THE ANGLICAN MISSION

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1088, 29 March 1911, Page 23

THE ANGLICAN MISSION

-fr CONFERENCE IN LONDON. ' TIIEOSOPHY AND SOCIALISM. The Bishop of London's Evangelistic Council arranged, on February !!, a welcome homo to the Missionaries who had been working with such marked Miceess in New Zealand. It was felt very strongly that a report of their work siiould be received by some representative men. Missioners and clergy interested in New Zealand, therefore, trom all parts of England were asked to meet ciiem. The Archbishop of Canterbury celebrated the Holy Communion in Henry Vlltii Chapel, at B o'clock in the morning. After breakfast at St. Stephen's Restaurant, the Archbishop presided at the conference in Jerusalem Chamber, at 10 o'clock. lie said that in missions of this kind they were outside what was called organisation, and were touching tho very essence of their ministry and trust; nothing could be more appropriate and right than that they should try to arrive together at some estimate of tlio results which, by God's blessing, had been achieved, and take note of the mistakes, if any, which had been made, and which in similar future efforts could bo remedied. There was a real gain from that all round. There was a gain with regard io specific efforts of that kind, and a gain with regard to our missions and evangelistic efforts at Home. He-had had many communications on tho subject, while the mission was going on and afterwards, and, of course, before. He had had letters from Canon Stuart, and he had had much talk with Canon Pollock before he was called awny to higher ministries than those of earth; ancl lie happened to have heard, quite incidentally, from more than one friend in Now Zealand. Everything made him feel that tho blessing of God had, indeed, been in a specially marked way with this particular work. Canon Tnpper Carey said the first thing upon which he wished to insist most particularly was that though the Missioncrs did not in any sense represent tho English Church, and were none of them, with two or' three exceptions, very remarkable preachers, they had had a most wonderlul experience in feeling tlio power of the Holy Spirit working through' them on the hearts of the people. The fact was that people were craving for spiritual things, and in spite of their beautiful country and tho opportunities of enjoyment, there was, deep down in their hearts, a hunger for the things of the unseen spiritual, world; and there had been no sensationalism. A very small percentage of the boys in schools were thinking of taking Holy Orders, and he was bound to say! that he did not think the Church at I present had captured the - working man in that part of the world. In certain cases they had had considerable opposi- ' tion from Socialists., He was quite clear that if the Church at Home would-send out .men to work,> they would come back infinitely stronger from the experience i they had gained. Prebendary b'tuart said he could not 0( rr Mo work done by the Acw Zealand clergy, who were shouldorine a much bigger task than they could possibly undertake. All the Missioncrs had been struck by the power of prayer for the whole Mission; prayer that was being offered at homo and throughout tho whole country. ■ People rejoiced, he found, -in tho opportunity given by the daily celebrations. It was most touchto see men who had not been to tho Holy Communion for fifteen, twenty, and in one ease fifty, years, and now* came back. He was so sure of the future of the country, that it was clear that great sacrifices ought to be made for it, and men induced to go out and help in the undermanned parishes. Tho Rev. J. C. JFitzgorftld insisted on tho working of God the Holy Ghost all through the Mission in a most marvellous way. The Missioncrs had kept back no principles, they had watered down no opinion!, they had declared just what they wanted to declare, and yet there was that wpnderful spirit behind it all bringing unity out of diversity. He had been interested in seeing the amount of; tlieosophy that was taught, and he believed many of them, had found that when they Y r f . P re:, cliing the truest sacramental doctrine of tho Church it was what the ; rheosophists imagined was their teaching, and hundreds of them came back to the Communion. As to Socialism, he had had most interesting interviews with Socialists and much correspondence; lie thought that they were very behindhand in that part of the world, and told them so. Ho said. "Our Socialists at Homo have practically given up materialism; here you are rank materialists." Socialists in NewZealand saw the pettiness of the Church, in that it did _ not trouble about the problems for which Socialists were readyto die. It would be impossible, to say. too much of the splendid help the press had been throughout the whole of their time. Mr. Kennedy paid a tribute to the great value of the preparatory work done by the late Canon Pollock. The Rev. Cyril Henhor told of his experiences in silent Quaker prayer meetings at Havelock, and in that particular Mission the vibrations of the Divine nresence were powerfully felt. It seemed to reveal that, there was n power of approach to God in fellowship as well as in isolation. The Bishop of Kensington, referring to what seemed to be the activo opposition of workingmen in New Zealand, said he preferred it to the indifferenco and apathy which we have to combat. Opposition, at any rate, was life; and it was possibly truo that the reason was the same in both cases—namely, the smallness and pettiness of their aims in the eyes of the working "classes. Tho net result of the conference was an uplifting sense of the way in which men who relied on having nothing else but tho spirit of humility and prayer had been 'able to stir the hparfs and consciences of multitudes.—"The Church Times."