RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 132, 5 June 1926, Page 22

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

STUDENTS FOR THE MINISTRY.

HOW TO REMEDY THE SHORTAGE. I WOMEN AS MINISTERS. (By REV. G. W. BLAIR.) Letters have appeared in the columns of the "Outlook," and discussions have taken place in Presbyteries on the subject of the shortage of students for the ministry. When this matter was beiug discussed in the Auckland Presbytery, the Rev. W. J. Comrie, who was present, stated that the question was largely a financial one: Ministers were being underpaid. Vet, said Mr. Comrie, ministers are not mercenary. I am certain that all are agreed that few, if any, ministers seek that calling lor what they can get out of it in the war of pounds, shillings and pence. There are many young men in the ranks of the ministry to-day who could easily double or treble their income in sonic other profession. There is no profession in which the income is so small compared with the length of training and expense incurred. Yet the smallness of the incomes of ministers is not an adequate explanation of the shortage of students for the ministry. Church of Scotland. This grave situation of a dearth of students is not confined to New Zealand, nor is it confined to one church. It is, in varying degree, affecting all the churches of Protestanism. Just recently the Hamilton Presbytery of the Church of Scotland, by which, in the year after the war, 36 men were licensed in 1922, 26, and in 1925, 15. Despite these dwindling figures, there were 16 professors of divinity in Scotland. Matters are much on a par with the above in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. The Presbytery of Dublin has considered the matter, and it has asked the Dublin Synod to issue a pastoral letter on the subject. It was reported to the Synod that in 1895 there were 82 students in the assembly's college. In 1900 the number had fallen to 38, in 1005 to 25, and in 1907 to 20. Thus in twelve years the number had fallen from 82 to 20. New Zealand Church. The shortage of ministers in the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand has been emphasised in a letter to the Presbyteries from the Rev. George Budd Superintendent of Home Missions. The letter stated that for many years there had been a shortage of minister, and at present the position was acute. As at March IS, vacandes and prospective vacancies numbered 42 and there were only three licentiates waiting for calls and a few ministers without charges. Only two students would complete their course this year. Fifty ministers were needed, and half a dozen were available. Unles3 vigorous measures were adopted at once, the position must be come worse. The shortage has risen from 40 to 50 in half a year Every year 12 to 14 new men should be fortncoming, and this took no account of the larce number of "census" Presbytenans, who were out of touch with the church ThiT matter of the shortage o ministers will be fully discussed at a Presbytery conference to be held in St. James 5 on Wednesday, June 9Meanwhile many anxious» h e "ts *« asking as to the cause of the shortage, and the best remedies to prevent it. Remedies Suggested. What, then, are the remedies for thfc shortage of ministers and students? Following are a few suggested remedy* (1) The first step in this direction should be for the churches to send out an S.O.S. message to the Home churches -an urgent appeal for help in + thejsh ape of ministers and licentiates to fill the gaps in our ranks. (2) A second step should be to send a live man—such as the present Superintendent of Presbyterian Home Mis-sions-to the Home churches and churches of Canada and the United States to plead the cause of New Zealand and to enlist say 40 to 50 suitable young men for the work of the nnniaA third step would be to adopt the suggestion contained in J.C.s letter to the "Outlook" of May 3, .to the effect that the restrictions debarring Home missionaries from entrance to the Theological Hall should be removed, and that certain of our Home missionaries who have given full proof of their ministry should be admitted to the hall on the old lines of a course prescribed for Home missionaries. . It has been asserted that the closing of this avenue of entrance into the Ministry has to a large extent diminished the numbers of pur theological students. While it is true that the church attributes very great importance to education, and stands for an educated ministry, there are some who expect too much from education in colleges. Learning is good in its place, but it is no substitute for grace in the heart. A combination of both makes the ideal minister. Women as Ministers. (4) A fourth suggestion is why not allow women to be educated for and admitted to the ministry of the church? "Women are now to be found in nearly all the higher professions; why should they be debarred from the ministry t A recent cable printed in the Auckland "Star," sent from Adelaide, Australia, shows that the Congregational Church of that place has settled thia question by appointing its first woman minister, Mrs. Kirk, 8.A., 8.D., to fill the pulpit at the ColligM Gardens Church. A short time ago an interesting debate took place in Elmwood, Belfast, Ireland, on the important subject: "Should Women bo Admitted to th« Modern Pulpit?" In the course of thai debate Mrs. Paul, the wife of the Prin cipal of the Assembly's Theological Col lege, stated that the time was ripe fo the entry of women into our theologica colleges. Precedents and rules were no sufficient reasons for withholding th right to enter the ministry from womei The Principal of the Belfast Presby terian Theological College has state that he has no doubt that when th Church is ready for and permits th entrance of women into the theologies classes, the Faculty and the class room will be ready too. It was stated that the pulpit was tl last stronghold of sex exelusiveness. Of course, the admission of women 1 our pulpits would mean a radical chant in the constitution of the Church, change euch as is here suggested hi been desecribed as "revolutionary," b» we know that "circumstances alti cases." The circumstances have arise whan the Church must take advantage t every possible means to fulfil its grai purpose of carrying the Gospel to evei

