“UNITY OF FAITH”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 June 1939, Page 6

“UNITY OF FAITH”

DUTY & RESPONSIBILITY OF NATIONS SERMON IN LITTLE CHURCH HEARD BY THEIR MAJESTIES & HOSTS. CONDITIONS OF INTERNATIONAL WELFARE. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 1.10 p.m.) HYDE PARK, June 11. Their Majesties and President and Mrs Roosevelt heard a sermon urging that their nations “must assume a large share of responsibility for saving the world from the ills threatening its wellbeing,” in the tiny, weather-beaten St James Anglican Church, which was crowded with parishioners anxious to see their ’Majesties—so crowded, in fact, that several hundreds were forced to stand on the lawn. The Royal party heard the Rt. Rev. Henry Tucker, presiding Bishop, declare: —“We are beginning to' realise that nations, no less than individuals, are dependent one upon another, so that the’ welfare of one is conditional upon that of all.” The political implications of the bishop’s statement on the last day of their Majesties’ visit to the United States served as a climax to a tour which has been described in some quarters as a friendly response to a friendly invitation, and in others as a gesture towards closer diplomatic relations between Britain and America. The bishop, who took as his text Ephesians, Chapter 4, verse 13: —“Till we come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge,” etc., said: “At the time of a great crisis, the elder Pitt is reported to have said: ‘I know I can save England and no one else can.’ As a result of what he accomplished, the nations represented here occupy a position of more than ordinary influence in world affairs.”