CLOSING A CHASM

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 784, 3 October 1929, Page 6

CLOSING A CHASM

AUCKLAND REJOICES WITH SCOTLAND PRESBYTERIAN UNITY SERVICE Signalising the happy union between the two Presbyterian Churches of Scotland (consummated in Edinburgh today), Presbyterians throughout Auckland joined in commemorating and offering thanks for the event in St. David’s Church last evening. Attended by ohe of the largest congregations ever seen in the church, the service was impressive, striking a responsive chord of fervour in the gathering. The choir pews were filled by robed members of the Presbytery from all parts of the city and suburbs. The Moderator, of the. Presbytery, the .Rev. W. D. Morrison Sutherland, presided. “The event we are signalising tonight ante-dates the celebrations in Edinburgh- by several hours,” the Moderator declared. The . Scottish ceremony would be a momentous and epoch-making event. There was no doubt that a great religious revival would follow it throughout the country, and from which the whole of Christendom would benefit. Pie regarded this event as merely a step to a Federal union, by which the various churches, now Independent, would combine- for unity and effectiveness. This objective was aimed at by the Christian Unity Association, which was composed of ministers and laymen of practically all reform churches at Home. , NO TIME FOR PUNISHMENT “There are unions—and unions,” declared Mr. J. W. Shaw, in. opening his address. Pie professed to have no time for any cult which was maintained by striet and stern punishment of dissenters, or the unity devised for policy by ecclesiastical strategy. He referred- also to unities of contiguity and of mutual interest. “In the union we are celebrating, however,” he said, “we have the climax of an age-long movement—one of the greatest since the Reformation.” On the structure commenced many years ago had been built a national, united church of the whole of the Scottish people. What had been a myth in the far-off days of. Knox and Melville had become a reality. The national church should hot, in his opinion, be a cloak to be put on, but should be a growth of the spirit, weaving its own garment, and an expression of the creed of national life. A national church should not be specially privileged, but should be nationally organised and should speak with the nation’s voice.

In referring to the relationship between the growth of Presbyterianism and Scottish character, the speaker paid an eloquent tribute to the directness, honesty of purpose, the absence of halfway measures, justice, equality, the rights of the individual, and the pugnacity which the people stood for and typified in their lives. Today, Scotland had that which for ages men had striven, for which many of its greatest men had died. The union had come as a gift from God. Ecclesiastically, Scotland now faced the future equipped as never before. Salient features iu the evolution of the union from the time of the Reformation were interestingly touched upon by Mr. Shaw.

The union, he said, was a magnificent tribute to the diplomacy and Christian spirit of both. The national church could now speak with authority greater than ever before on the housing problem and the question of the the Irish immigration to Glasgow and other cities, thus setting up. communities that were not a part of Scottish national life.

During the service, special thanksgiving prayers were offered up, and appropriate hymns were sung.