creature. We send women missionaries j to the heathen. These women have to teach, and sometimes preach as well. Many of them fulfil all the functions of a male missionary, but are unable to baptise converts or administer the Lord's i Supper. Here in New Zealand we have j an excellent body of sisters and deacon- ; esses. Some of the former are doing} noble work among the Maoris, and are handicapped because they have no power to administer the Sacraments. Some of us who heard Sister Jessie at last General Assembly plead for permission to baptise the infants in her parish would like to have given her that power on the spot. Why should such power be with-1 held from women qualified to hold it? The status of an ordained home missionary would fill the bill for the present. Some of these suggested remedies may appear drastic. But this decline in student supply is a grave symptom of a dangerous disease that is sapping the very vitals of the churches. CURRENT NOTES. Dr. Raven, canon of Liverpool, has been appointed Hulsean Lecturer at Cambridge. He will deliver four lectures at the end of the year, on the subject of the relation of biology and psychology to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. A letter to the "Guardian" gives this information: "The desire of a great many Wesleyans to retain the Prayer Book Service at Holy 'Communion is one of the chief difficulties in the way of the proposed union of the Wesleyans with the other Methodist societies." Addressing a meeting of ministers at Sheffield, Dr. Coward stated he attributed much of the failure of the pulpit to the delivery of sermons, which, though quite good, lost because of faulty delivery. The voice, he said, played a great part in the service. If ministers were drowsy, and droned their sermons, folks would sleep. Prebendary Carlile has resigned the living of St. Mary-at-Hill, a benefice he has held since 1891. In point of length of service, he is the senior incumbent of the city of London. Prebendary Carlile, who is in his eightieth year, :«els that this will allow him to give more of his remaining time and strength to the work of the Church Army. On the celebiation of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Central Congregational Church, Brooklyn, Dr. Cadman Parkes was presented with £5000. He also received congratulatory messages from President Coolidge, and Sir Esine Howard, British ambassador. Dr. Cadman was born in Wellington, Shropshire 62 years ago. He received a stipend of £2400 per annum. The Prayer Book Revision Measure will not be submitted to Parliament until it has been approved by the Convocations of the two Provinces. If that approval be given, the measure at once becomes the law of the Church, and it will be a matter of absolute indifference to Catholics whether Parliament accepts it or rejects it.— "Church Times." An American millionaire, according to a statement made by Alderman Howell Mabbott, of Penzanee, offered to buy the rock near Lands End, on which John Wesley is said to have sat when he wrote "Lo| on a narrow neck of land. Twixt' two unbounded seas I stand." "He was told," said the Alderman, "that not all the wealth in America, could purchase, and take away that historic rock." Bowdoin College, Maine, has conferred an honorary M.A. degree on Mre. Eose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne. She is Superioress of the Dominican Community of the Third Order, and Directress of its Charitable Home, and is known in her own religious community as Mother Mary Alphonsa. The lady has especially devoted herself of late yeare to the relief of destitute women afflicted with cancer, for whose benefit she has founded two charitable institutions in New York. The Bishop of Manchester, at a recent meeting, emphasised the duty of the Church directly to associate itself with the housing problem, and so to I influence public opinion that the well-to-do will be ready, and, indeed, eager to accept such an increase in their rates and taxes as will ensure decent homes for their less happily placed brothers and Bisters. At the same meeting, Miss Margaret Bondfield stated that in our modern society it is often through rates and taxes that we bear one another's burdens. The Rev. G. A. Studdart Kennedy, M.C., preaching on "A New Spirit of Industry" at the Church of St. Edmunds, King and. Martyr, Lombard Street, said: "The curse that has fallen on modern, life is that men go out to work that has no meaning. It is all divorced from worship; it is cut off from God. It is done for money, done for a wage, and purposeleae work that men do not see the meaning of, do not see any glory in, becomes an utter weariness. So they pass from purposeless work to purposeless play, and the pursuit of pleasure and life becomes an endless running away from boredom." In a sermon preached by the Rev. Charles H. Newland, at Trinity Wesleyan Church, Clacton-pa-Se«, he pleaded for fairer teaching of young people. He said: "We make too much of the simile that it is so eaey to go down hill. We tell our young people how easy it is to do wrong, and how hard it is to do good. I say the time is long overdue for us to drop this kind of teaching for ever, -nd do not let us prejudice our young people's minds against the absolute fairness of the great race of life. There ie no story of anyone going down hill in the Bible. It is not the teaching of , Jesus. It is anti-Biblical." Later . in the sermon Mr, Newl nd said: "I deny . that goodness and virtue, and purity and . truth, and honesty are handicapped by I our perpetually climbing up hill, and t that God's children are given a natural i tendency at the very beginning of their * pilgrimage to slide down hill." , Dr. F. W. Norwood, preaching at c Great George Street Church, Liverpool, said Jesus was the most disruptive and * disturbing Person the world had ever seen. He was the world's greatest revolutionary, the symbol of social unrest. We were all worried to-day by the c world's unrest, and we had great cause to be worried. Was «fee world so pero feet that there ought to be no disturb;e ance? Were the scales of justice held A co evenly that no one need complain' ie The Master was the author and inspire! it of justice, fairplay and tolerance. The sr weariness of men concerning abstract n dogma was but the outer fringe of tftf )£ challenge which was making it impos d sible to refuse to study the impinge y ment of His Goepel upon everyday life