General Assembly of Presbyterian Church

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 914, 6 March 1930, Page 12

General Assembly of Presbyterian Church

j MODERATOR’S ADDRESS CHANGES IN SOCIETY From Our Own Correspondent DUNEDIN, Today. | The General Assembly Q f th® | Presbyterian. Church of New Zealand j was opened last evening in. Fir** Church, which was crowded. j retiring Aloderator, the Rev. Professor j \V. Mewitson, presided, and he introj duced his successor, the Rev. George ! Budd. of Devonport. who delivered th* i inaugural address, taking as his sub ! ject ’ The Church in a Changir* | World." S| The clerk read the list of ministerial l changes since the last meeting of the i Assembly, showing that 11 brethren | had died. 13 hacl resigned from charges [ and three from the ministry, while transfers numbered 27. j “The social world has changed and i is changing.” said Air. Budd. in hj s | address. ’Today interdependence has | become second nature to us. Then I too. there has occurred the change in i the 'status of the female/ in our society | and with a rush, girls and young ! women have entered the arena that was once for men only. Two generaI tions ago almost anyone could ha\e told us with confidence what was womanly and what was unwomanly, ! but who can do so today?” More important still was the changed attitude to traditional authority, continued Air. Budd. Once the Church's authority was supreme. Later many j renounced infallibility in the Church. ■ but set up, instead, the infallibility of the Bible. Today the shift was toward j what Sabatier had called “the auth- ' ority of the Spirit.” The change was j going on. and he. for one. was not prepared to say that the change was a symptom of decay. THE CHURCH AND CHANGE Coming to the subject of the Church in this changing world, the Aloderator asked whether ministers, office-bearer:: and people were alive to these clv iiges or not. Complaints regarding the decline in church attendance and the neglect of the Sabbath Day had going on for hundreds of years. It was quite true that ; church people, old and young, were deficient in many respects; but since when were they otherwise? AYere they worse than their fathers? Let them think of the number of people who did attend church, and of what it meant r_> ,hem to worship God. Let them think of the army of devoted men and women who served in the Sunday schools, and of the hundreds of ministers who went out every day to comfort the sorrowing, to cheer the lonely and to speak a word in season to the weary. Surely their labour was In religious education he sincerely hoped that they would turn their eyes to the Old Country for guidance, rather than to the United States. 4 \Ye ought to be ashamed of the inadequate and meagre support given to our Youth Department,” the moderator continued. "We cannot consider ourselves in earnest about this vital work until we do much better than we Jiave been doing. •As long as the State excludes religious instruction from the schools so long will it be regarded as of secondary importance. "We have, for a long time, been striving to place the Bible in tlie jDublic schools. Alore and_more ministers are taking up the Xelson system, and every plebiscite taken shows that the people are ready to welcome religious instruction for their children. Let us join with our fellows and buy up every opportunity. The Church ought not to confine its efforts in religious education to the children and young people. There was a great field open for adult education. If the homes were *o do their_ full work parents required training. orKers’ Educational Association lecturer* were doing much for the instruction of the adult public, and there was scope for the Church to do similar service. SCOPE FOR YOUTH But the Church in a changing world must not only give more attention to the education of its youth and religious education generally, but also u must be prepared to give youth a greai deal more scope to exercise itseit ana even to lead in Church life and work. The wisdom of the old had been muen discredited in recent days. Through the blundering leadership• ol the old. youth was sacrificed by tn« million to the god of war. An ? “ todav youth was protesting, they migni not quite like the way in -which it Protested, but they could not blame it lor protesting. Let them give iheir young neoP 1 ; practice in makinc judgments am: familiarising themselves viith management much earlier than was th \. tom a few years ago. Boa ij t.,-, management and sessions na as members, whenever P° SS ' 0 "U eood. strong representation of rro 1 '. young people, who should be expecte io take full part in the Church s businCThe Church needed a constant supplv of new men and new. cnterprl and these must come from In the joung “the divine uua - creativeness most readily “Let taneously leaps to its tasks. , them take the risk of givinsrthat ity Us opportunity. Let them thro* out the challenge to their youth, in- - at times standing afar off, era cising and finding fault. FUi'em call them nearer, and say to tnenj“Come in and help us. and if > ou , , take over the task. Lead us ana will follow*/’