THE NEW BISHOP.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18634, 8 March 1926, Page 11

THE NEW BISHOP.

WELCOME TO DIOCESE. feNTHRONEMENT CEREMONY In the "Church News'' are published the following details of the reception to Bishop West Watson, who is expected to arrive in Christchurch on March 21st-: — It has been resolved to ask the Commissary, Canon 'Galwey (Diocesan Registrar) and Mr H. D. Andrews to proceed to Wellington in time to meet the Bishop on his arrival and to convey the welcome of the Diocese. The Bishop has expressed a wish to cross the Straits immediately instead of waiting in Wellington till Monday night, if the arrival of the Rotorua is in sufficient time to enable him to get his family on board the ferry. The Bishop and his family will be motored to Christchurch from Lyttelton ami thus spared the usual initiation to the charms of Canterbury by means* of the smuts and semi-asphyxiation of our antediluvian tunnel. The Bishop and Mrs West Watson will be the guests of the Commissary for the first day on two and the other members of the family will be hospitized by various Church people. The Standing Committee resolved to advise the Dean to arrange for the. formal installation of the -i Bishop to take place on the Wednesday evening after his arrival—on March 24th, at 8 p.m. A committee consisting of Archdeacon Haggitt, Rev. C. A. Fraer, and Mr E. H. S. fiamiltonwas appointed at the Dean's request, to help the Commissary r in making the arrangements. Tlie ceremony will take place in the Cathedral, and admission will be by ticket only. The tickets ■will bo issued -on the application of ; the parochial clergy and on account of the large numbers who will wish to attend can be allotted only sparingly, from 10 to 50 per parish proportionately. The churchwardens, vestrymen, and other principal Church officers v have the preference. Only 1200 tickets are to be issued in all. Standing Committee decided to ask the Cathedral Chapter to allot the offertory to the' Diocesan Missions quota, in view of the stringency in that fund, and the Chapter has consented. The Bishop will be the preacher at the servioe. On Thursday the Festival of the Annunciation, there will be a celebration of the Holy Communion in the Cathedral, at which it is expected that the members of Synod who will be attending the ceremony of the enthronement, will be present, aud a breakfast is being arranged for them and other Diocesan officials after the service, to enable them to meet .the Bishop, who also willmeet the clergy at a special meeting in Church House at 10.30 a.m. Citizens' Welcome. TTw committee has arranged for a publio meeting to be held on Thursday, March 25th, at 8 p.m., in the largest building available, King Edward Barracks, by the courtesy of the Defence Department, to afford the general public as well as the nonofficial laity of the Church an opportunity •to -welcome the Bishop to Christchurch. A small charge will be made to cover the very considerable! expense of such a meeting. A smaller meeting, ' exclusively for Church people, will probably be arranged'after Easter. The Bishop's- installation as Warden of Christ's College will also take place probably shortly after Easter. / The . Bishop's first address in the Diocese, will be given by him after his enthronement in the Cathedral. Ho has agreed to conduct the children's services'during- Holy Week at the Cathedral. (Monday to at 4.10 p.m. each day), and it is expected that there will be contingents of-chil-dren not only from the Church day schools, etc., but aJso from the suburban parishes. . The Bishop will probably preach in the Cathedral on Easter morning, at jßangiora in the evening, and on the Sunday following at Timani. 0» Thurcdayj March 25th, Mrs Carrington is inviting the wives of the clergy to meet Mrs West Watson at the Deanery (11 a.m.). The Mothers' Union Council has arranged for Council members to meet the Bishop's wife on April 7th in the Jellicoe Hall. Tlie Bishop and the clergy also will be invited to attend. ARCHBISHOP JULIUS. MEETS NEW BISHOP. Late letters from London report Archbishop Julius as in good health and enjoying his visit to England immensely (states the "Church News"). He has bought a car, and has been touring England in it after the fashion of his son the Archdeacon. From January to March, he intended to visit the Continent as far east as Rome, and this month he was due back in England, as he was-to be the speaker at a Mothers'Union gathering in Norwich this month. He had teen the new Bishop of Christchurch, and •he expressed his entire delight at the appointment, being of opinion that ho was "just the man" wanted. He spent an afternoon with Bishop '{Vesti.Watson discussing the diocese, and he formed the most favourable opinion of him personally, and of his fitness for 'the episcopal work in the diocese. The Archbishop is able to walk about with greater comfort. It appears uncertain as to when he will return to New Zealand, but the new Bishop expressed the hone that he wojild return to make his .home in Christchurch. FAREWELLS IN ENGLAND. <fONE OF NATURE'S GENTLE-: MEN/' (from OL'li OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, January 26. Referring to the Mayoral farewell reception organised at Barrow on behalf of Dr. West-Watson, the "Ulyerston News'* remarks of "Our Bishop" "For an exceedingly modest man like the Bishop of Barrow to have to sit and listen to speech after speech extolling his manifold virtues at tne Town Hall must have been somewhat of a trial, but not a word was spoken that in any way over-estimated his 6 Dualities Coming among us only hve vears aao DrT Weet-Wateon has made himself highly popular. He fas done mors He has won the respect ana aa Fbjsurssftif&'Kf fJh£i a Catholics, every taratfiar a. eSSssed- by the. speaktfcAt he and Sire West-Watson and, prospe? in tho enjoyment family .K That the" Bishop will of Sood h®., himself in the hearts of soon New Zealand goes with-the-people iloori dis--sttWtfS.tr •-\ • ' .

