BISHOP WANTS CONTROL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 127, 29 May 1914, Page 6

BISHOP WANTS CONTROL.

OF ABTGLICAJN CHAFLAINS. ! OONPCSION AT LATE CAiIP. A SERVICE ABANDONED.

Reform in the organisation of chap- i lams' -work in Territorial camps was ' strongly urged by I>r Averil), Anfrli-aUI Mishap of Auckland, at the annual meet- ] ing ol .tlie Auckland O.E.M.S. ])ioee,san i i Jiion yesterday afternoon. The niibje<:t i was brought up by Rev. W. 1C Conolly, ' m describing ine work of the C..X.M.S. j ,-amp institute at Hautapu. The speaker j stated that he was. attached to one of. the rvginients in cjunp. but had no ofii- j cial BUitUo as a chaplain. He arranged ] for a. eclehrati'un of tlie lln]y Communion ! on the morning of Uie first Sunday in ! cm. ;>. and fixed up the interior of one i of the C.K-M-S. Units I of which he had; Kir the purpose. Being in i di aeon's orders, lie <-ould not conduct the , i-ervice, ami lie wa-s much disappoint,»d ! when the junior Anglican chaplain failed ! ti> attend, with the result that the service had to br abandoned. 'lTiis chaplain. wlk> hiid spent the previous night in a Cambridge hotel instead of in -.'amp, afterward., tolj him he had not attended because he believed that he (Mr Conolly) was in priest's orders. A number of oflicers and about a dozen nien attended, j and all were much disappointed to lind that There -was no service. CI L\ t'LA IKS rXKBUABLE. The, Warden of St. .John's College (Rev. ]'. T. William-s) paid that the ■I'ishop should be asked to appoint a special man (a pru-st) to take charge of each camp institute nnd conduct s,Tvices. "We mustn't de-pond on these chaplains," he declared. "La-st year one ! of them offered our tents to the ltomans j to hold mass in, and this year there waji no service because the chaplain didn't turn up. It is time that we took tlie matter into our own liatids. so that we <an avoid the mistakes of the past.' . The Bishop said that he was glad of an opportunity to say something that was on his mini "J had l»etU.'r say at once.' he ront-inued, "that 1 am a chap* lain. ! was connected for many years with the Volunteers, and 1 have "reached the rank of major. I regret that 1 was not at Hautapu, but I was away in the north. If 1 had been there 1 shouldn't have left the camp because of the wea- | tber, which could not have been worse i than what I had at the Oringi camp last year. AGAINST CHURCH ORDER. "The present arrangement." proceeded i the liishnp. "is bad. and, as 1 believe,! against the order of the Chtin-h. The] liishop should be the senior Anglican I chaplain. (Applause.) The W'aiapu diocese has a.-ked the Government to follow this arrangement, and 1 believe that I the Wellington diocese has done likewise. The present, system is doing much harm. At Ihe present tune 1 am junior to i some of my clergy, an.l if they were to ' order -mc about it would make things I diincult. (Laughter.) It has been represented to the Defence authorities ! that the whole principle of the present j arrangement is wrong, but they have i always replied that they are acting on] KngUsh lines. The conditions here are, j of course, different from those in Kng-' land, and the result is that the existing | sysirm is on quite wrong lines. "The Roman Catholics, 1 -am assured, w',ll support us." continued the lii.-h.>p, "and if we can arrange it the bishops vviil in future have charge of c.unp arrangements and will appoint their own chaplains. If you can ,lo anything to help mc I .shall t>e v.rv glad." In any case, we mu.-.t si irk to the camp institutes next year and p> on with them lor all we are worth.' , lApplauso.) Oi'.KVKI) HIS KITKKIOU. Rev. 11. .Mason, of (Cahuhu, said that there wa-s urgent need for a change. As a chaplain-major, he arranged to go to ! Hautapu to Uike sen ices, and went to | .some trouble to get a substitute at his i> church, lie got a., far as Mercer, where j a .superior otlicer tnld him to go back, i He obeyed his superior olik-er and went back. Rev. K. J. McKarland. as a chaplain of •mine years' standing, tiupportcl the abolition'of the present ranks among An»li- | can chaplains and tin- placing of the bishops in charge of tlie work. ! HIYSICAL. QUALIFICATIONS. | Hey. P. T. N\ illiams remarked that Territorial officer* had told him that some of the present Anglican chaplains j were either unwilling or physically un j able to accompany the men out of camp | each day. No chaplain ought to l>e j appointed if he were not prepared to do this. The following resolution was carried, on the motion of Rev. 1 , . T. Williams: — "That this conference, repre-ent ing 34 branches of the Chureli of Hnjrland Men's Society, liaving taken into eoii-.ide.ra- ! tion ihe matter of Church of Kugland j services in camp, that in order i in avoid confusion and distress in the : future the Bishop should be the (.enior I Anjjliran eluplain in the diocese." U, was decided to forward the resolution to the .Minister for Defence.