Tárogató, 1945-1946 (8. évfolyam, 1-7. szám)
1945-12-01 / 6. szám
TÁROGATÓ 13 THE CHURCH AND THE PLOUGH The Church’s interest in agricultural reconstruction in Britain has received further expression in the celebration of Plough Sunday (January 14th) in Chichester Cathedral and in Sussex generally. The Bishop of Chichester, with other Christian leaders (including members of the Roman Catholic and Free Churches), have formed “The West Sussex Church and Countryside Association.” Among the recent activities of this new body was a special Service in Chichester Cathedral, held on Sunday last. A plough was brought into the Church, and a Service expressing dependence upon God, gratitude for God’s gifts and the desire for God’s Blessing on the work of the countryside was held in the Cathedral. In a leaflet for the occasion, entitled “The Ploug,” Anglican, Roman Catholic and Free Church leaders write of the significance of Plough Monday and of the spirit which lies behind the revived religious celebration. In the leaflet the Bishop of Chichester writes: “The Church and Countryside Association has been formed to link the Church and the land closer together. The links are old, but they have grown a little rusty of late years. This rusting has been a disaster to both. We have got to rediscover those links and make them bright, not as an exercise in archaeology, but because a renewal of the vital contacts between agriculture and religion is a prime necessity of national revival. “In the war, agriculture has come into its own, after a long and grievous neglect. To allow it to decline or decay when the needs of war are over would be a crime. I emphasize ‘has come into its own,’ because the land has its rights, and the nation owes it to the Creator to take all the steps necessary to help agriculture to flourish. A flourishing agriculture means not only a developing industry but a flourishing country life and country men and women happy in their toil happy in their leisure, happy in their homes and free from anxiety. To secure this, the nation as a whole must be awake to the basic importance of the land; the countryman must sow and reap, dig and plough, in fellowship with God: and the Church and the agricultural worker must join together.” —Spiritual Issues of the War. THE BELLS MUST RING During the Middle Ages, throughout Western Europe, the church bells pealed incessantly. While a man exchanged greetings with his friends, the church reminded him of Go’d external watchfulness. When people sat down at the table they thanked God who had provided the good food and the wine. When they took to their beds at night the bells reminded them to ask for God’s mercy and blessing. Even business kept in tune with God. In some cities the Exchange never opened until the high financiers and the boys of the curb alike had finished their devotions. The printing presses stood silent while foremen, proofreaders and youthful assistans attended divine service at the call of the bells. The civil authorities needed bells, too, as alarm signals. They hung them in the belfries, high up, so that when enemies approached the city the alarm would ring out over the whole town. Besides the bells, there were chimes. Many places had both a belfry and a carillon. Others installed the bells and chimes in the church spire. Most of the church bells and chimes of the Middle Ages still exist in Belgium northern France and Holland. In summer time, bell concerts are organized in the larger places. Young people sit out in the parks or on the café terraces holding hands and listening to the tunes that drip from the cloudy sky. During the period of occupation which ended when the Allied Armies liberated the Low Countries, the Germans decided they needed the church bells for war purposes. The metal would go to feed the great German war machine that was crushing its way over Europe. “No”, shouted the people in answer to German demands. “The bells must ring. They are peaceloving bells. They rang for our fathers, and for our great-great-grandfathers, and they must ring for us. Our bells do not go to war.” The Nazis soon saw there would be trouble, and plenty of it. “All right,” they said, “don’t get alarmed. We shall not take any of vour important bells.” OUR ENGLISH SECTION.
