IRRELIGION IN RUSSIA.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17972, 18 March 1930, Page 7

IRRELIGION IN RUSSIA.

INTERCESSORY SERVICES

REMARKABLE PROCEEDINGS. ENGLISH VICAR’S DECLARATION. United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel.—Copyright. LONDON, March 16. One of the most remarkable of the services of intercession held throughout Britain to-day against the religious persecution in Russia was that at the parish church of Thaxted, Essex. The vicar and the curate, both of whom are Socialists, drew up their own special prayers. These asked that the Russian churches and all other churches might recover the l’ulness of Apostolic faith, and a passion for social justice.

They sought God’s blessing for the Soviet’s efforts ‘‘to build up a Kingdom where the poor shall he raised up and exploiters kept low.” They prayed that Anglican bishops and clergy should ‘‘witness bravely the anti-social evils in their own land, and teach the people to see the Bolsheviks’ efforts with the eyes of Jesus instead of the eyes of millionaire owners of newspapers.” The vicar in his sermon said they should be careful not to bear false witness against the members of the Soviet and not to join in the promotion of hatred and malice. Some allegations at present were being made deliberately with the object of stirring up the people in order that they might light against Russia when the time came. MSjuVijsMZ.ZC s r f - ‘ * > - -i OUTEURSTS IN RUSSIA. VIOLENT COMMENTS. STALIN CLIMBS DOWNunited Pross Assn.—Elec. Tel.— Copyright MOSCOW, March 16. While intercession services were being held to-day throughout the world thousands of Russian supporters of the Soviet met in clubs, barracks and factories, and passed resolutions condemning the interference of foreign clerics in the Soviet’s domestic affairs.

The Society of the Godless at Moscow is making plans to launch a new campaign against , religious observance during Easter. However, religious circles are most relieved by Stalin’s “climbing down” manifesto forbidding all violence against the churches. LONDON, March 17.

The Moscow correspondent of the Daily News says violent comment on the services of intercession in Britain and elsewhere appears in the Moscow Worker, the most largely circulated newspaper in Moscow, The paper attacks the Archbishop of “Cantcrburyski” and “YOrkshi” and “the rest of these hypocrites in priests’ vestments.” It applies insulting epithets to the Pope, whom it accuses of inciting “blackguards of all nations against the Soviet.” Continuing, the Worker says: “If Mr God’s armies dare to cross our frontier we will giro them a warm reception. Snuffling, praying men try to prove that their prayers are not political, whereas they are acting as an advance guard for the capitalists, who arc seeking to smash the Soviet's five years' plan."

SERVICES IN NEW YORK

REDS’ COUNTER-MOVE. BISHOP MANNING'S ADDRESS. United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. —Copyright. NEW YORK, March IG. A large gathering of Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Jews assembled in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, to-day and prayed in protest against the Soviet’s religious persecution. At the same time, 12,060 Reds gathered in the Bronx Coliseum. This meeting was marked by a blatant and noisy derision of religion. Red speakers called upon their listeners to rally to the defence ot the Soviet against “Imperialists and their tools, ihe Pope, the Rabbis, and the Socialists.” Bishop Manning in his address to the great gathering in the cathedral, said that never perhaps in the history of the world had there been such an effort to blot out and destroy all religion from human life as the present one in Russia. At a mass meeting in the Town Tail Dir Hamilton Fish, a member of the House of Representatives, characterised the activities of the Soviet as “horrible folly and criminal madness.”

A CHANGED ATTITUDE. ABANDONMENT OF VIOLENCE. (Times Cable.) RIGA, March 16. The Russian Communist Party’s central committee has sent urgent telegrams to Its provincial committees telling them to abandon violence against peasants throughout the country because it is discrediting the Soviet. Also the provincial committees have been ordered to “slow down" the religious persecution of the peasants and only to close churches where it is the wish of the majority of the inhabitants that they should do so. This change of policy is owing to the dangerous temper created by the former method of general suppression.