BIBLE CLASSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 307, 28 December 1934, Page 3

BIBLE CLASSES.

DOMINION CONFERENCE. GROWTH OF MOVEMENT. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) HASTINGS, this day. Over 530 delegates assembled at Hastings for the Presbyterian Young Women's and Young Men's Dominion Bible Class Conference were given a civic welcome last evening by the Mayor, Mr. Maddison. The Rev. D. J. Shaw, president of the conference, and also local minister, said it was impossible to estimate from mere numbers the spiritual force that the conference represented. The Bible class movement among all Protestant churches in New Zealand now numbered about 50,000 members, and was growing, not only in numbers but also in an understanding of the principles for which the movement stood, and of their value. He paid a tribute to the local clergy of the sister churches for their helpfulness. Mr. Maddison expressed the hope that tlie conference would take some share in allaying the spirit of suspicion and distrust rampant among persons and nations. If the nations would give Christianity a fair trial, he said, the economic and social recovery of the world would rapidly follow. The Rev. Mr. Gosnell, president of the Hastings Ministers' Association, extended a special greeting to a group of Maoris who were among the visiting delegates. An Anglican conference of 130 young men, who are attending the fourteenth Dominion eonfcrcnce of Anglican Bible classes, opened at Havelock North yesterday.