THE WELLINGTON BISHOPRIC.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1071, 9 March 1911, Page 4

THE WELLINGTON BISHOPRIC.

e The decision of the Anglican Synod of the Diocese of Wellington to offer the bishopric, rendered vacant by the resignation of Dit. Wallis, to the Hev. T. H. Speott, Vicar of St. Paul's, will meet with very general Approval among members of the Anglican Church throughout New Zealand, and Me. SrßOTr's many friends among the adherents of other Churches, and the community at large will be glad to hear of this well-merited offer of promotion to the highest offico in the Church. One of the questions the Synod had to consider was whether a local man- should be selected, or whether they should look to some other New Zealand diocese or to another branch of the Anglican Communion for a successor to Bisuop Wallis. The former course having been chosen, it was almost inevitable that the choicc should fall on Mr. Speott; indeed, the same would no doubt have been equally inevitable if the area of selection had been extended to the whole of New Zealand. As a matter of fact, all 'the leading clergymen of the Dominion are well known to members of the Synod, and it was open ,to anyone to have nominated a man, from some other diocese. . In view cf these facts it is indeed a high compliment to Mr. Spkott that no other nomination was forthcoming, and that the election was practically unanimous. It is a splendid tribute both to his ability and to his personal character. In scholarship the Vicar of St. Paul's is the equal of any Churchman in New Zealand; and he is much more than a mere scholar, for he has the facility of taking a broad and liberal outlook on men and things, and has kept fully abreast of all the great .movements, of modem thought in its various phases. In addition io this he knows the cliocesa well ; he has a practical and personal knowledge of the clcrgy and their work; a.nd if, as is. hopjd, he accepts the high honour.offered .to him, he will certainly prove a layman's bishop in the best sense of the word. Fow men understand the lay mind better than he does, and there is no Churchman in the Dominion, and not a great number outside of it, able to give the average man a wiser and more level-headed intellectual lead in dealing with the great and pressing problems which the now learning has raised in the sphere of religion.

In sketching in a recent issue the ideal bishop for a diocese like Wellington, wc quoted a remark of Profilssor Sadler, an. eminent English educationist, to the effect that a religious leader in these days should bo "a man with courage and independence of mind, who has faced the issues for himself,' and who'speaks without flinching the truth to which he has fought his way." These remarks can be applied without qualification to the Vicar of St. Paul's. All his considered utterances on the intellectual questions of the day show that he hai personally grappled with them and has worked out his conclusions for himself, and thus he inspires that confidence which is necessary to successful leadership. His rcccntly-publishcd work on the Old Testament, considered in the light of the new knowledge, proves him to bo a master of the best modern methods of Biblical scholarship, and one who is prepared fearlessly to accept the established results of the Higher- Criticism without adopting all the extravagant' views of extreme Continental critics. It remains now to be seen whether Mr. Sprott will meet the wishes of the Synod and accept the position of bishop of the diocese which has been offered to him. The practically unanimous desire of the clergy and laity that he should be the new Bishop of Wellington must have great weight with him, and we fed sure that it will be a great disappointment to members of the Anglican Church and to the community as a whole if he should feel compelled to decline the honour; for it must be ?. source of pride and satisfaction to every New Zealander that one of themselves should have been so unanimously and unhesitatingly considered worthy to occupy the high office of Bishop of Wellington.