The only hope of survival for the Christian Witness in the world today is for churches to come together and keep together said the Secretary of the International Congregational Church (Dr Sidney M. Berry, M.A.) at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, last night.
The meeting, which was chaired by the Bishop of Goulburn (Dr Burgmann), was attended by ministers, their wives and members of Protestant churches in Canberra.
Dr. Berry, who for 25 years was executive officer of the Congregational Union of England and Wales said his present task was to knit the scattered sections of his church into closer fellow-ship.
He added that in many countries the situation is closing gradually and remorsely in on the Christian Church.
"One of my main impressions of Australia will be the closeness of relationships which exists between different branches of the Church here. In this land, you have achieved much closer co-operation and relationship than perhaps has been possible in older countries like Britain," he declared.
Dr Berry said that the United Church of Canada had made very great progress and was an illustration of what Christian unity might mean. The church originally comprised Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists who united to cover vast areas in the Western provinces previously untouched, by Christian influence.
He added the united churches in Japan and China had grown into great organisations, and despite the controversy about the establishment of a united church in South India, development in the two years of its existence far exceeded expectations. Its achievements manifest the providence and blessing of God in this brave adventure," he declared.
Dr Berry continued that contributions of Congregationalists to humanity were out of all proportion with their numerical strengthen. It had produced great writers, theologians, musicians, poets and missionaries. Congregationalists who were driven out of England in the early centuries, and later were forced to leave Holland, boarded a "cockle-shell of a boat" and founded a great nation which came to Britain's aid in the last struggle.
"I am reminding you of something of the great traditions represent that must be built in the structure of the Church Universal," he declared. Stating that persecution stalking throughout the world, Dr Berry drew on personal experiences of leaders of his church in Finland, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. Churches in darkened lands must stand together and see that the walls that separate them are cast down.
"The perplexing fact is that in free countries there is a great inert volume of careless indifference about the Christian Church and everything it stands for," he said. "The great issue of today is not just between rival ideologies but is the struggle between the materialistic and spiritual interpretation of life.
"As long as men take a purely materialistic view they will not find freedom for materialism and serfdom go hand in hand. The only thing to set against it is the power of Christianity."
The vote of thanks to Dr. Berry was moved by the Rev. Hector Harrison.
