NEW ARCHBISHOP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 178, 31 July 1933, Page 3

NEW ARCHBISHOP.

HUGE DIOCESE IN CHINA. LONG DELAY EXPLAINED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 23. ■\fter a long period id' silence, the \n.r|ican Church of Sydney has been formally notified that its appointee, Bishop Mowll, of Western China, has accepted the Archbishopric offered him here, and he is now on his way to take up his duties. Some months have elapsed since the election, but the delay, as the Bishop-Adminitrator explained this week, has been inevitable. Bishop Mowll had as his diocese, in China a great province containing 14,000,000 people, of whom only 10,000 arc Christians. He has held oflicc in one of the most chaotic regions of China, and his home has been robbed and his life threatened more than once by bandits. The vast distance to be traversed and the disturbed state of the country are quite enough to account for the difficulty experienced in sending word of the appointment to the Bishop and securing an answer. It took the Bishop three weeks to go from his own headquarters to I'eiping, to make arrangements there for the transfer of his diocese to his successor. He must go next to England to strengthen the organisation of the Chinese Inland Mission there, and he will probably come out here by way of Canada, arriving in Sydney early next year. Much has been written of Bishop Mowll's character and career. A member of an old English county family, a fine athlete, a distinguished scholar, and a successful organiser of mission work in the face of almost insuperable difficulties, he comes to Australia with a splendid personal reputation, and there is no doubt that in spite of the strong feeling aroused here during the controversies over the episcopal election, all sections of the Anglican Church will combine to assist him to the utmost of their powers in the arduous tasks that await him here.