CURRENT NEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 172, 22 July 1922, Page 18

CURRENT NEWS.

The Rev. E K. Mules, of St. Andrew's, South Canterbury, leaves shortly for England. The third Baptist world congress is (o be held at Stockholm from July 14 to July iJff, 1023. John Bunyan's tomb in Barnhill Fields. E.C., was recently renovated, the expense being shared equally by the Congregational tind Baptist Unions. Dr. Laws, president of the Methodist Conference, is at present visiting the Taranaki district, in continuance of his mission of inspiration to tiie churches. Mr. Beaumont Moriee. S.M.. of Bradford, has been elected president of the Yorkshire Association of Sunday Schools, which comprises 22.000 teachers and 250.000 scholars. The New Zealand Methodist Centenary Fund promise list- now amounts to £39.000. nearly vCS.OOO of which bar; been, promised since the close of the Conference in March last. Mr. D. S. Wells, -who went, from Calcutta to take up duty as accountant at London to the Baptist 'Missionary Society, succeeds Mrs. C. H. Chapman, who has served the society for 4!) years. The agents of the 8.M.?. Bible Translation and Literature Auxiliary, report growinjr difficulty iv effecting sales of the Scriptures in India owing to increasing intolerance arising out of the growth of the Nationalist feeling. I When the Rev. Walter Lawry. Methodist missionary, arrived in Now Zealand on July 12 a century ago, he could have little dreamed that his descendant. Rev. A. C. Lawry, would be agent for raising a centenary fund for the Church in New Zealand. An admirable site for a Wcsleyan Methodist College has been acquired at Cambridge, within the precincts of the University, near Jesus College. The money for the erection of n suitable buildin_r is already in hand, as well as the nucleus for an endowment. Quite a number of well known Methodist ministers in England have conducted services in Anglican churches since the Lambeth Conference. The latest announcement is that Dr. Scott Lidfrett. of Loudon, is to preach, on invitation, in the Hereford Cathedral. Mr. F. J. Bevan, who a few months ago -was re-elected a member of Cardiff Board of Guardians, is o'A years of age, has been a lav preacher for the Wcsleyan Church for 50 years, and is an ex-Lord Mayor of the town. Mr. Bevan has been a member of the Board of Guardians for 39 years. line Rev. J. Shepherd, who has resigned the charge of Hopton Congregational Church. Yorkshire, stated he could not accept tho Calvinistic doctrines required in the trust deed?. He could not .believe that there was one little soul amongst the children, preordained and condemned by God to the never ending agonies of eternal damnation. Mr. Shepherd has taken charge of a church at Durham, South Africa. The Rev. Father Arkwright, who died suddenly at Tvaihoura a few days ago, vas a descendant of the inventor of that name, "who made the first spinning jenny. Father Arkwright was born at Manchester, and educated at Valladolid, Spain. For 20 years he was engaged in m.ission work at Torquay, England, Upon arriving in New Zealand Father -•-Tkwrigiit was curate at Westport, then parish priest at Eltham. Four years ago he was appointed to Kaikoura." A somewhat unique meeting was held in the Baptist Chapel, Bouverie Road, I Stoke Ncwington, recently, for tho purpose of handing over the title deeds as a free gift to the Rev. J. Barns, M.A., as representative of the Manor Road Presbyterian Church. The chapel has been without a minister for some time, and it i was decided by unanimous vote to hand I over the property as a free gift to the Presbyterian Church to carry on work amongst young people. The death of Pandita Rama/bai ends the early career of the first woman in India who -was allowed to use the title of Pandita. She was the daughter of a learned Brahmin, who educated her. She studied in England and America, and having become a Christian devoted her life to the amelioration of the lot of Indian widows. She first founded a liome for widows of high caste at Poona. Later she formed the Muk'ti Settlement, where during a famine she received 1500 orphans. After a long and successful tour in America, Gipsy Smith has returned to ; England. He speaks enthusiastically of co-operation of all the churches in the places he visited. And he has a good word for the newspaper press. Said he to an interviewer, "You 6ee that trunk? It contains six scrap books filled with newspaper cuttings—most of them from the secular press. Some of the newspapers gave the campaign a page and a-half a day." j The governing body of the church in | Wales adopted a constitution recently i Which w-as mainly drafted by Mr. Justice Sankey. Those present were reminded that the church was a national one, and as such the oldest Christian church in the British Isles. It was stated that long before Canterbury ivas heard of the Welsh Church existed and its saints were sous of their race. The warning was given to discountenance innovations which might imperil their communion with others. Dr. H. B. Gray, vicar of St. Mary's Church, Bury St. Edmund's, -when taking part in a service at Walsham-le-Willows Congre.eatior.al Church, said he did so with the approval of tbe Bishop. He made a strong ..appeal for unity, and said his personal view was that it was being prevented by the Tesolute opposition of one or two Bishops, many clergy, and certain edclesiastically minded laymen with views akin to Borne :on everything except their disinclination | to Papal authority. Some 500 Wcsleyan ministers in Eng-~ land have signed a manifesto objecting to union with the United Free Methodist and Primitive Methodist churches. Mr. Rattenbury, a strong leader of the objectors, recently explained' his position as follows:—"I respect and honour the other Methodist churches, bub*l think we are different families, though closely related, aud that our unity will be truer if we live in three houses than, if we live overcrowded in one." Mr. Rattejibury emphasises the proposed utility of all the varied types of thought and service, and he would seek union through spiritual unity, and through Christian life and practice.