RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1108, 22 April 1911, Page 9

RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY.

FREE CHURCH COUNCIL. MEETINGS AT PORTSMOUTH. Free Churchmen from all parts of England and Wales attended the National Free Church Council, which opened at Portsmouth on March G. All sections of the community united to welcome the visitors. Tho Vicar of Portsea, in his parish magazine, exhorted his parishioners to extend to the council a most brotherly welcome. The response of Church people to tho invitation to extend hospitality to the Free Church delegates has been, as one of tho speakers at tho reception said, remarkable for its spontaneity and cordiality. Tho Mayoral reception at tho Town Hall w-as remarkable more for its numbers than its opportunities of social intercourse. The guests not only crowded every corner of tho spacious auditorium, but swarmed into the galleries and packed the corridors till moving became a matter of extreme difficulty. The Vicar of Portsmouth and tho Rev. Pi. S. Medlicott, rural dean, who were most heartily, received, trusted that the deliberations of the- council would bo fruitful. The latter remarked that there was a great yearning for the union of Christendom. Thero - were many signs that. God's spirit was moving on tho l'aco of the waters, and, though visible unity might be a dream of the future, they could all work and pray for a closer unity, and, above all, labour to set their own house in order. Dr. Jowett, ' who was looking pale and tired, was accorded a vociferous greeting when ho rose to reply. In a graceful referenco to tho speech of welcome by the Vicar of Portsmouth, ho said Churchmen and Free Churchmen were c-omiiig nearer together; they were entering tho larder and finding" bread supplied by Westcott, Liddon, Gore, "and others, and oven Dr, Westcott was indebted to the bread which he found in the larder nf Dr. Dale. Surely, as they thus exchanged tlio staff of their religion, they must realise that they were feeding on Christ, who was tho bread of life. The Rev. Charles Brown delivered tho presidential address; selecting for his subject "The Present Truth." Ho explained that by the present truth he meant tho facts and duties and necessities of the hour as they, revealed themselves to Free Churchmen. Beginning with political affairs, Mr. Brown said the Free Church Council was not primarily a political institution, and ho would protest with all his might against the council being tied to the tail of any political party. But to demand that as individuals they should refrain from political affairs, and that as a council they should take no action and express no opinion on. political questions and movomonts, was to make a demand absurd and impossible. "Why should all Free Church ministers be debarred from active participation in all Stnlo functions lilto tlio Coronation? Why should the chaplain of the people's House of Representatives always be an Episcopalian ? Why should not a Freo Church minister's voice be heard thero occasionally asking for Divine guidance? Why should our ministers bo excluded from exercising their ministry in the groat cathedrals like St, Paul's and Westminster Abbey, which .really belong to the nation?" Referring to the prevailing and growing desiro for Christian unity, Mr. Brown said they would be seriously lacking in the grace of Christian courtesy if they did not warmly respond to.any and every advance made by' the mciiibers. of the. Anglican Church. -. But cooperation must bo'on "the" basis of a frank recognition of each other's Cliurchmanship, and the equality of their standing in the Christian faith. Mr. Brown concluded-with a strong appeal that all Freo Churchmen should realise their own unity, and strive together to work out the ideal of a Freo Church of England which should embrace all denominations and sections of the Church of Christ. The president nominated as his successor the Rev. Tlios. Mitchell, an expresident of the Primitive Methodist Church. Mr. Mitchell is one of the most experienced of evangelists, a Methodist statesman,- an indefatigable promoter of Primitive Methodist interests, and since his retirement- from the active ministry lias been busily engaged in assisting Sir W. P. Hartley in the judicious distribution of his wealth. Mr.,' Mitchell briefly acknowledged tlio honour conferred upon him. Mr. Gcorgo Cadbury, Sir J. Compton Rickett, and Mr. T. R, Fercns wore unanimously reappointed treasurers, and amid great enthusiasm tho Rev. F. Bi Mover was reappointed lion, secretary.