THE ANGLICAN SYNOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 249, 18 October 1920, Page 4

THE ANGLICAN SYNOD.

The fact that the Anglican Synod meets this year during the absence of the Bishop is likely to prevent any very contentious business being brought forward for discussion, as it is generally understood that all such matters should wait till the official head of the diocese is present to express his own views on the subject. Nevertheless the President of the Synod in his charge was able to state, clearly the opinion of the Anglican Church on some of the controverted questions of tho day. In regard to the proposed amendments to the Marriage Act he explained that the official teaching of tlie Church was expressed in the Book Of Common Prayer, and the clergy could hardly !be expected to subscribe to those clauses which would permit them to use the marriage service, but would forbid them to express in their teaching what tke service declared plainly to be true. In regard to Church union lie laid fitrees on the great difficult}' tliat existed at present l<> union with the Koinan Catholic Church, but lie believed it was possible for the Anglicans to draw nearer to the various Nonconformist bodies, ""his view is held by a very large body oi Anglicans, and it is probable thai, practical steps will he taken in the near future to give expriwsion to it. There is a very great need at the present day for a greater insistence on those elhienl standards of conduct which it is the duty of all Churches to inculcate. They are faced to-day not only with the selfishness of the money power, but with anti-moral and antisocial expedients to annihilate individual initiative and energy, and destroy the idealism which inheres in all honest work well done by the demoralising assumption that everybody ought to get as much and give as little as he can. All these things constitute a menace both to the material and the spiritual well-being of our nation, and make the minor points of difference which separate ro many of the Churches seem small in comparison. The President referred to a matter which affects all the Churches to a greater or less extent, and that is the utter inadequacy of the provision made for providing pensions for ministers on retirement. The maximum provided in many cases seems to be about £100 per annum, and with the present cost of living- that 6 um represents only about ns much as £fiO would have represented before the war. It is to be hoped the .Synod may be able to devise some scheme by which these pensions may be increased to at least £-200 a year, as it is impossible to regard any lesser sum as a living- wage for those who have given the beet years of their life to the service of the Church under conditions which have usually made it impossible for them to put by anything themselves for the future. An effort to raise the necessary- sum to enable this to he done would, we believe, meet with a generous response amongst all denominations, since the inadequacy of the present provision must be patent to all. The existing position ia probably largely due to the fact that the needs of the pension funds have not .been clearly explained to the general body of Church people.