N.Z. METHODISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 48, 26 February 1935, Page 9

N.Z. METHODISTS.

» ■ MINISTERIAL CANDIDATES. CONFERENCE DISCUSSION." (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, Monday. At the Methodist Conference to-day, the Rev. A. J. Seanier, head of the Home Mission, drew attention to the cases of hardship revealed by the first draft to stations, stating that the present position reacted unfairly on some struggling country circuits as compared with more affluent city circuits, and that a disproportionate burden fell on the Home Mission fund.

The committee-on-circuits was permitted to retire to hear Mr. Seamer's evidence.

The conference adopted a motion reaffirming its adherence to the Bible in Schools League's policy. It also expressed appreciation of the policy of the New Zealand Alliance, and decided to release a number of ministers to assist in the campaign before the poll was taken. Whether the present disciplinary oversight of prospective ministers of the Church was adequate to the training of an effective ministry was a question raised by several laymen during discussion of the report on the activities of Trinity Theological College, Auckland. It was stated that some of the men who had passed through the college into ministerial probation had turned out misfits, and that greater care should be taken in admitting students into the ministry to see that intellectually and otherwise they were capable men.

Mr. F. Thompson, of Christchurch, said that while in some of the sister Churches a minister's acceptability was tested by the readiness of a church to give him a call, in the Methodist Church the minister, once he was received into full status, had to be found a circuit. The Rev. Dr. H. Ranston and the Rev. Dr. C. H. Laws, principal and exprincipal respectively of the college, asserted that there was probably a smaller proportion of misfits in the Methodist ministry than in any other ministry. The latter stated that entrance "to the ministry was jealously guarded, and that careful oversight was given to the work of students at every stage of their progress to full ministerial status. The conference affirmed the desirability of circuit quarterly meetings exercising greater care in the acceptance of candidates for the ministry. Notice of motion was submitted to the conference that a committee should be set up to consider what steps should be taken to celebrate the bicentenary of Methodism.