CHURCH MISSION FUND.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 8350, 8 December 1892, Page 6

CHURCH MISSION FUND.

TO THS SDITOB 09 THB PRESS. Bra, —Since you have allowed the Diocesan Secretary to refer disparagingly to a letter from mc appearing in another paper, I aak you, in common fairness, to consent to _ copy of snob letter -ppearine in your columns, and send it herewith for that purpose. Notwithstanding the contents of the Diocesan Secretary's letter, I remain still of •he same opinion in regard to the action of the Standing Committee re the appointment «f Organising Secretary. Ad mtsericordiam appeals such as the Diocesan Secretary's are Unworthy and useless. The members of the Church of England in this diocese outside of the Standing Committee claim that all the common sense, business aptitude, and zeal for the Church's welfare are not confined to the members of that body. The Diocesan Secretary affirms that " there is evidence that it" (the appointment of Organising Secretary) " is likely in due time to bear the desired fruit/ bnt goes on to complain that such lettere as "Churchman's" and mine " tend to nip that fruit as with an unkindly frost by prejudicing the mind Of the diocese against the means employed to produce iv" To this I would reply that any schema that cannot stand criticism ■Mows only its inherent weakness, and the sooner th* Standing Committee retraces its steps by confessing its error, and at once **nipping in the bud" the mostunstatesmanl__epl_n it has adopted with the view of assisting a most deserving fund, but -which it bids fair to utterly ruin, in addition to other evil results, the better for all concerned. In conclusion, I would remark that the Diocesan Secretary has in no way proved that the Standing Committee did not exceed its powers in charging against the Church Mission Fund the whole £450 per annum- required for the Organising Secretary, instead of the half, £225, the limit allowed by the Synod. In fact, he does not attempt to prove it, but confines himself to saying that the Committee was not brought to task for it. This is precisely what so toany complain of.—Yours, &c, Layman. -"*..'....' [Enclosure.] ! PAROCHIAL ASSOCIATIONS. _?o the Editor -of the N.Z. Church News. ' gir,—Your November number' contained, nnder the above heading, an article which commenced as follows :•—" Not the least of the benefits which the diocese is receiving |rom the appointment "of an Organising Secretary is the formation of associations in the several parishes and districts _ for the systematic collection of contributions for Church purposes ;" and, towards the end of the article, occur the following words:— ** Many such associations have been already formed, and are full of promise for the good Of the parish as well as the diocese." ■' It is to be inferred ' from 'the "above Quotations that, in the opinion of the writer, the various parishes were utterly i-eficient in these associations until the advent on the scene of - the Organising Secretary. No great compliment this to the Clergy and Church officers and workers In-these several parishes, and foreign also to the object for which the appointment was made, viz., to increase the contributions in the diocese to the Church Mission Fund. Not a word, however, about this fund appears right through the article. The contents of the latter are only another "exemplification of the truth of the French adage, " Qui s'excuse s'accuse." To have accomplished in ao very short a time what the writer evidently thinks has been neglected all these long years in the parishes of the diocese argues the Organising Secretary to be indeed a veritable " Admirable Criehton." What many very much fear is that in reality the parishes will find this new appointment a most disturbing element. Indeed, it is found to be so already. And the Church Mission fund, from the same cause, bids fair to result in a very serious falling off in the net annual amount collected. There would seem to be arising a fear that such will prove to be the case on the part of those who have launched this ill-advised scheme; hence the desire to show that, even at this early period of its career, great good is, at ail events, being effected by the Organising Secretary initiating associations "full of . promise for the good of the parish and diocese," The fact is, the Church in this diocese is being deluged of late years with too much grandmotherly legislation, and, if the system be persisted in, this cannot but end disastrously. Clergy and Church officers will -decline to be treated like children, and, by such government as we *te at present labouring under, each parish will be driven in sheer self-defence to confine its efforts to upholding and endeavouring to conserve its own interests, the diocesan. feeling, which the Church authorities appear so anxious Jbo encourage, being simply, from the same and other causes, crushed out of existence. In connection with this appointment of Organising Secretary, many laymen are asking how it is that the Standing Committee had the power to go. beyond the instructions of the Synod, as has been done. The latter passed a resolution that £225 per annum only should. be charged to the Church Mission "Fund, the balance of the £450 required to be taken from another source, |n .connection with other work to be done as a quid pro quo, by the Organising Secretary. .This latter it was found, could not legally be carried out, at present, at all events; upon which the Standing Committee coolly, instead of referring the matter back to-the Synod, decreed to charge the whole £450 per annum for the next two years upon tho unfortunate Church Mission Fund. Great surprise is expressed that this matter was apt enquired into at the recent meeting of .the Synod. There ia such a thing as purchasing peace at too great a price. The opinion is very largely held that the true course to have adopted m connection with the very natural desire to increase the contributions to the Church Mission Fund was for the Bishop to have taken into his confidence the clergy and Church officers of his diocese, urging upon them not only to do all in their power to cause an increase in the offertories, but. also to establish some scheme of collection in the parishes outside of the offertories, and such a call would, I venture to say, have been cordially responded to; for has not the Bishop frequently said that his appeals to the parishes bave "always" been liberally responded to ? But the parishes will nob submit to be dragooned in the manner .at present in vogue. Matters in connection with the Church Mission Fund will not be improved by the recent reduction of £10 per annum, more or less, in the yearly contribution of £50 to the clergy from the Church Property Trust Sand, which will fall particularly hard on -the clergy in the poorer parishes, and is tittle in Keeping with the. often expressed opinion at the recent Synod, that the atipends of the clergy were in need of being raised rather than lowered. Until the meeting of the last Synod the annual contribution of £50 to the various clergy in the diocese wan made a first charge upon the Church Property Trust .Fund. _?his has been done away with, and " more'e the pity." Hitherto it has been a crumb oi comfort to many a hard-working, ill-paid .pastor in poor districts that, at all events, he could count upon their £50 per annum as a certainty. There are signs now of its disappearing altogether. —Yours, &c., L-Y-tAX.