WAIKATO SYNOD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22774, 7 July 1937, Page 16

WAIKATO SYNOD

STIPEND ANOMALIES BISHOP SUGGESTS POOLING HEAVY TRAVELLING EXPENSES [by telegraph—own correspondent] NEW PLYMOUTH, Tuesday . The Bishop of Waikato, the Right Rev. C. A. Cherrington, said to-day at the opening of the Diocesan Synod that many clergymen were underpaid and that their travelling expenses were too great. He hoped that the day would come when all stipends might be pooled and all clergymen would be paid according to age, experience, sizo of families, and so on.

Standing Committee had done its host, said the bishop, to carry out the duty imposed upon it at the last session of Synod of paying a living wage to those of the clergy who had not been receiving it. The standard aimed at was £2OO for every parish where a clergyman was in sole charge. It would be a long time before these parishes reached the statutory figure of £3OO and a house, but it was hoped that some of them were feeling their way toward that.

There was no reason why the bishop's stipend should differ from tho vicar's or tho curate's for that matter, if he was a single man, the bishop continued. Perhaps some financial genius of the synod could work this out and make suggestions how it could be done. Perhaps the diocese might lead the way in reforming the matter and bringing it about that stipend anomalies should cease. Expenses incurred for doing a clergyman's work ought to be a thing apart from his salary, and that brought the speaker to another most difficult matter, travelling expenses. If they did what they could afford, most of the clergy would be confining themselves to the humble bicycle, while the bishop should certainly aspire no higher than a motor-cycle.

SYSTEM OF WORSHIP "SOMETHING UNDESIRABLE" BISHOP'S OBSERVATIONS [by TELECRAPH OWN correspondent] NEW PLYMOUTH. Tuesday '

"Has it ever struck us that there may be something undesirable in the internal arrangement of our churches?" asked Bishop Cherrington in his charge to the Waikato Diocesan Synod to-day. "Is there any good reason for the separation of clergy, choir and congregation? Is there any reason for us to sit or kneel or stand with our backs to one another?

"Wo go to our own church and sit in our own pews," he added. "A\e say our own prayers and pay our respects to our own God, and then we come out again and go to our own homes to cat our own dinners or our own suppers. We do not concern ourselves with the people in the next pew unless they sing out of tune, when we brace ourselves for the extreme measure of turning round to look at them. "Are we not in danger of being too cold and set in our uiorship? It has been a charge often brought against us in comparison with our Christian brethren outside the Church and may not the arrangement of our churches have something to do with it? Sanctuary, chancel, nave may have certain mystic meanings and associations, but convention can strangle truth . . . . And should the ministerial priesthood be so distinguished from the priesthood of the laitv? Is there really anything to be gained by the officiating minister turning his back upon the brethren ? Should not he rather ministor among them? Why this separation?"

SUNDAY OBSERVANCE

"A VOLUNTARY MATTER" GRADUAL DEGENERATION [»y TKI.KGKAI'H —I'KKSS ASSOCIATION'] NEW PLYMOUTH, Tuesday On every side complaints were heard about the secularisation of Sunday, said Bishop Cherrington at the Diocesan Synod to-day. Was the Church sure that in this the common sense of the people was not asserting itself in this direction? They were realising that they were not Jews. As far as he knew, there was not a shred of evidence that the Sabbath Day was ever ordained by God. For centuries the observance of the Lord's Day was a voluntary matter entirely and grew up gradually to be an "ecclesiastical ordinance." There was a time when many Christian people felt that in some way or other the regulation of the old Jewish Sabbath imposed duties 011 the Lord's Day, said the bishop, but both common sense and biblical study had removed that obsession. It might be that the New Zealand Government was teaching the true use of Saturday, Hor the present 40-hour week stopped many people from working 011 Saturday, and that wan exactly how the Jews were taught to use that day. All would agree that, the observance of Anzac Day had been very beneficial in this country. Could anyone imaginethat it would be fitting when, after either a "lic-in" in the morning or the day's work or play should be over that the day should be observed when there was nothing else to do by a gathering in the evening for its celebration 'r The observance of the Christian commemoration of the Resurrection had largely degenerated into an evening gathering of this sort, said the bishop. Was that right? It was entirely a modern custom and had becoino possible by the use of artificial light.

CHURCH FINANCE PROPOSAL ASSISTANCE OX FAMILY BASIS [by telegraph—oivx correspondent]] NEW PLYMOUTH. Tuesday Proposals for the more efficient conduct of Church finances were made by the Bishop of Waikato in his charge to the Diocesan Synod. The bishop suggested that an effort should be made to discover the number of church families in each pnrisli, each member of the vestry to make, himself responsible for obtaining finance from a certain number of families. Parishioners should then be asked to provide a certain sum to balance the budget. Ho considered if church finance were placed on that basis the residts would be amazing. The diocese was again asking for £'< 100 for home missions :*nd £GOO for Maori missions, said Bishop Cherrington. He intended consulting the elergv, with a view to making the missions a more real part of the diocese's work than before. The diocesan quota was not reached this year and that accounted for the deficit in the accounts. The bishop said the dioceso could not do with less than £(500, in spite of the fact that the Maoris themselves had made the magnificent contribution of £lls for the year.