CHURCH AND THE MEN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 99, 28 April 1909, Page 16

CHURCH AND THE MEN.

THE C.E.M.S. IN THE COLONIES. A' VALUABLE RELIGIOUS WORK. (Fiom Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 19th March. The Oxford House in Bethnal Green has had in its time many remarkablo men as "head." The list has included Canon Heuson, the Rev. James Adderley, the present Bishop of London, Canon Wilson, and the Rev. H. S. Woollcombe. After seven and a half years' strenuous work, Mr. Woollcombe. is now resigning the postition, and has accepted the invitation of the Church of England Men's Society to travel for three years through the Empire, in order that he may strengthen and advise the branches of the C.E.M.S. already established, and help in founding new ones. The first sev.en months will be spent in Australia, and the arrangements for this period are being made by the Archbishop of Brisbane, who has lately cabledthat in order to fulfil the engagements Mr. Woolloombe will have to leave by R.M.S. Ormuz on 14th May. The Church Congress is to meet this year in Perth, West Australia, and at this gathering, as one of the invited speakers upon thu subject of "The Church and the Men," Mr. Wooll combo will ho able to touch representatives from every diocese of Australasia, and bring before them the ideal and methods of the Men's Society. At the beginning of 1910 it is proposed that the tour 'shall bo extended to New Zealand, and negotiations are in progress with a view to Mr. Woollcombe becoming one of the forerunners of the Mission of Help which is Lo visit the Dominion. India and South Africa are also upon the piogramme, but the further plans are not yet sufficiently formulated to allow of any definite state--ment. ORIGIN OF THE C.E.M.S. In the course of a short interview with the Rev. H. S. Woollcombe, a representative of the Evening Post learn-

ed that the C.E.M.S. was first started some years ago when Archbishop Tfmple was Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop Winnington-Ingram was Bishop ot Stepney. Theru were then several societies working on different lines ; these were amalgamated under the title of tha Church of England Men's Society, with its 'extraordinary simple rule of prayer and service. Each man who belongs has to be a man of prayer and be ready to undertake some work lor the Church. The word "work" is reasonably comprehensive, and means either singing in the choir, painting the church railings, {javochial work, or rendering some other assistance of pr-iotical value. Wher. the Bishops rame Home for the Lambeth Conference they were very greatly interested in hearing .about the C.E.M.S., which has had a phenomenal growth in this country. The Bishops expressed a desii-c that there should bo some sort of linking up of the whole movement aIJ over the Empire, so as to lead men to think of the Anglican Church as ono body and of the men forming it as one brotherhood. THE COLONIAL BRANCHES. Branches of the C.E.M.S. already exist in the" colonies, and the idea is that these shall kee-p in touch with the parent body at Home, but be independent in their work and have their own names. Thei'e is already an English Church Men's Society in Africa, while Australia and New Zealand could also have their own Church Men's Societies. The work of the Church is to build up J.he nation in the Dominions over the 'seas, and the C.E.M.S. helps church-^ men to Ecel that there is a great work to do in order to permeate the nation with the spirit of the Church, not in aiiy narrow sense, but in its wider idea of nationai life.

Admira' Evans, the "Fighting Bob" of the American Navy, is thus flippantly dealt vvith in a Chicago telegram published in the American papers :—"Admiral Robley D. Evans, who assisted in vanquishing Admiral Gervera and ■who later was at the head of the American battle-ship fleet on what turned out to be the greatest cruise to date, lost his first engagement last night. His humble enemy was only a poup-plate fleet of o\ ster scallops, but they penetrated his" armour belt, and for a short time made a picker man of him than the- waves of tho ocean ever have. He struck his ilag early in the evening and took to bed, but even then his tiny opponents did not give up, but harassed him considerably through the day. To-night, however, he was able to sit up and take re-enforcements of nourishment that soon restored him. Afterward he felt well enough to send down for his favourite brand of cigarette, and then chatted pleasantly of affairs, naval and otherwise, through the smoke."