guislied scholar and cleric, but one of Nature's gentlemen.'' Talk With People. Tlie Bishop of Barrow lias given his farew ell address to his flock at Aldingham Parish Church, Lancashire. He preferred call it a talk rather than a sermon. He said it had been a great privilege and pleasure to have charge of the historic and ancient church of Aldingham. Such old country parish churches were wonderful storehouses of the spirit of Nature, and of the traditions ot the British people. They had a stability and a continuity which one never got in the lives of towns where the surface was so often stirred by the breezes of popular things and the passing fashions of the day. In ancient country parishes liko Aldingham were stored the memories and traditions of the English race. The real strength of the country was to be found in these country places, where men seemed to come into closer touch with God. Knowing the great wider spaces of Nature, and dealing with life in so many beautiful forms—the life of the crops and oi the stock, the open sky, all bringing people nearer to God than was the in the more confined and artificial life of the cities. Ono felt in that hallowed place, memories of the days long gone by, of the men who had dug the well of spiritual life in the parish, of families who had lived in the parish for generations some of them for hundreds of years, and they had heard the same church Dells which perhaps he himself had heard for the last time, and the sound of which had grown into tlie fibre of their lives. He supposed one would miss niuch of that sort of thing in a new land, where the wells of spiritual life lia'd not yet been dug so deep as in this old country. He would carry with him the memory of many things that would , give him joy, and strength, and courage in his new sphere of work for God. He did not know whether during his five years' ministry they had learnt much from him, but he knew he had'learnt a great many things from them,.. They had allowed him to see more deeply into the real things of life, how the trials of life might be lightened by courage and sympathy, and how much they could help one another. He thought the lessons one had learnt had helped one to realise more what our Lord meant when he said: "Judge not lest ye be judged." # Mutual Help. In meeting together they realised more the difficulties of others, and the great efforts that were made to overcome them, and one also realised- more and more one's own failings and weakness. Nothing disturbed one so much as misunderstandings, which led to diversions, because there was nothing which grieved the spirit so much as diversions among Christian folks. One could not walk to the top of the hill at Aldingham and look across the broad .sands, or the lapping in of the sea, without a sense of revelation, and a realisation of the temptations to which they were prone. Perhaps one was tempted to judge rather hardly until one felt that inward revelation which brought new sympathy, new hope, new faith, and new courage. _ They had helped him, and he had tried to help them. . Sometimes people had said it must be lonely out at Aldingham, and that there could not be very much to do, but he had had very little time to be dull. He had always been so busy that he had more to do than he felt he really could do.. He impressed upon his heiarers the lessons taught by his text, and left with them as his final words, the further words of St. Paul —Faith, Hope, and Love, and the greatest of these is Love.