“Are We Barbarians Again?” Asks Primate

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 32, 8 February 1937, Page 8

“Are We Barbarians Again?” Asks Primate

SINNERS ARMY BEING FORMED BY THE CHURCH Is England going back to barbarism again? Question is that of the Archbishop of Canterbury. “ we Christians to-day?" he asked in Leeds Parish. And while he was answering his own problem the Bishop of Derby was announcing the formation of a Sinners’ Army to reconvert this land to the Gospels. This evangelical band, a “News Team” the Bishop ' v Dr. A. E. J. Rawiinson) called it, will follow closely the methods of the Salvation Army. Soon throughout the Derby diocese theso repentant sinners will be bearing public witness of their faith. Incumbents, however, are to be left the option of having the team or not. This is a departure in the Anglican Communion, and, therefore, the “news teams” will have to be carefully trained. “In other countries very close to us the idol of the State is being enthroned to the exclusion of the Gospel,” declared the Primate. Then he asked: “Is England really Christian to-day?” “The intense speed of modern life, certain phases of the Press, the cinema —all these things are driving human souls into restlessness,” ho added. “The Christian faith nowadays is not so much denied as merely passed by—as something that no longer appeals in the high excitement ol modern life.”