METHODIST CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 48, 24 February 1917, Page 6

METHODIST CONFERENCE

BUSINESS SESSION

TRANSFERS AND RESIGNATIONS.

The Rev. F. W. Sinclair, president, occupied the chair at to-day's business session of the New Zealand Methodist Conference. ' • .

'The resignation of the Rev. A. B. Chappell, M.A., recently appointed register of the Auckland University, was received. It. was decided to retain his name on the' minutes of the conference as minister without pastoral charge. The resignation of the Rev. Richard Wilson, who has been without pastoral charge on account o£ ill-health, was received and accepted. The president and other members eulogised the work done by Mr. \Vilson, and expressed sympathy with him. It was instructed that a suitable letter be sent to him.

After numerous ballots had been taken, Mr.' W. Dobbs, of Sydenham, Christchurch, was finally declared elected as extra lay member of the Stationing Committee.

Tire Rev.-H. Ryan, who had been been acting as Home Missionary at Tau-' ranga, and who is a member of the British Primitive Methodist Church, was admitted as a member of the New Zealand Conference on financial probation for one year, and medical probation for three years. It was decided to send an invitation by cable to the Rev. H. Andrews, a prominent member of the New South Wales Conference, to come to New Zealand to replace the R«v. C Simms. The Rev. W. Beckett (Lower Hntt) applied for a transfer to the Victorian Conference on account of the ill-health of a relative, and it was agreed to endeavour to arrange this. The president stated that Mr. Beckett's loss would be,a severe one. '

THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE TO CLOSE

Owing to the conditions arising out of the war, a recommendation to close the Theological Training College at Dunholme, Auckland, for the present year was received from a special committee, and,.agreed to. It was decided that the property should be retained for the present, and that the principal (the Rev. C. H. Garland) be appointed to an Auckland circnit. Any students unfit for mliitary service will' be employed in the ordinary church work. • ADMITTED AS MINISTERS. The following were admitted as ministers in full connection with the Conference :—Robert B. Gosnell (who had travelled five years), Percy Bathey and Harold T. Peat. All will be ordained on Tuesday night. The Revs. 0. A. Foster and S. J. Werren were passed in third year of probation; the Revs. A.,'J» L. Minifie and W. Q-. Slacfe, second year; and the Revs. George E. Brown., Charles H. Kindon, Ernest E. Sage, and Robert W. Fordyce, first year, the latter to complete. . ■ '. [ The following probationers, engaged in military duties, were placed on the president's list of reserves, their stations to be decided on their return :—Frederick, B. Lawrence, William A. Watson, Arthur A. Bensley, Oswald Burnett, Francis T. Harris, Robert B. Speirs, Josepr R. Sullivan, Percy I. Cooke, Aidwyn R. Gordon, M.A., Henry H. Marshall, Henry J. Odell, and E. R. Warbnrton.