RELIGION IN SCHOOLS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 May 1938, Page 7

RELIGION IN SCHOOLS

ARCHBISHOP AVERILL’S PASTORAL OBJECTION TO PROPOSED CHANGE CHILDREN BEING DEPRIVED OF JUST RIGHTS (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, May 8. A pastoral from Archbishop Averill as Bishop of Auckland calling attention to the proposed abolition of daily voluntary religious exercises in schools was read in all Anglican churches of the diocese today. The pastoral, which was addressed to all parishioners, said: “I am constrained to seek your assistance in a matter which vitally affects the spiritual welfare of our children attending the State primary schools and consequently the spiritual welfare of our country. “It is definitely and officially stated that when the Education Amendment Bill comes before Parliament the promoter of the Bill will seek Parliamentary sanction for the abolition of the right of school committees to grant the use of schools for the observance of religious exercises before the actual and official opening of schools. At the present time such observances are being conducted in over 400 schools of the Dominion, of which 140 are in the Auckland province, with the permission of the various education boards, the consent of the school committees and the approval of the parents. “The system is ‘perfectly voluntary for both children and teachers and the school committees are quite within their rights in granting the use of the schools for such a purpose outside school hours, inasmuch as the Education Act, 1914, gives to school committees the right to grant as. it deems fit the use of school buildings for the purpose of moral and religious instruction outside school hours upon such terms as the committee may from time to time prescribe. “To abolish the right of school committees which they have enjoyed since 1877 to grant such permission and so bring to an end this public recognition of Almighty God in connection with our national system of education would be a most serious and retrograde step, offensive to the Christian conscience, and injurious to the moral and spiritual welfare of our country. The granting of statutory opportunity for giving religious instruction under the Nelson system is quite separate from the public recognition of Almighty God by means of a short service of prayer and praise in connection with the daily opening of school. No extension of the opportunities for giving religious instruction can be of any real value in the majority of our schools, and particularly in our country schools. “Can we as Christians perniit our children to be .deprived of their just rights as moral and spiritual beings without a real effort to retain for them the opportunities which they now enjoy, opportunities which we know to be increasingly appreciated by many teachers, parents and children? I would earnestly appeal to individuals and to congregations to place before the education committee of the House of Representatives an urgent request that the present rights of Christian parents and children in connection with our national system of education should be neither curtailed nor removed. In furtherance of the protest against the proposed action, a mass meeting of Christian people is to be held in the Town Hall.”