CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 58, 8 March 1913, Page 14

CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES.

It is most probable that Archdeacon Hawkins will take charge of the work at St. Mary's Cathedral for the ensuing month, as the Rev. Canon Mac Murray is still not sufficiently recovered to undertake his duties.

Six mission schools are maintained by the Presbyterians of Canada, among the Hindu coolies on the Trinidad cocoa plantations.

The Salvation Army Supply Stores, in England, which deals in uniforms, books, music, furnishing, etc., .will, in future, divide its profits each year up to £5,000, amongst customers who purchase to the amount of £2. After charging 5 per cent, interest on the capital employed, goods are -to be sold a.t_ net prices.

The "Tablet" gives the Catholic population of the British Empire to be a little under thirteen millions. British Europe comes first with 5,800,000, -Canada 2,824,000, Australasia 1,184,000, and Africa 499,150.

TheTe are 5,025 Congregational churches, branch churches, and mission stations in- Great Britain, which provide sitting accommodation for 1,824,381. The roll of church membership .totals 490,722, and there are 692,676 scholars an the Sunday schools, with 71,530 teachers. The church membership shows a decrease of 2,221-

The itTesbyterian Church of Now South Wales is in the proud position of having ibeen able to pay every minister in the Church, who has been a full year in his charge, a stipend for 1912 of not less than £200; in fact, there are few ministers in the Church who are now on as low ,a salary as £200 (says-the "Sydney Morning Herald"). Following their custom, the Church authorities last year made -a-special appeal to congregations, to raise their ministers' salary. There was a splendid response, and a general raising of the ministers' salaries itook place. Many who were on the £250 grade got- £300, others at £300 received ,£350, and those at £400 were paid '£450, and so on. In view of the increased cost of living, this has proved .welcome news to the ministerial brethren.

An enthusiastic young minister who followed one of the old type in a sleepy country village was thumping the rostrum a good deal, and disturbed a spider which had found a peaceful refuge an one of the crannies for many a day. Wandering up the aisle homeless, it was mot by another spider, and thetale of woe was imparted. "I can't stand this new minister thumping and jumping about. I have lived in the pulpit for many years, but can't stay there any longer." Said the second spider, actuated by a fine spirit of charity: "Come along with mc, then. I haven't been disturbed for fifty years. My heme's,in the poor box at the door." .

Abbas Effendi, Abdul Baha, the leader of the Bahai "movement, drew a verylarge congregation to the Kingsway House Church, London, on a recent Sunday night. The Rev. E. W.> Lewis preceded the address with a brief introductory sketch of the Bahai movement, which,;; he said, arose out of Mohammedanism seventy years ago, very much as Christianity arose out of Judaism. It was not a new religion so much as a religious movement 'uniting all religions. Abdul Baha, wearing his. oriental robe and turban, and accompanied by his interpreter, then came forward and delivered half an hour's address in front of the communion table. The address, like that given at the London City Temple in 1911, was largely a plea for peace among nations and among men. "I praise God," he began, "that a number of reverent souls are gathered in this congregation to serve the Almighty Their hearts are cemented together Their faces are joyous with the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God. The signs of love are manifest in their countenances.' He wept, he said, for the actual _?*_£ 5" reU Si ons oi the world and the extent to which they had *-*« _ort of the ideal.

The Rev. William Temple, headmaster of Repton, who has been selected to succeed Canon Hensley Henson at St. Margaret's, Westminster, is the son of the ■late Archbishop Temple, and an ardent enthusiast for social Christianity, a leader in the Student Movement, and the prime mover in the Collegium, a fraternity of young Churchmen.

The Rev. Benjamin Smith, of Stockport, .England, has 64 years' ministry in the Wesleyan Church to his credit. There are four retired ministers of a standing of (i.3 years, namely, Henry Cuttle, John Jeffreys, John Reacher, and William Watson.

The committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society has sanctioned the printing of 70,000 additional New Testaments and Gospels in Bulgarian, Servian and Croatian. The society has already given away about 100,000 Testaments or Gospels among the armies of the Balkan States and their Turkish antagonists. These have been mainly in Bulgarian, Servian, Greek, and Turkish, and distribution has been organised so as to cover all the chief regions within the area of conflict. Military chaplains and officials of the various Red Cross Societies have distributed thousands of these Testaments and Gospels, explaining that they were the gifts of the Bible Society.

