HISTORIC EPISODE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 121, 26 May 1925, Page 11

HISTORIC EPISODE

INAUGURATION OF DIOCESE OF

POLYNESIA

ANGLICAN CHURCH IN THE

PACIFIC.

(BY TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) AUCKLAND, This Day. An historic episode in the life of th 0 Anglican Church in the .South Pacific was enacted at Suva last week when the synod of the diocese of Polynesia was duly constituted; and the foundation laid for a well-directed spiritual campaign over a wide expanse of islanddotted ocean embraced by the diocese. Formerly the diocese was under the control of the Bishop of London, and was administered by the Bishop of Polynesia, but at the last General .Synod'of the church of the Province of New Zea.land, the Pacific "area was made an integral part of the province,' and by an net.-of real self-abnegation, Bishop Kempthorne has now transferred the administration'of his territory to. Synod with headquarters at Suva. Additional interest was lent to the proceedings at Suva last week by the presence of Archbishop Averill, who, with, the Rev. R. George Coats, vicar of-the Church of the Epiphany, made a special .trip, to Fiji to be present at the inaugural meetings. It was at first intended-that the Synod should be held at Levukit; the oW "capital of Fiji, where the clergy'and members of the laity were to gather, but the prevalence of typhoid fever made inter-island travelling unwise, and the meetings were held in. Suva. Many who had intended to be present were not able, in consequence, to .make the trip. .However, the Rev. H. A. Fa veil, of labasa. an island of Vami'a Levu! was among those present,, and the Tougan group, one of the ouilving portions of the diocese, was represented by the Rev. Sang Mark, a Chinese missionary. Archbishop Averili had also intended visiting some of the centres on Vamia Levu, where many of the oldest residents of the group are adherents of the church, but this was also rendered impossible by the epidemic restrictions