NATIVE BISHOPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 94, 21 April 1928, Page 8

NATIVE BISHOPS.

Mission work to-day has as a definite part of its ideals the training of native clergy to carry on the work. It is recognised that a very full training is needed and that for the present it is only exceptional men that are likely to be fit for it. But even in Nyassaland eight natives are at present in full orders, and these natives constitute a third of the priests in the diocese. From the beginning the mission has aimed at training Africans to be priests, and it looks forward eventually to leaving Africa a self-con-tained, self-supporting church, with African bishops and priests in full communion with the Church of England, but in no way more dependent on it than are the provinces of the Anglican communion in South Africa or America. The desire of the Maoris, therefore, to have a member of the Maori race as Bishop of the Maori Church is in full accord with the general desire in the missionary field to have native churches with native clergy. The fact that' the Maoris have guaranteed £750 towards the stipend of a Maori bishop shows how earnest they are in this matter. They say that they want to see the Christ in a Maori atmosphere. In "The Christ of the Indian Road" we have seen how the Central Figure of the Gospel story appeals to the Indian mind, and many must have had a new light thrown on their conception of religion. In the diocese of Dornakal in India the bishop is of East Indian blood, and there are very nearly a hundred Indian priests and deacons as against fourteen English missionary clergy. The Anglican Church has shown its ability to adapt itself to all sorts and conditions of men, and native clergy have in not a few instances enriched the Church by new ideas. The Maoris say that they want a man like St. Paul or the Apostles. It may not be possible to find one of their own race to fulfil this condition, but it ought to be possible to find one who would be able to develop the work of the Church on lines adapted to Maori needs and characteristics. —ANGLICAN.