CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 230, 26 September 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES.

The Bishop of Llandaff has been telling a distressing story of the amount of clerical poverty existing in his diocese. Wo fewer than forty-one benefices are worth less than £100 a year, and some of these contain from 10,000 to 25,000 people. The areas of these collieryvalley parishes are so large that the Bishop declares it is no uncommon thing for a clergyman to be compelled to walk eighteen and twenty miles on Sundaj in discharging his duties. Such exertion has in several instances brought on paralysis of the spin<* and other diseases, and naturally enough t\e Bishop asks for help in aid of such noble and self-sacrificing work.

A very well known clergyman in the south-eastern district of London, whose experience among tllfe criminal classes of the metropolis is like Sam Weller's knowledge of London, "extensive ..and peculiar," boasts quite a remarkable collection of criminal, relics presented to him at various times by their former owners. The most imposing item in this strange collection is a complete outfit of burglar's instruments, given to him by a most notorious criminal, whose house-breaking operations were for many years source of considerable anxiety to Scotland Yard, and whose prison career represented a respectable span of life. During a mission in one of the purlieus of South London, this man, who "came to scoff,", but "remained to pray'" decided to renounce his previous method of life, and his sincerity has since been demonstrated by the fact that h° is to-day occupying a responsible position in a large city warehouse, where his industry and his integrity command the greatest respect. After his conversion he presented his burgling outfit "to the man whose preaching had influenced him,and it still remains °the most interesting item of 'his clergyman's queer museum.—From the "Sunday Strand."

The meetings held in connection with the Keswick Convention in July were remarkably well attended. A "circle of prayer" for world-wide revival, commenced last year, now includes tens of thousands, not only in Great Britain, but all over the world.

The Rev. Arthur J. Small, the chairman of the Methodist Mission Synod of Fiji, after a residence of nineteen years in Bau and Viwa, has, in accordance ■with the recommendation of the Methodist Mission Board and the decision of the New South Wales Conference, taken up his residence at Suva, the capital of the group.

Application was made at the last meeting of the Presbytery of Sydney, by the Rev. F. Stubbs, la-te of CTlristchurch, N.Z., for admission into the ministry of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, when it was decided to recommend to the General Assembly that the application be granted. The Anglican Bishop of Winchester, England, not only sent a letter of sympathy to the Roman Catholic priest at Farnham in connection with the late Pope's death, but also by his direction at St. Mary-at-Hill, Anglican Church, on the Sunday evening after the death, the "Dead March" from "Saul" was played. The news which we published la3t week respecting the creation of a new Roman Catholic diocese in New South Wales, on the recommendation of Cardinal Moran —the bishopric of the fu-t-irc Federal Capital, when that is decided on—appears to meet with CaLholic approval in this Sftate, and aa it may affect the boundaries of ronre than one existing diocese, it may (says the "Catholic Press") lead to a subdivision of the dioceses on a populous basis.

The Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane is to meet next month to elect a successor to the late Bishop Webber, bill according to the "Church Common wealth," an informal meeting was recently held, at which it was decided to nominate the Rev. Bernard Robert Wilson, M.A., of Vortsea, England. In the event of the failure of this nomination, it was determined to place the names of Right Rev. Dr. Dawcs, the present Bisliop of Rockhampton, and-of Archdeacon David, the Vicar-General of the Brisbane diocese, an second and third on the nomination paper.

Much interest attaches to a new organisation which has been formed in English Church circles, and promisee to do great good in South Africa. Some time ago the representative bishops of tli* Anglican community there cent invitations 4,0 the leading clergy at Home to take part in a conference, for the purpose of seeing what could be done to supply church workers in the new districts of South Africa. The area is immense and the demands ever increasing. Six clergy went out as pioneers, a short time ago, and since their report <to the Organising Committee it has been decided to commission fifty or more prominent organisers and mission workers, all of whom are in holy orders, to proceed nbroacl. Of fbi» number seven are English and Scotch bishops. The names of those selected for the work include the Bishops of Stepney, Ripon, Chichester, Burnley. The main body of mission priests will not leave England until early next year, but this month the Bishop of 'St. Andrews and Provost Campbell, Perth, follow Canon Scott Holland, who' has sailed. Canon Scott Holland is to act as the pioneer of the party, and will make the arrangement necessary to ensxire the success of the mission, which will practically extend from Capetown to Rhodesia.