CHURCH WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 116, 19 May 1939, Page 11

CHURCH WORK.

ENGLAND AND N.Z. MANY DIFFERENCES SEEN. OBSERVATIONS BY BISHOP. (I»j I ph.—i'vvii *'orrcspoielent.) WKiMJNciIIN, this day. Some striking differences between ( hui-eh work in New Zealand comfiared I '' l that in I.iigland. a rising partly il "" 1 'hp gcngraiiliical nature of the •wo countries and the comparative lack ot endowments in the Dominion, were ''"fcrred to by the Bishop of Wellington. the lit. Ilex. 11. St. Harlie Holland, "i ■"! interview. The Bishop, vvlio has been nearly three years in the Dominion nnd formerly worked i,, several dim-rent spheres in England, will leave next week on a. health recruiting visit to the Old ( ountry. He has decided on this course on ineclicii 1 advice, after his recent operation. "There are many ways iu which I see a difference between the work of the ( htirc't in t two countries," Bi-liop Holland ..aid. "(iei«'iaphical conditions make the work very different, th i hi:-. [n Kngland the parish priest works in a, confined area, where lie can get into pretty immediate and close contact with all his people. Here the parish prie-t has to minister sometimes to people living great distances away. One pari-h in the Wellington diocese covers niileSj the size of an English diocese." Different Technique. I hat meant, a different technique in pa menial lite which was", very difficult to create, the bishop continued. It meant that services of worship could not be the same as in Knirbind, where weekly worship was the normal thin? on the part of the regular churchman. Til va.st pari -lu's in New Zealand that was impossible, |~r there were many people beyond the reach of more than fortnightly. monthly, or even quarterly services. "M.v diocese extends as far as from London to York.'' Bishop Holland said. "I do not know of any bishop in Krigland who has to travel for so manv thoirsands of miles a year along the loads of his diocese as is the case in New Zealand.'' -\s far as the staffing of a diocese went, the bishop said he found the difference here very great compared with the position in the Old Country. In England, when a man reached the utage where his vitality and capacity for work was necessarily diminished by years of hard work in a town |>arish he could l>e found a small country parish where lie could still do good work that was within his capacity. In New Zealand there were no sucli openings, for there wa« no such thing as a small parish or a light job in a diocese like Wellington. Lack of Endowments. "X ndotibtedly the lack of endowments in the Church out here makes for a much higher standard of giving," the bishop said. "I know of no industrial parish in England that can compare with one in this diocese where the whole of the stipend of the vicar and of the curate, of the ehurcji's contribution to the diocese and to work on the mission fiejd, and the repayment of debt are all met by the artisan population of that parish. In England such a parkdi would quite probably have an endowment for the vicar's salary, a grant from the diocese for the curate, ami still find itself hard put to meet its commit ments." '

The bishop said that on his visit he would naturally be finding out whether there were any men in Kngland who were likely to come to the Dominion to take up church work and join those who had come so willingly in the fast year or two to face the conditions of a new life of pert ice. Thine men had brought much life and brightness into the diocese. ■'The reservoir of man power in Vow Zealand is not so large as one hopes it will one day lie,"' he added. "'I look for want one day to the Church and the province producing enough men to stall" the whole of the Church's work adequately. which it is not doing at present."