N.S.W. Church Worker In Christchurch

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29745, 12 February 1962, Page 2

N.S.W. Church Worker In Christchurch

The South Pacific Methodist Youth conference, held in Fiji last September, served a dual purpose for one delegate. Miss Beth James, from New South Wales, not only found the conference “inspiring, valuable, and too great an experience to miss,” but it led her to apply for membership of the Methodist Order of St. Stephen in New Zealand.

A 22-year-old school-teacher, Miss James is the first worker to come from overseas for the order, which requires one y ear’s voluntary service for the Methodist Church. She arrived in Christchurch last week and will soon begin duties in the Durham street circuit.

Yesterday. Miss James id that an Order of St. Stephen had not yet been founded in Australia, but was being investigated there. After feeling for a long time that she would like to give greater service to her church, she found the answer when she met Nev.’ Zealanders who spoke of the order at the Fiji conference. Formerly held only for Methodist youth of Tonga, Fiji and Samoa, conference had been open to members from all South Pacific areas for the first time, Miss James said yesterday. Delegates attended from Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia and many small islands, the idea being to bring South Pacific youth together to share in fellowship. Tutorials, in which Australians and New

Zealanders spoke of their experience in youth work, helped the islanders towards training their own youth leaders.

"The island people are so keen to learn more of Christianity and to serve God, and we have much to learn from them,” Miss James said. Their enthusiasm, their hospitality and care for others rather than themselves were most impressive features. Many would think nothing of arriving an hour before a church service to sing and pray. Such was the desire for service among them that they now wished to establish their own self-controlled missions so they could themselves go as missionaries to other islands, and among their own people, as teachers and leaders. 1300 Attended

Thirteen hundred attended the conference, two thirds of whom were Tongains, Fijians and Samoans. The daily routine included Bible studies. prayer meetings and discussion groups following the theme ‘‘One Lord, One World."

After returning to Australia. Miss James applied to the New Zealand Methodist Board of Christian Education in Wellington, offering to serve for the Order of St. Stephen. Her work in Christchurch will be mainly concerned with youth and she will also visit the sick and aged in the circuit. To qualify for the order she will have to give a year of service to the church without payment. The order was founded about 11 years ago by the Methodist Board of Christian Education. It comprises members of the Methodist Christian Youth Movement who

have given a year's voluntary service, and admission is conferred by the board at a ceremony of reception, when a badge of the order is presented. A dedication service is usually held at the beginning of the year’s work. During the year, board and travelling expenses are paid by the church, but candidates have to find all their own pocket money. St Stephen was the first Christian martyr.

Miss James has done much work for the Methodist Church in Australia. She has a local preacher’s certificate, and usually took a service each Sunday in one of the 12 churches in her circuit. To qualify for the certificate. she had to study a set syllabus of books, which covered the Old and New Testaments and theology. English was included if the student had not gained an Intermediate Certificate or Leaving Certificate at school. Students sat a written examination. did six trial services and were accredited as local preachers on the approval of the Quarterly Meeting (a body of representatives of each church in the circuit). Miss James also did Sunday School and youth fellowship work, and was in charge of a group of the Rays Society—an organisation for girls between nine and 14 years, organised on the same lines as New Zealand’s Methodist Girls’ Life Brigade. Miss James said yesterday that she would probably return to teaching in Australia on completion of her service in New Zealand, but would like to see a little more of the Dominion.