church NEWS AND NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 203, 27 August 1910, Page 14

church NEWS AND NOTES.

A proposal to make some changes in the secretariat of the Wesleyan Foreign Missionary Society is under consideration Iby the authorities. The Rev. W. H. ■Findlay is retiring, and the committee: recommends that the new a-ppoiiitment ibe only for one year, instead of six, in order that constitutional changes may be further considered and a scheme outlined. Tlie committee is asking for the appointment of Rev. C. W. Andrews, B. A., 8.D., as successor -to Mr. Findlay. The Gordon College in Khartoum has chiefly a Mohammedan .influence. Thu3 states Dr. J. K. Griffin, an American Presbyterian, with a wide experience in the Soudan. He says .that ' four years are given for the study of the Koran, and special places are set apart for prayers according to it, but there is no place eet apart for the reading of the Bible and teaching tbe GospeL A Methodist minister (the Rev. George Waters), who h-as laboured long in the cause of the Indians in British Columbia, has been chosen chief of the Yakima | tribe on the reservation south-west of Spokane; Washington. "That is doing the hat trick,** remarked •the Bishop of Winchester, when; after en urgent appeal for funds to wipe off the debt of £30 on the building fund of the Wardens' Home in connection with the Basingstoke Diocesan Home Rescue work, Qic "planked down his shovel 'hat and put in a £5 note. In a very short space of time after the hat had been passed round the sum of £52 16/ was received in cash and promises. The new president of the Primitive Methodist Church in England (Rev. S. j S. iicusliaw) is a Yorkshireinan, being a native of Sheffield. | King George has become a patron of' the _iiui-.li of England Temperance So-: cioiy. lie has also renewed, the permission given by his father that in the .Navy the Boyal health'may be drunk in water or any nou-alcohulic beverage. . I Speaking at a meeting in St. Andrew's ! Hall, Glasgow, Mr. W. J. Bryan stated : that ait college he had a period of I ticism, but he took.his stand, on the first . chapter of Genesis as the. .true etory -of | creation. He would ___Uie _i_ __. e f j_ i the divinity of : Christ on _.°-__, a ljeen "'accomplished..'in" Bis "_u__e- ''In. __._j, Inat 1000 year*. ■' _____