Amongst the numbers who wrote to Ring George thanking him for his announcement that he had never neglected the promise to his mother to read a chapter in the Bible every day weTe some from Labour members of the House of Commons, Peers, Bishops and Free Church ministers.

Thirty-nine missionary churches, schools, and hospitals in Siam have received Government grants, ranging from 20 to 200 dollars, as memorial gifts in honour of the laic King. In connection with a gathering of Baptists to be held in Burma, a Karen layman has donated the rice to feed 2,800 delegates and visitors.

Canon Bell, Dean of Guernsey, and hon. Canon of Winchester, who celebrated his 92nd year on December 2, is the G.O.M. of the Anglican Church. On Sundays he preaches a sermon in French at 10.30. At 2.30 he attends one of his numerous Sunday schools, and presides at the complete evening service in English without any clerical assistance whatever. He shows no sign of having aged, and is in Ins garden at 7.30 each morning. He breeds largely the well-known Guernsey cow, and his heifers are magnificent creatures. The dean attends the decanal office regularly, and does not employ a secretary, preferring to answer all correspondence personally.

The well-known Baptist loader, Dr. Clifford, referring recently to the war in the Balkans, said the allies were people who had faced the situation, being propared to fight for civil liberty." The venerable doctor referred to the Turk as that archmaster of procrastination and thief of the rights of others. His four demands are: (1) Complete freedom from Turkish sway for the Balkan States; (2) self-government for each of the States; (3) liberty for commerce; (4) co-opera-tion for peace.

A hospital has been built at Quetta, by a Hindu banker and handed over to Dr. Holland, of the Church Missionary Society.

Commissioner Lamb, of the "War Cry," while optimistic about the prospects of immigrants to Canada, sounds a note of warning to unwary investors regarding "inflated land valnes in alleged town sites." This is reminiscent of liartin Qhuzzlewit's visit to the township of Eden. r

At present there are fifteen missionaries working under the auspices of the New Zealand Church Mission Association. Two are in Melanesia, five amongst the Maoris, and the rest are in more remote fields.

Mr. Albert K. Smiley, the sage and philanthropist of Mohonk, who died, aged 84, at Redlands, California, was an ardent worker for international peace and for fair treatment of subject peoples. He and his -brother founded the Lake Mohonk Hotel, in the Cats-kills of New York State, and year by year invited a company of eminent men (English as well as American) to meet and discuss peace and such questions. Mr. Smiley was a Quaker, and at his magnificent hotel at Lake Mohonk he enforced rigidly Puritan laws. No motor car was allowed on the estate. No alcoholic liquor was permitted to enter the hotel. Morning prayers and Bible readings were held every morning. As a summer resort— a sort of rest cure —'Lake Mohonk had a great reputation, and tourists flocked there in great numbers.

The Methodist Church is now stated to be the largest Protestant Church of the English race.

A Wealthy Chinese of Pekin, named Mr. Su-yang, has presented 5000 dollars to the building fund of the V.M.C.A. in Tien-tsin.

William Lyman Phelps, Professor of English in Yale University, recently said, "The tremendous strength of the Roman Catholic Church lies in its (fidelity to principle, in its religious vitality, and its hatred of compromise."

The action of the Vatican in condemning by name five of the most widelycirculated Roman Catholic daily newspapers in Italy 'because of their indifferent attitude towards the question of the Pope's civil sovereignty, has called forth a striking reply from the board of directors representing the Catholic Newspaper Trust. The board consist almost exclusively of Catholic noblemen, who, while regretting that their patriotic conduct as Italians during the war should have brought them into conflict with the Holy See, and while renewing their filial loyalty to the Pope on religious matters, reaffirm their profound conviction that the interests of the Papal Church in Italy can be ed without violating the actual unity and integrity of the kingdom of Italy. Contrary to the Pontifical veto, they claim the same political autonomy for Italian Catholics as is enjoyed by Roman Catholic citizens in other countries.— Milan correspondent of the "Daily Chronicle."