PROBLEM OF CHURCH GOING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3230, 29 May 1911, Page 7

PROBLEM OF CHURCH GOING.

“NO MORE, CHURCHES AY ANTED.” An interesting sidelight, on the problem of Church-going,' is given by the “Chronicle’s” Berlin correspondent. “Church authorities in Berlin,” he says, “are in consternation at .what they regard as the deplorable sliirinkage in the Sunday collections throughout Berlin and the province of Brandenburg 'generally. Congregations remain unresponsive and callous to the most fervid appeals for missionary work, and other branches of home work such as church extension are treated with tlie same indifference. _ It often happens that even in the richest and most, .fashionable districts special offertories doi not exceed £5, and not a few iconigregatfions are content to contribute as many shillings. “In view of these facts a large section of the population of Berlin are protesting against the building of new churches when those already existing are not half full, and when so many citizens show, by their absence and lack of participation, how indifferent they are to the claims of the national church on their attention “Similar complaints are heard with regard to the rapid decrease in the number of 'confirmations, _ and to the striking increase in secessions. Churchmen here attribute the decay of church life to the spread of liberal theology, and to the frequent remoteness of pulpit teaching from the actualities of life.”