RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 70, 22 March 1919, Page 18

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

CHTTRCH JSTEWS AND NOTES. The Rev. Joseph White, whose death Occurred at Levin, aged 80 years, came to Kew Zealand in the early sixties as a missionary from tho United Free Churches of Kngland. He joined the Presbyterian Church in ISB7 and fetired from active ministry in 1010.

The Rev. W. A. Sinclair has been appointed Foreign Mission secretary nf the New Zealand Methodist Church., mid will reside in Auckland. He comes with a hiuh reputation as a careful, painstaking organiser, a good preacher, u;id a capable man of affairs.

Changes will take place in the ministerial stalT of the Auckland East Methodist circuit next month. The Rev. J. E. Parsons, of Lyttelton will occupy the plr.ee of the iate Rev. C. 11. Garland, and the Rev. J. R. Nelson, of Dunedin, being tlie third minister. Tile Rev. lames Wrigley continues as superintendent of the circuit.

Chaplain P.. S. Watson. M.C., has accepted the position of assistant to the Rev. G. li. Balfour, of First Church Dunedin. Key. Watson was a member of the students' executive of Ivnox l ollege and secretary for the club one year. Hi was wounded in France, ;;nd awarded the Military Cross.

The Rev. James Mcrland, vicar of St. John's Church, Milton, has resigned, and intends to go tii >.~i 'V South Wales.

The Lord Mayor of London attended a> reception to voluntary war workers at Bromley Congregational Church, and, . presented a souvenir booklet to each of tho hundreds who were present. Th* names of 2r>o helpers appears in the. souvenir bonk, which also states that ;ik , mam se 3">00 meals had been served in ; a sinsrle -week. The Rev. Matthew Mullineux, of the j N.Z. chaplains' department, was awarded a Military Medal for the following (ac- ! cording to the London "Gazette"'): j During two days' hard fighting, when ! the medical officer had become a casualty • early on the morning of the first day, j the Rev. Mnlinenx took charge of the ,' regimental aid post, dressed the wounded i and superintended their evacuation. The i regimental aid post was subjected to | very heavy high-explosive and gas-shell fire for twelve hours, and but for his skill and excellent dispositions serious congestion would have occurred. His | Untiring energy and cheerful service in ' providing comforts for the troops under ' most adverse circumstances were of the | greatest value to all ranks of the bat- j talion.

As was expert-", the Methodist fon : ference has resr.ived to appoint the Rev. C\ H. Laws, 8.A., to the of its Theological College. Mr. Laws will not take up residence or duties in the college until April, 1920, hut will continue as minister of the Pitt Street Church for the next twelve months. His colleagues in the circuit will be Revs. H. Ranston. M.A., and P. B. Paris. On account of failure of health the Rev. J. J. Lewis becomes a supernumerary, and the circuit will be worked by threo ministers instead of four.

l>. Sadlier. Bishop of Nelson, whib In France, visited the bases at F.taples and Rouen. At the latter place he arranged for the future conduct of the club, by the Rev. A. Ashcroft, of the Wellington diocese. Bishop Sadlier, while nt Home, is inquiring for men available for service in the Church in New Zealand, also to secure a suitable scientist for the directorship of the Cawthron Institute in Scientific Research, to be opened at Nelson. Dr. Sadlier left Enpland for New Zealand about the middle of this month.

The Bishop of Winchester, writing to the Rev. J. H. Shakespeare, M.A., regarding the former's book. " The Churches at the Cross Roads," states:—" Once in the Church we thought gravely of schism, and proscribed Nonconformists as schismatical. Then w» began to feel this unbecoming-, and with a mixture of charity and indifference, we thought that the old view of schism was in bad taste and narrow. But you bring us into a third condition; the old dread of schism revives, but it is not imputed to others; we all share its guilt, shame, and loss. You have made mc fee! this more than I ever felt it before. The way forward is still hard to see; some steps cf it., at any rate, are plainer for " you" than for us. May you lie strengthened and guided to take them. and we shall all be the gainers."

The British and Foreign Bible Society sent large supplies of copies of the Scriptures to France for the use of the huge battalions of labourers employed behind the lines. Amongst the workers were multitudes of brown and yellow men from Asia and black ones from Africa, There were also tens of thousands of natives from India, with their various languages, as well as dozens of races from Africa, but the Society was equal to supplying nil of them with copies printed in their own language. Thousands of Portuguese lumber men, •who were working- in the different camps in England, also received copies of the Bible. The Society shipped five tons weight of Testaments and Gospels from' Shanghai to France for distribution, among nearly 80,000 Chinese coolies, who ■were employed in that country. This is only typical of what has been done during the war by the Bible Society for labour battalions recruited from many countries and speaking a babel of strange tongues.

Professor Cairns, of Aberdeen, said recently: "Our churches tend to become elderly." American religious journals have been touching upon the same subject. There is a fear that soldiers who have enjoyed the brotherly services in imr>onventionnl places of worship at the front may not upon their return home, settle down to solemn gatherings in 6tuffy churches. It is pointed out that in the past the tendency has been to ronduct churches in the interest of people from fiO to 70 year? of age, whose habits are fixed, and ar.' not friendly to innovations of any kiml.

Ppeakincr in New York recently as a domestic prelate to the Pope and a member of his official family, but not, a=; he expressly stated, for the pontill. Mi-iii-qtrnor Vn\ urged that the Pope shmil'i iuiM' a "voice in guaranteeing peace." X!iw could lie aecoin-pli.-hod. he =ai.i. ti.it ne-essary through, tii" [...litiir* atli-r '.••nee a* a rtelgate at th<; ,•.,:,;,.;■..,.,„ !„., ri-pre-entatior. in any manner that the conferees might decide. The I'ope had planned early in the war, the prelate said, tn exert his influence with Austria, aspvinst the return th, ! m t t0 TurkUh domination in m-tY'ff tt V he outc °™ of the conturning over of ' f h '" °W ose,l the tl-r-v,,,, :71P t0 tho Jews - hA" P S -T. ' sU,tcd that he did not, Alii,,, must C&■ %r ma 4! thi regard to IV ,' ' , R ! s attitude in law should VeyaS' d, " tllat