The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-10-08
BISHOP LAWRENGE'S
Opposed to Definite Teachinu Of Christian Faith in Public Schools.

New York, Oct. 8.-Religious educa- ton was the principal theme of the sermon preached today by Rt. Rev William Lawrence, Bishop of Massa- chusetts, at the opening of the Gen. eral Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Religious instruc- ton, he said, should not be confined to- any one agency or system, but should pervade every avenue of life His text was from First John, VA: This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith
 At the outset Bishop Lawrence said he wished to strike the note struck by the General Convention in 1880s which sent forth to the Church a m eesage containing this dominant paragraph:
 we should endeavor to throw our selves into the actual breathing world around us, and speak to the living present rather than to the dead past. We should seek to know the needs of our country, the tendencies, dangers, exigencies of our times, to what God calls us in His Providence, what traces of His guidance and direction we can discern in past history, and whither He points us now"
 The Bishop pointed out the advan- tages offered by the independence of the Church in the United States, and by the fact that laymen sit in its -coun- -ci1s.
 .sReligion," he continued, ifs at the foundation of education, first, last and always; 1t gives vitality, depth and harmony to the whole character. So far as the teachers and the scholars in our schools are religious and come from religious homes there will be an atmosphere of religion in the school room. With, however, the variety of races, faiths and no faiths represent. ed in the children of our public. schools, we may put the thought of definite teaching Of the Christian faith in the schools out of our minds It cannot be done and it ought not to be attempted
 The suggestion that the different de- nominations send religious teachers to the schools and at certain hours under a voluntary system give children, sep arated according to sects, their relig- ious education, was set aside as unable to meet the situation. While he ex- pressed high respect for the Pagochial School system of the Catholic Church, Bishow Lawrence declared his opinion that it's worth was limited.
 : Why should we cling to the fetish that religion must be taught under the same roof or in the same room with geography and arfthmet1c7" he asked.
 t~The Church of this day and coun- try recognizing the conditions of the day and country must marshal to her
  parents and the home, the press and literature, the playground, an hour of a week for Sunday, various forms of schools, correspondence, public wor- ship, the pastoral work, the parish, the diocese, the department, every thing, and in a, large and statesman like way plan for and press through not one system but many systems of religious education. yes, and spiritual culture without apparent system that will reach and upbuild all sorts and conditions of children in Christian faith | and character
 Two great avenues for Christian work, Bishop Lawrence pointed out, were the colleges and universities and the Navy He declared that Although since 1858 the number of officers and men in the Navy has increased from 10000 to 5oO00. the number Of naval chaplains has remained the same-24-
 Given & people thus educated," he