THE BISHOP-ELECT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1077, 16 March 1911, Page 4

THE BISHOP-ELECT.

The announcement that the Rev. T. H. Sprott, Vicar.ofeSt. Paul's. Thorndon, has decided to meet the practically unanimous wish of the Diocesan Synod by accepting the Bishopric of Wellington will be received with the greatest satisfaction by members of the Anglican Church throughout New Zealand, and by his numerous friends and well-wishers among all sections of the community. The desiro that he should accept the high position for which he has been nominated by the ' Synod has been so cordially and emphatically expressed on every side that only most imperative reasons could have . justified Me. Sprott in disappointing the diocese by a refusal, and now that his decision has been made known ho may rely upon tho loyal and whole-hearted" help of both clergy and laity in his new sphere of labour. The laymen of the Church can do a great deal by relieving tho new Bishop of as much as possible of what may be called the machinery work of the diocese, and thus enable him to devote himself more effectually to the more spiritual side of the Bishop's office.' Both in England' and other parts of the world some of the ablest Anglican Bishops have felt that there is a serious danger of the machinery and prganisation of their dioceses thrusting into the background those higher things apart from which the very existence of the machinery has no justification. This feeling of resistance to the encroachment of the mechanical in the sphere of the spiritual was entertained by such distinguished Churchmen as Archbishop Benson, and Bishops Stubbs, Ckeigiiton, Moorhouse, and others. On one occasion Dr. Moorhouse stated his policy in his characteristic way as follows: "The Kingdom of Christ first, the Church of England _ncxt,_ and obedience to statute law in minute details next. That ..is the order in which I look at things." Again and again Dit. Srams,;.;thc great historian Bishop, directed : his keen weapons of ridicule, epigram and irony against the excessive waste of time over the machinery of his office. He relieved tho tedium of one meeting which he regarded as of no practical use by writing the following lines:

To the "I'Etat e'est .moi" of Louis "lo R9l" A parallel case I afford. Something like it, you see, may Ik said about me; Am I not a Diocesan Bored?

On another occasion he wrote: "Oh, the wearing weariness of it all! Once the earth was without form and void; now it is full of forms and does not cease to be void, judging by empty heads and hard chairs," Archdishop Benson is reported to have- stated that "the Bishops of England will soon be a name without a meaning. They are Bishops of dioceses—good diocesan Bishops— not Bishops of England." It is to be hoped that the Anglican clergy and laity of the diocese of Wellington will gave their new Bishop, time and opportunity to be a Bishop of New Zealand, and not merely a chairman of trust boards and a sort of inspector-gen-eral of diocesan machinery.