THE CHURCH CONGRESS,

Temuka Leader, Issue 2409, 8 October 1892, Page 4

THE CHURCH CONGRESS,

London, Oct, 5,

A deputation consisting of Congregational Ministers waited on the Anglican Church Congress, sitting at Folkestone, and stated that the distinctions in the various communions were not impassable barriers to the union of the Churches. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in replying said he was yearning for unity, and he thought it would be accomplished at no distant date. The Rev. H. D. French read a paper at the Church Congress on the neglect of religious education in the colonies, speaking to which Bishop Moorhouse implied that the proportion of criminal convictions in Victoria was increasing owing to the want of religious education in the schools. Secular education, he contended, had proved totally powerless to diminish crime. The most serious crimes were committed by the best educated criminals. It was hopeless to expect children to attend before or after school hours, or abandon part of the Saturday holiday, in order to receive religious instruction. He was delighted to see that the Victorian Legislative Assembly had discovered their mistake, and had taken the first step towards religious education by passing a resolution to restore the name of our dear Lord to the reading books, whence it had been excluded by bastard liberalism. He prayed our rulers to turn their backs upon the desolating secular system which had left so many wrecks in its train.