RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 89, 15 April 1922, Page 18

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES,

The Rev. A. J. Seamer. general superintendent of the Methodist Maori Mission, is away on deputation work in the South. ' He will visit Taranaki, Wanganui, Wellington, and North Canterbury, and will be absent about three months.

The late Jame6 Keir Hardie, in 1887, started a paper called "The Miner." In it he wrote: "We need to-day a return to the principles of the Gospel, which, by proclaiming all men sons of God, and nrethern of one another, makes it impossible for one, Shylock-Uke, to insist on his rights at the expense of another."

The Methodist Centenary Memorial Church, which is being built at Kaeo, will be opened by the president of the Conference, Eev. 'C- H- Laws, 8.A., on -Sunday, May 23. In addi-ion to services for the Europeans, others will be conducted for the natives by one of their own ministers. A special gathering will also be held on a week night.

The difference in the upkeep of orphanages in England owing to the high cost of living, was referred to at the annual dinner "on behalf of the Keedham Institutions. The cost in pre-war days was £9000 per annum, but in 1921 it reached £16,000. At the dinner the collection of £5.100 was taken

jf the new departures in connec-it-h the Methodiet Church taking ac Solomon Islands Mission dis-

. the issue of two new quaJterly

aes. It has been decided to name i at- jjKi-iodical for adults "Fields Afar," and the one for young people "The Lotti."

Gipsy Smith is still in America. At latest advices he was in New Orleans, preaching in a building which seats 5200 people, besides a choir of 500. It has been crowded at eveiy service, and sometimes numbers have been turned away. One of the services was for coloured people only, and the Tabernacle was crammed to its limits.

An incident in the recent Methodist centenary services disclosed the fact that the Rev. T. G. Brooke, Home Mission secretary, had the honour of being baptised by the Rev. S. Leigh, the first Methodist Missionary in New Zealand. Mr. Leigh had returned to England, stricken in health, but was able to perform some ministerial duties, and whilst stationed in the South of England he 'baptised the little boy who is now at the head of the Home Mission department of the Methodist Church in New Zealand.

An article in "Modern Churchman," on "The Creed of the Average Englishman," suggests that if Jesus Christ were to come to-day he would "exchange the sacred mysteries of the Eucharist, and the emotional ecstacies of the revival meeting for His old place in the average life of every man. The average Englishman," adds the writer, "does not go to church, because, to put it quito boldly, he does not find church-going, worth while."

The death of Abdul-Baha Abbas, director of the followers of the Bahai Revelation, removed one who was so _iighly esteemed for his excellent qualities that his funeral at Jerusalem was almost an international one. He was referred to as the personification of humanitarianism. He was born in Teheran, Persia, in 1844. Amongst those who gave eulogies of the dead leader, were Mohammedan speakers, including Professor M. Murad Mufti, Moslem Chief of Haifa, Professor Abdullah Mickhus, Bishop Bassilious of the Greek Catholic Church at Haifa, Mr. Solomon Bouzaglo, Jewish leader at Haifa. In the front ranks of those at the funeral were Sir HeTibert Samuel, Governor of the Holy Land, Mr. Sims, Governor of Phoenicia, consuls of all Governments, as well as Mohammedan, Christian and Jewish leaders. The Governor-General and staff marched imnfediately ibohind the casket. The interment was on the summit of Mt. Carmel.

When the Lord Mayor of Bradford attended Greenfield Congregational Church in state on a recent Sunday, all present were asked to assenj.- to a statement on the lines of a confession of faith. Amongst the items were: "We believe that the law of life is service, and, therefore, that no wealth is legitimately earned which 'has not an exchange value for actual service rendered, services which minister to a fuller life and help 011 the common good, and, consequently, no wealth is honestly earned which is accumulated by taking advantage of the weakness or ignorance of our neighbours, rendering them no equivalent, reciprocal service. We believe that the first principle of Christian justice is this: That the loss of one cannot on the whole be the gain of another in the unity of the one true life. We believe that justice is not always on the weaker side, and that organised oppression is still ugly when it ia practised by those who inscribe 'liberty and fraternity' by their banner, and that never does the contemptible cry, "Every man for himself,' sound so forbiddingly as when it is uttered by those who have not hesitated to infringe personal liberty and to imperil social order."

Canon Peter Green, of Canterbury, recently referred to the handicap of the church and made some rather startling ] remarks. For one thing, the Canon expressed the opinion that the customs of the ibishops of the church in general life affected the opinions of the democracy and thus tended to discredit the church. Personally he would give away the bishops' palaces and some of the church money with each, and make them into schools and colleges. The Canon also objected -to bishops not only being put into the gentry, but the nobility. He claimed they should exist with real simplicity, and could make it easily compatible with culture and refinement. He considered the church should rid of the idea of bishops palaces and of the clergy living "like resident gentry." He said there could be no good in clergy living like wealthy city menshants or prosperous merchants, or like the commercial and professional classes, and to that extent were criticised by the workers. The final remark was: "The gift of these palaces would have touched the minds of the democracy had it been made before taxation became so severe."