CHURCHES UNITE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 September 1941, Page 2

CHURCHES UNITE

OVER WRECKAGE OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. PROBLEMS FROM AVAR DAMAGE. Movements of Britain's population will be taken into account before decisions are finally made to build again the churches bombed by Nazi airmen. More than 3,000 of them have been either destroyed or badly damaged and the Government will pay compensation for each. Almost every Christian denomination in Britain has a member on the Christian Churches Main Committee now considering with the War Damage Commission the problem arising out; of the wreckage of their places of worship. Represented on it are the Church of England, the Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church of Scotland, Scotch Presbyterian Church, the Baptist and Methodist churches, the Presbyterian Church of England, the Congregationalists and the Church of Wales. “A common misfortune has drawn the churches together,” said Mr E. H. Johnson, secretary of the sub-commit-tee which deals with the question. “A church, like any ordinary building, cannot be rebuilt during the war; a licence is necessary even for essential repairs. “Therefore we are looking further ahead to the time when the vast task of rebuilding must be undertaken. We shall need much help in addition to Government compensation.”