CHURCH AND WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 October 1917, Page 3

CHURCH AND WAR.

BISHOP AVEBILL'S VIEW.

"A FAILURE SOMEWHERE."

Various matters connected with the Church and the war were touched upon by Bishop Averill in the charge delivered by him at the opening of the Auckland Anglican Synod.

"We know perfectly well," said Dr. Averill, " that such a war as the present one should have been an impossibility amongst nations with centuries of Christianity behind them. There is failure somewhere. Is it the failure of Christianity or the failure of the nation to act upon Christian prinqjples? It is a cowardly, foolish, and illogical position for men to lay the blame upon Almighty God. It is equally foolish and illogical to talk about the failure of Christianity when every sane thinker knows perfectly well that Christianity has not been tried in national and international concerns, and is repudiated by German writers as a basis of national and international policy." The present world catastrophe was a challenge to the Church as much as to the nations and to civilisation generally They were painfully conscious of the failure of Roman and Lutheran Churches to uphold the principles of Christianity. "And what about onrselveß?" be con-' tinued. "What about the influence Df .religion on our own national life? What about the testimony of the chaplains at the front to the spiritual knowledge and practice of the our own Church of England soldiers? Are we satisfied with ourselves? God forbid! There is ample room for searching of heart, for repentance, for renewal, for reconstruction, if we are to touch the life of our own Empire. If this war has revealed the Bankruptcy of our civilisation, it has also revealed the bankruptcy of merely nominal,. Christianity anil Churchroan*iiu>, and what is sometimes called diffused Christianity—a term sometimes used to cover our shame."

Dr. Averill went on to say:—"We are well aware that the National Church of England possesses many of the faults, as well as the virtues, of the British nation, but probably when we come to see things in their true perspective we shall realise and acknowledge that the Church of England has played no insignificant part in the splendid response of Britain's sons to this great day of crisis. We :feel, however, that much more might have been done, and should have been done and we are humble enough, I believe, to learn from the experience of the present." In discussing the causes of the Church's failure, the bishop expressed the opinion that it was due largely to the absence of the real missionary spirit. "We are too apt," he said, "to be satisfied with the settled congregation—sometimes literally called the faithful remnant—and never lift up our eyes to see the great multitude unshepherded, untaught, and uninfluenced. The needs of the present time, especially in the towns, were enumerated by the bishop, as follows:—(a) A simpler Sunday evening service, based upon Evensong, but with considerably more variation in the way'of extempore prayer, times of silence and simple, definite teaching; (b) » return to first principles in the matter of fellowship; (c) a much sounder, stronger, and courageous opinion on social questions and social vices; and (d) a more earnGst attempt to grapple with the question of the,religious education of the young."