RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 72, 25 March 1922, Page 18

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

The Rev. Herbert -Anderson has spent. ...", years iv India. The last quarter of ■a century he occupied the office of Indian >ocrerary of the Baptist Missionary Society." He was also secretary to the National Missionary Council of India, Burma, and Ceylon. Colonel P. K. Lewis. C.M.G., D.S.U., who has taken up the general secretaryship ~;' i he Xational Laymen's Missionary •.l.ivemen:. is the son of a Hampshire . :.rgyniaii. He saw service in France, hut ha. since been anxious to do Avork for the Chri-tian religion. The Key. 11. IL Oakley who has reached '• : - jubilee year tis a minister of the ' onercgationa] Church recently closed lis :U years' ministry at Broom Fark, .- iielliold. His only other pastorate Avas a! HcckmondAvike from 1572 to ISST. A "iind lias been raised to purchase an .inanity for Mr, Oakley. -ir Bo.iert PeaJ.c, one of the founders oi llish-tp Stepford t'ollegi —formerly - Coucreualional Grammar School, relent Iv attained the age of S2 years. Tie ji t vied the Grand Old Man of Cripple- „,' |i( where lie is clerk to the charities. T- member of Leeks, Siaffs.be introduced 'in,. Daylight Saving Bill in the House !,-" i'ommons. Key. 1". C. Raven, speaking at Westminster Chapel, said he was convinced that so long as they preached to young ■leople they mu_t be saved to avoid hell, they would not be. moved an inch. There must be a demand for service in fellowship, an appeal to heroism. He contended'religion was spurned because ii had been cheapened. Dr. Watts-Ditclifield, "Bishop of Chelmsford, speaking at a Church Congress iv Birmingham, said services as at present conducted had ceased to possess the old "drawing power."' He pleaded for a speedy revision of the prayer book, greater latitude in regard to the litany and for allowing extemporaneous prayer in public service?. Mr. YV. J. Back. Hon. secretary of the F.ngHsb Methodist Local Preachers' Association, announces that both the King and Queen have given their patronage to the association, and have become life members. The association has long included in its membership members of ■the House of Lords and Commons, but it i= the first time that any member ot t lie Royal family has thus supported the Avork. Dr. Antoinette BlackAvell, who died recently at the advanced age of 96 years, Avas the first woman to be ordained as a minister in the United States. In 1547 she entered the Theological School of Oberlin College, and in 1852 became pastor of a Congregational Church in Xew Jersey. Later in life she joined the Initarian Church. When 78 years of age Dr. Blackwell visited the Holy Land, without any companion. A Wesleyan minister, the Rev. Alfred Freeman, has just died at Harrogate, Yorkshire, in his eightieth year. In the earh : 'days of his ministry he passed through "hard times. In one circuit his stipend Avas £50 a year; one quarter day even that was not forthcoming, and the circuit steward offered him instead demand notes on the village causes from which he might collect the amounts due. but tlie young preacher preferred to wait until the amounts came in rather than lo go round from place to place as a debt collector for his own salary.

Increased recognition is being given to Wesleyan local preachers in England. Recently the Rev. Dinsdale Young, after a special preaching service at a gathering of preachers, conducted an impressive recognition service for seven young men and two Avoraeu AA-ho had passed on to •full plan." He aatis assisted by the president of the Local Preachers' Association, Air. Wn_. Douthwaite, who Avelcomed the brethren in these Avords: "Accept tltis the right hand of the fellowship of your brethren in the Church, in the ministry of the Word of God, and in recognition of your place and office amongst us."" The first bishop of the new diocese of Monmouth, under ihe. constitution of the Church in Wales, is Dr. 0. A. Green, archdeacon of that place. He was born in 180-1 at Llanelly, and is a son of the Rev. G. W. Green. He avos educated at Keble College, Oxford. In 1014 he was made Archdeacon of Monmouth and Canon Residentiary of Llandnff Cathedral. The stipend of the new bishop will be provided., by voluntary contribution of the diocese. The representatJA c Body of ihe Church of Wales provides Dr. Green simply with the pay of tiie incumbent. Dr. Green is a notable speaker as well as a writer, and has Ijeen a recognised force in the Anglican community in Wales. The Church Mission Society's income for 1021 was £52.000, and was insufficient to meet the expenditure by no less than £112.000. The estimated expenditure lor 10-22 is £-.00.000, and for 1023, £.".40.000. The position of the Baptist Mission Society was better, but it also i-ulTcrcd seriously through the variation in exchange, and the fall in the price o:* silver. The expenditure for the financial year 1022-2.1 is estimated at C 2110.000. The British and Foreign Bible SocietA" reAenue rhovved a deficiency of C24.4SJ'. and the income of the London Society was insufficient by J_ 48,474 to making ends meet. The Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, brought forw-ard a deficit of £3G.]'.2 from" 1920. ,

Tn the Conference address of President Laws some striking and characteristic references were made to the educational policy of the Church. Mr. Laws said: - I draAV your attention to a matter which the discerning among you Avill acknowledge to be of primary importance. I refer to our educational policy of our church. I can never think of our educational record in recent years without discomfort, and when I remember the splendid institutions of our Church in Britain, in the I'nited States, in Canada, and in Australia. I am the more disturbed. Once ye were pioneers in education. Within a few hundred yards of this chunm there stood the first advanced school in New Zealand, built and equipped by the early missionaries in their zeal for the education of their children. It AA-as, to use Mr. Buller's words. 'The only educational institution in the land at which anything beyond the merest elementary instruction could be had.' In later years the school Avas re-opened with, for a time, very considerable success, as Prince Albert College. But to-day we alone, of the larger denominations, haA'e not a single public educational institution except Wesley Training College, while our sister Churches are carrying on a work of the highest value to themselves and _g\ to the State, in well-staffed and well--1" " ~