CHRISTIAN ORDER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 February 1943, Page 3

CHRISTIAN ORDER

A VAST TASK. LIES IN FRONT OF CHURCH. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) PALMERSTON N., February 23. Speaking in Palmerston North at a conference of the Anglican clergy in the campaign for Christian Order, the Rt. Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland, Bishop of Wellington, stated that after this was a vast task of mending lies in front of the Church. Emphasising the Church’s opportunity, he declared: “The Church of Christ, if it has thought its way through and has the right word to utter, will be in possession of an opportunity such as history has rarely afforded it. We can be immensely cheered by the innumerable proofs that come to us today from occupied Europe of undying faith. Chief of them, of course, is the magnificent saga of Norway. Today Quisling's bishops are resigning because they find themselves alone and isolated in their dioceses. The Church’s stand for religious freedom has led 10,000 members of the small Norwegian Nazi Party to desert the party. “In Germany both the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches contain a faithful remnant which holds to the Gospel and to the reality of the Church. There is increasing anxiety among the Nazi leaders about the part played by Christian leaders in British thinking. We may well press on with our work as we realise that Chrust is more and more becoming Enemy No. 1 to the evil forces of the world. Away with fear and doubts, with lethargy and listlessness. Take up the whole armour of God and we can, because we must, go forward, for as Mr Winant, the American Ambassador, said in inspired words a few weeks ago, ‘We stand as never before at the crossroads of our civilisation, on a brave front with the greatest future of all time before us and the gravest responsibility with us.”