Minister Replies To Allegations Made at Borough Meeting

Taranaki Daily News, 24 August 1942, Page 6

Minister Replies To Allegations Made at Borough Meeting

A statement was made before his sermon at Holy Trinity Church. Stratford, last evening, by the Rev. H. Hcaslip on remarks made by Stratford borough councillors after a deputation from the Stratford Ministers' Association over the campaign for Christian order. Mr. Heaslip said that. with the president of the association, the Rev. G. Peterson, who outlined the purpose of the campaign, he left fceling assured of the council's help, but was surprised to read the discussion reported in the Daily News. Replying to Cr. R. F. Harkness' assertion that he had not seen one of the ministers at the railway station when men were going away, and Cr. E. D. Evans' reference that the movement might be similar to the Protestant Political Association. Mr. Heaslip said he immediately intcrviewed and challenged the two councillors. "Mr. Evans said that he had been misreported," Mr. Heaslip dcelared. "I was glad to receive his rcply and I believe it. I considerec! it a slur on the leaders of this movement for him to have associated this campaign with the P.P.A., for this campaign is not concerned with any political or sectarian object whatever, but simply with Christian principles of truth and justice. The leaders of the churches are determined that the church's voice shall be heard. "Although Mr. Evans is reported to have said he was afraid the movement supported by the deputation might be a similar organisation to the P.P. A., he assured me that he did not intend this implication. I felt that, as the statement is in the Press, if uncorrected it would damage the campaign the churches are working for and would cast a stigma on myself and others who are associated with it. "Regarding Cr. Harkness' statement, I leave it for the people to judge for themselves," Mr. Heaslip continued. He said that every time, except once when he had answered an urgent parish call, he had been notified the men were going away he had been present at the station. "His other statement, widely read in the Press. that the churches have fallen down on the job. I relegate to the 6ame category as his former statement. "It appears that conscientious objection must have arisen in the council's discussion; nothing of this kind was suggested or implied by Mr. Peterson's remarks," said Mr. Heaslip, who added that he had endeavoured to enlist for the war in the early days of the outbreak and later, and "if I am not a soldier in uniform I am one in heart."