Archbishop Redwood leaves next month to attend the Eucharist Conference in Montreal, Canada. Methodists all over the world are scrry to learn of the retirement of Lord Wolverhampton from his position as president of the Local Government Council. He has not only served the State with credit and success in different offices for many years, but he has through all his life 'been a loyal and devoted member of the Methodist Church, and has taken an active and prominent part in all its enterprises for more than fifty years. Advanced age has compelled Lord Wolverhampton's retirement from public life, and many will pray that he raaj enjoy for years the rest he has so well earned. Since the days of the Puritan Fathers there has been in the possession of the Pilgrim Congregational Church, .New Kent-road, London, some valuable old communion plate. This had ibeen placed with Messrs. Christie for sale, as money was required to pay off a mortgage. It was proposed to dispose of the plate, but at the eleventh hour the money was received iby private subscription. The plate now occupies a shelf at the church, where it has lain for 300 years, but its exact wherabouts _s known only to a few, i the congregation 'being kept in ignorance of it. Some of the missioners who are coming from England in connection with the Anglican mission are well known to some of the Auckland residents. Canon E. A. Stuart, of Canterbury, is the personal friend of more than one Auckland citizen, and a lady and gentleman of Onehunga were married by him some years ago. The Rev. Charles Trevor Horan, who is the missioner of St. Peter's, Onehunga, was well known in England to one lady, who says that whenever it was known he was going to preach in her then parish church, it was always crowded; and the last time she visited England she walked four miles to church to see and hear him once more. Canon Tupper-Carey's family were well known to one old Auckland resident many years ago, and he is looking forward with much pleasure to seeing the popular canon in this country, King George V. is the first English monarch who has received a personal delegation from the Wesleyan Church in presenting its usual address of welcome to the Throne. The representatives were the president of the Conference (Bey. the ex-presi-dent (Dr. Scott Lidgett, M.A.), 'Rev. E. Salt, Sir Percy Bunting, Sir B, W. Perks, Bart., and Sir George Hayter Chubb, Bart. At its last meeting, the Methodist Church Building and Loan Fund Committee approved proposals for the enlargement of the Greytown Sunday School, addition to the church vestry at Kaeo, improvement and extension at Greenmeadows, Napier, and a new church class-room in brick at Opawa, A North Queensland Pastoralist, who recently sold out, presented the Bishop of that diocese with £800 towards the Bush Brotherhood, and £450 for the erection of a new church at Prairie. To meet the increasing needs oi the work, the Methodists of Palmerston North are about to build a new church. They have secured a . most desirable site, and it is proposed to put the present Broad-street church on the back of the section for use as a schoolroom, and to build a new church in brick on front of the allotment. The new building will provide accommodation for 450 worshippers, besides suitable vestries, and the estimated cost if £2,500. The project has been warmly approved .by the people. The Rev. W. Gray Dixon, formerly pastor at St. David's Church, Khyber Pass-road, was inducted to the charge of the church at Rcslyn oh August 15th. A combined bazaar in aid of the funds of the Home Mission in connection with the Congregational Churches of the Auckland district is to be opened in Edinburgh-street Sunday School on Wednesday, the Slat inst. In addition to the articles for sale cm the stalls, there will also be various side show., competitions and musical items each evening. Dh. Frodsham, the Bishop of North Queensland, in his address to the Synod on June 27 of this year, uses the following weighty words under the heading, "Th. Discipline of the Church": — "An early Father is reported to have warned his flock that . bad Christians were worse enemies to tbe Church than Pagan persecutors, and that bad priests __re the worst evil of all. Who- can doubt it? But so long as the Church is in the world, there will be false prophets and false teachers—'And many shall follow their lascivious doing, by whom the way of truth shall be evilspoken of.' We must neither be disconcerted nor discouraged, therefore, by the humiliating spectacle of moral failures in the Church. The question is, how much we deal with them in such a fashion as to vindicate the moral ideals of the Church, and not be forgetful of the reclamation of the wrongdoer. It is to mc an intensely personal question, foT how dare I forget the charge laid upon mc on my consecration as Bishop? • —'Be so merciful, that you be not too remiss; so minister discipline that you forget not mercy.' The truth is, the individual, on the one hand, and tho society, on the other, are two claimants, whose distinct, but not properly opposed, interests must be recognised and served, or the quality of discipline degenerates, and its very raison d'etre is endangered. Both interests were considered in the Apostolic Church. The j salvation of the individual offender is the plea advanced by St. Paul when he insisted on extreme measures being ! taken in the case of the incestuous Corinthian; and in the same connection, ! the Apostle advances the necessity for guarding the moral interest of the Spiritual society. Discipline was exercised that the offender might 'be saved,' and because a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.' The Tribunal Canon is a necessary step in the ■way of obtaining more just and effecj tive discipline. Although it may first be used -upon an offending priest, yet it can be used against any Church officer, ! male or female, who is -proved forgetful of the high calling of Christ Jesus. It I does not aim at closing the door on the | repentant sinner. Even in the most exJ treme case dealt with the Canon does 1 not contemplate the excommunication ,of the offender. That is another matter of discipline, which, by ancient custom, lis entrusted to the Bishop. Tlie Tribunal Canon is concerned with tho safeguarding of the interests of the Divine Society. And I would urge you always to bear in mind the essential difference between restoring the penitent sinner 1 to full communion with us, and restoring him to an office of Which he has proved I himself unworthy. The former is always possible by t _> Grace of God; the ' latter may never be possible—for there . I are certain sins which, once committed, 11 forever unfit a man for ministering in ..lithe great congregation, or for bearin" ..the vessels of the Sanctuary." ■>......'■