'Pursuit of merit'.

Dear editor,

Letters to the Journal on the subject of declining membership may sometimes be a little impatient yet offer intelligent opinions.

The Anglican Church of Canada cannot survive without the support of the younger generation and how to attract them can be stated quite simply.

As a broad statement, the young generation can be impressively mature, competent, wise, and gracious. This generation has no interest in the subject of sin, which like the Buddhists, they view as misjudgement. Like all young generations before them they are not inclined to be sinful, though they can be mischievous. They will challenge rules but will respect principles. In our disoriented world they can be impressed by simple virtues of honesty, leadership, and vision too frequently lacking in politics, schools, and even the family. Though they do not articulate it, they seem instinctively to understand that the route to happiness lies in purpose. The negative and dispiriting aim of avoidance of sin does not attract them; the pursuit of merit is appealing.

The pursuit of merit is a Buddhist principle that Christianity sorely needs and counters the persistent captiousness of the Old Testament.

W.J. Patton

Winnipeg