Presbyterian Assembly Opens In Christchurch

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30275, 30 October 1963, Page 13

Presbyterian Assembly Opens In Christchurch

The Rt. Rev. J. S. Murray. Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand, was led to his induction by five past moderators at the opening service of the 1963 General Assembly in St Paul's Church last night. The assembly of 421 members was constituted by the retiring Moderator (the Rt. Rev. M. W Wilson), in the presence of a congregation which filled the church and overflowed into the church hall. Loudspeakers relayed the proceedings in the church to the ball.

Each charge is entitled to send either a minister or elder to the General Assembly Each is a fully independent member and is not representative in the sense of a delegate. Two hundred and s xteen ministers and 156 elders are included in the present assembly. The supreme purpose and endeavour of every assembly of the Church should be “to discern the leading of the Holy Spirit and to follow.” the retiring Moderator told the newly-constituted assembly.

"Today, as ever since Penteeost. the Holy Spirit is active in the world.” he said. ‘He is opening men’s mint's to new visions of truth, quickening their imaginations sirring their wills, leading them into new ways of understanding and service

. . there is evidence of His movements in the ecumenical movement, in the growing

concern about the ministry of the laity, and in stewardship. in the liturgical revival, in the rediscovery of the Bible.”

To perform its task the assembly needed humility, “which means an open, teachable mind, willing to learn what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church," and a sincerity of a single-hearted purpose to follow where the Holy Spirit led. said Mr Wilson.