METHODIST CHURCH.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 51, 2 March 1909, Page 8

METHODIST CHURCH.

* I TO-DAY'S CONFERENCE. Tho Methodist Conference resumed proceedings to-day. The Rev. Ihos. Fee presided. The greater part of the morning was .'taken up by the discussion of the circumstances of the Burharn-street Mifsion of Christchurch. The committee< had recommended that the Lhmtchuroh Mission be incorporated with the Dur-ham-street Circuit on. condition that h probationer be appointed instead of a married minister. An amendment was pioposed that tho miisicn should continue as it is for another year with .i suitable grant. The question was the substitution of a probationer for a married minister. It was suggested that there vras likely to be a forward movement in Christchurch during the coming year, and that the mission should b* left as it is. The recommendation of the ccmimittee, that the mission fihould bb incorporated with Durhamsheet Circuit and that a probationer should be appointed, was carried. ■Probttfaoiiei*: were allotted to Otahuhu and Napier, and Home missionaries to Hamilton, I'laxbourne, Christchurch (St. Albans), and Greymouth. An additional Maori agent was also appointed to work the Waimarino district. A special committee was set up to con. sider the interests of the work at centres along the Main Trunk line, to make recommendd<tions regarding the came, and report to the conference. PASTORAL SESSION. At & pastoral r^ssion held last even ing in ■connection with the conference i it was decided that the Revc-. F Cope- ! land, A. C. Randerson, M.A., and R. Richa-rds, be received for ordination. Further resolutions were that the Revs. J. R. Clark, P. R. Paris, C. Roberts, who have, travelled three years, jjass in their year ; that Revs. vV. H. E. Abbty, W. W. Avery, C. Blair, H. A. i G. Keck. W. G. Maslin, W. B. Scott, I G. Swadden, who have travelled two years, pass in their year ;' that R«vs. E. Cox, O. B. Jordan, 8.A., J. F. Maitin, F. Rands, W. H. Spevv, R. B. Tinsley, J. B. Beeche, who have travelled one year, pass in. •their year ; it was decided that Messrs. A. F. Burchell, C. L. Clyde, N. Turner, M. J. E-vans, j R. Goswell, G. B. Hinton, W. Lea, A.' H. Soriven, and W. A. Wat«m, be ix> ceived as candidates for the ministry ; Messrs. Burchell and Turner to be given immediate employment in circuit work. Messrs. Goswell, Scriven, and Carr expressed their desire to enter the Foreign Mission Field. Mr. D. Wilcox was •received as a native minister on trial. Rev. A. J. Seamer was transferred from the Maori to the English work. The applications for superannuation of Revs. \V. C. Oliver, D. M. Nicoll, S. J. Garlick, and T. E. Thomas, M.A., recommended by their synods, were approved. The committee reported : — That in accordance with the views of his medical adviser, the committee does not l-ecommend tho Rev. A. Seamer's employment in the foreign mission work at his own request, but recommends his appointment to an English circuit, and takes this opportunity of recognising the earnestness and fidelity with which he has for four years discharged the duties of a minister to the natives and Europeans in the North. f "