CHURCHES OF CHRIST

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23302, 12 April 1941, Page 12

CHURCHES OF CHRIST

NEW ZEALAND CONFERENCE AT GREYMOUTH (P.A.) GREYMOUTH, April 11. The twenty-first annual conference of the Associated' Churches of Christ is being held at Greymouth over Easter. Mr J. K. Robinson, minister of Nelson, is presiding over about 200 delegates. Dr. J. F. G. Richards (Auckland) was elected president of the Dominion conference, the location of the 1942 conference to be Wellington, when the general secretary, Mr L. R. Usmar Robinson, will deliver the conference sermon. Presenting the report of the general executive and home mission committee. Mr M. Vickery (Wellington) referred to the development in Home Mission churches and the increased qualifications of preachers. A sum of £2430 was raised for centennial aims. Two preachers were commissioned during the year, Chaplain Captain W. Harford and Chaplain Captain J. Crawford, both in the southern district. Chaplain Crawford having entered Burnham camp on January 7 with the territorials. Mr V. C. Stafford. referring to the Bible-in-Schools League, said that in almost 900 schools 100,000 children were receiving instruction in the Bible under the Nelson system. Principal A. L. Haddon, reporting on a meeting convened by the Archbishop of New Zealand for the purpose of forming a National Council of the Churches, said that Christian unity was something that should be practised as well as preached. Mr P. Bolton (Nelson), in a report on foreign mission work in Southern Rhodesia, said that the increasing responsibility of the native church was in evidence in the higher standard of education, improved, offerings, widened field of medical service, and the increased membership, of 360. Financial support from New Zealand churches increased by £719. Principal Haddon reported on the Bible College, "Glen Leith," at Dunedin. where 11 students were in training for the ministry. Two Bibls class camps, directed by the Dominion youth leader, Mr W. R. Hibburt, • being held in conjunction with the conference, are attended by , 130 young. people.