on the political and national life,, its control of industrial life and the colour it put into intellectual life." There was much talk to-day about the religious attitude which was Christian, but had no use for the Church, he added. Every newspaper and magazine was full of it. Those who ought to know better played with such talk. “Social service for the young offender" was dealt with by Mr. Alfred Woodall, of Broadway, Worcestershire. "Prison never cured anyone,” he said, “but, on the contrary, tends to make a man or woman more criminal. The old idea, ‘Spare the rod and spoii the child’ has existed far too long in our present system."