PRESBYTERIAN ALLIANCE

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26513, 30 August 1951, Page 2

PRESBYTERIAN ALLIANCE

MISS BEATRICE LAVERY’S ADDRESS Miss Beatrice Lavery, of Northern Ireland, who is visiting New Zealand on behalf of the women’s section of the World Presbyterian Alliance, addressed a meeting of women at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Cashel street, yesterday afternoon, when she was accorded a warm welcome.

Miss Lavery has already visited Canada, the United States, and Australia, and after touring the Dominion in the interests of her church, she will go to India for several months before returning to Belfast. The Rev. Stuart Francis presided at the meeting yesterday, and introduced Miss Lavery who, he said, was a Justice of the Peace, secretarytreasurer of the women’s section of the World Presbyterian Alliance, a leader in women’s work in Belfast and a representative of a great sister church in Northern Ireland.

Miss Lavery, after acknowledging gratefully the welcome accorded her in all countries she had visited, asked her hearers to focus their thoughts, not on the church in their own land but on the world church. “It is useless," she said, “to delude ourselves into thinking that we can isolate ourselves from others; our way of life is challenged, and the manner in which we accept that challenge will greatly affect the future. Let us accept the challenge with courage and strive to make the world beautiful by bringing its people closer to God in every way.’’ Miss Lavery explained that the World Presbyterian Alliance was formed to unify the 100 different types of Presbyterian churches, that were fundamentally similar ii\ their attitude to God. It had also for many years interested itself in the ecumenical movement, which had gained in strength in recent times, and an important phase of its work was the helping of weaker churches especially in Europe, where the churches were loyal but not financially strong. Many displaced persons from these countries were amongst the new settlers that had come or were coming to New Zealand and she asked her hearers to welcome them on their arrival and befriend them, especially their co-religionists.

The strength and importance of women’s work In the Presbyterian Church were commended by Miss Lavery who said she believed firmly that women should be appointed elders of the church and should be eligible for ordination. Women in the church in the East, she said, were rapidly improving their status and it would be ironical if the women who were taught by missionaries sent from the West should attain positions in the church higher than those occupied bv the women of the Western countries.

Mrs A. L. Sutherland thanked Miss Lavery for her address.