DIVORCE LAW ATTACKED.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 September 1921, Page 6

DIVORCE LAW ATTACKED.

DR. AVERILL SPEAKS OUT. The need of religious influence in the Legislature of New Zealand was emphasised by the Anglican Bishop of Auckland. Dr. A. W. Averill, in a sermon at St. ’Matthew’s Church, Auckland, on Sunday. “I am quite certain of the fact that the Church must be prepared in the future to be more of a vocal witness than a silent one,” said the bishop. “The numerical strength of the Church of England is capable of being used to much more advantage in the cause of righteousness than it has been in the past. We are in danger of allowing the world's influence to be much more felt in our Legislature than that of the churches. “Surely if the voice of the men and women had been raised sufficiently loudly the Statute Book of the New Zealand Parliament would not have been disgraced with an amendment to the Marriage Law which now permits any man, whatever his mode of life and conduct, to bring an action for divorce against an innocent woman whom he has compelled to separate from him on account of hie viciousness, and to obtain a divorce after three years’ separation, and at the discretion of the Judge. The Church s conscience can never allow such a law to remain on the Statute Book. The Christian was never intended to be passive, but revolutionary, and when Christ is dethroned and the goddess of liberty and license set up in His place it is time Christian men and women realised they are a bodyguard of Christ, and must not, like the frightened apostles, forsake Him and flee when the enemy is at hand.”