WORK OF YOUTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1937, Page 8

WORK OF YOUTH.

METHODIST ORGANISATION.

CENTRALISATION POLICY.

Proposals by the Methodiet Youth Board for the decentralisation of the youth director's work gave rise to considerable discussion at the annual conference of the Methodiet Church yesterday afternoon.

The board reported that it had been seeking to further a policy of establishing five district directorships and a similar number of area councils, with f-.Tf w ot the development of responsibilities for youth work and the promotion of a true family bask for church work. In order to carry out the resolution* of the last conference deputations had submitted the policy of the board to district and local youth committees and the result generally had been encouraging. The policy aimed at concentrating on child training and teacher training, fuller contact with parents, and co-ordination of all sections of youth work within the local church. With five directors, instead of one as at present, the estimated expenditure on youth work wae £2800, compared wit* £2300 in 1935.

The youth director, the Rev. E P Blamires, appealed to the conference to sanction the proposal, which he said was vital to the welfare of the Church.

The proposals were referred back to the board for further consideration and report. In an address to a youth demonstration at the Pitt Street Methodist Church l»t evening the Rev. E. P. Blamire* ■aid that the work of the young people could be MUnmed up in the four words: Work, play, love and worship. It was a wonderful thing to discover that work was one of the things worth living for. Play had a definite place in life, for it was by the power of recreation that the more serious things in life were appreciated. The whole world vu an expression of God's love, and worship wm the source of all <rood things. Other speakers at the service included the Rev. H. Toeer, travelling secretary for the Young Men's Bible Cla«e Movement, Miss A. Firth, travelling secretary for the Young Women's Bible Class Movement, »nd the Rev. B. Gina, a missionary from the Solomon Is lards.