SEVENTH DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 46, 24 February 1937, Page 5

SEVENTH DAY.

METHODIST CHURCH.

CONFERENCE WORK.

EX-VICE-PRESIDENT SPEAKS.

The seventh day's sitting of the annual conference of the Methodist C'liurch of New Zealand was commenced this morning, when a communion service was conducted l»v tlie president of the conference, the Kev. F. Copeland, assisted by senior ministers. The jue-conimunion address was given by the Rev. A. A. Bcnsley. The ex-vice-president, Mr. R. Hampton. in an address, said that the connexion!!] year would be looked back upon with gracious memories. He had been favourably impressed with much that he had seen and heard, but he had come to the conclusion thafthey were inclined to under-estiinate th* real value of the influence of the Church on the life of the nation. He considered that the Church had a greater leavening influence in the lite of the Dominion than they were sometimes inclined to think or allow. One feature that he had been pleased to discover was that few were >atisiied with their attainments. Reunion of Churches.

Mr. Hampton said that reunion of the churches was a big ideal, but that, unity could not be brought about if the spirit were lacking, and he suggested that greater attention should be given to the questions of unity and fellowship within their own denomination. They could aim at strengthening the ties that bind amongst their own members and adherents to create a family spirit within their own borders. One heard of Hible class leaders and church officers and members of youth organisations who took little interest in church worship and fellowship outside their own group, and where such sectional attitude existed they should endeavour to eliminate it.

Mr. Hampton urged the cultivation of the spirit of unity and fellowship within the circuits, and he pleaded for a widening of vision. The wastage by disunion was having a crippling effect on Christian work. Some of the cities had been spending considerable sums of money 011 themselves in overlapping activities, and at the same time had been withdrawing essential agents from the mission fields owing ostensibly to lack of finance. They should keep clear of any suspicion of rivalry.

Mr. Hampton said that the Church] did not sufficiently appreciate the value of country work. There was still much pioneering work to be done. In the rural work policy there was a tendency to place young ministers as home missionaries in areas without ex]>erience of circuit building, and t% leave them in isolation. The chairmen of the districts were much overloaded, and the grouping of circuits with team work should be adopted.

"\Ye should cultivate more of the spirit of daring in our Christian living," said Mr. Hampton. "It has been said with some truth that we cannot preserve a living faith with 'safety first' as the slogan. A leader in one of our Christian Churches is recorded as saying: I sometimes wonder whether all the harm that is done by scandal® in the Church—by the Church members who really go wrong—has anything like the same disillusioning effect 011 men's minds as the humdrum respectability of the ordinary Christian and Church mcnil>er." Wesley College. '1 lie chairman of the governing lxiard of Wesley College. Mr. J. Stanton, reported that there had been improved results in most departments of the work, and the. financial position had improved. There was a roll of 80, with prosjH'cts of an increase. l)r. H. Kauston presented the report of the Theological College. It was announced that the Rev. A. B. ( happell had undertaken to prepare an authoritative publication dealing with the first 50 years of the Methodist Maori Mission in Xew Zealand. The conference approved of deaconesses, while holding the status of acting home missionaries, and senior deaconesses engaged in Maori work. Wing gazetted as «.fliciating ministers under the Marriage Act.

A recommendation was adopted from the Home Missions Board that during the projected absence of the general superintendent, the Rev. A. J. Seamer, in England this year, the Rev. E. Drake should lie liis supply, and that the Rev. O. L. Laurenson should take over the general superintendent's duties in conjunction with Mr. Drake. Mr. Laurenson was designated to succeed the general superintendent when the need arose for the latter to relinquish office. It was decided to arrange for a campaign of evangelism in 1938 as part of the programme to celebrate the In-cen-tenary of the beginning of British Methodism.