ANGLICAN CHURCH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1941, Page 2

ANGLICAN CHURCH

.» SYNOD SERVICE AT ST PAUL’S CHURCH LAST NIGHT. SERMON BY ARCHDEACON RICH.

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Clergymen and laymen who are in Wellington for the Wellington Diocesan Synod attended the Synod service in the Cathedral Church of St Paul last night. A procession of clergy into the church preceded the service, the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt Rev H. St Barbe Holland, who will preside over the Synod session, being present. The Ven Archdeacon ■ E. J. Rich, Vicar of Mastertonr, preached the sermon. Assisting in the service were the Rev E. O. Shield, actingvicar of Upper Hutt, and the Revs V. W. Joblin and H. Taepa, both of Masterton. Taking as his text I Corinthians XV, 21: “Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead,” Archdeacon Rich referred to the evil rampant in the world today. That evil was man-made, he said, and by man, filled as was St Paul with the Divine Spirit, it could and must be overthrown. “Not God, but man,” he added, “is responsible for the distress and evil of our day.' That evil is very great . The Bible never minimises the power of evil—how could it when evil crucified the Son of God? Evil, once I it has gripped a man or a nation, gives i'dreadful bestial power. “At .the moment, over vast tracts of the earth’s surface, the outlook is still dark, though rays of glorious light pierce the darkness, bringing life and confidence with them. The forces of evil have long been mobilised, ready; the forces of good have mot yet reached their full strength. There are still too many who, while they desire the overthrow of evil, will yet not realise the part man must play, and do not link up with God that His power may flow through them to save the world.” By war came death, continued the preacher. The truth had to be ham-

mered home in the face of complacency and foolish pride of race. Hitler had brought misery and death to many I lands. It had come first to his own land and the church in that land, where thousands had been slain and tortured. Then to Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and all the rest had come death through one man. Other lands had had their Quislings—men who had helped to bring desolation, dishonour and despair to their country, in the hope that in the ruin of the soul of their nation their vulture claws might clutch power for themselves out of its stricken body. By war had come death to those conquered lands. “But by war comes, too, the resurrection —Britain first, then America, those hardy Norwegians who a little while ago raided German-controlled works, the gallant Poles who share the perils and the glory of our Air Force, the Free French , and all the others in occupied lands who harass and hinder the enemy. These men are the heralds of freedom and of resurrection in the stricken lands—the builders of the new world which Wjll some day rise out of the ruins. For darkness can be dispersed and evil overcome only by the spirit and power of free men who have caught the spirit of Christ and who are upheld before God by the prayers of a united people. “War will be overcome, not by those who shirk the issue, but by the greathearted gallantry of men, and women, too, who on land and sea and in the air are ready to pass through the gate of death, ready to tread the path Christ trod, ready to suffer that for generations yet to come life may richer and fuller be.”