MISSIONS AND STIPENDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 5, 6 July 1939, Page 14

MISSIONS AND STIPENDS

CALLS ON CHURCH

"FIRST DUTY TO CLERGY"

Exception was taken by members of the Waikato Diocesan Synod to a report en accounts submitted by a committee last night, states the "New Zealand Herald." In the report the committee, referring to sums contributed to home, Maori, and foreign missions, said that many clergy were obliged to exist and find their owe means of transport on a weekly stipend well below the wages of a general labourer.

The committee was of the opinion that the attention of church people should be forcibly drawn to the fact that their first duty was to meet thenobligations to their clergy. When the clergy had been paid a living stipend then any surplus church folk had available might be given to outside missions. The first was a distinct obligation, the latter, in many instances, merely a sentimental gesture. Mr. R. English, chairman of the committee, said he was responsible for framing the report and he would stand by it. Mr. B. C. Lowry, another member, said he approved of the wording. DISSENTIENT VIEWS. A third member, the Rev. M. Sullivan (Te Awamutu), strongly dissented. The Rev. K. J. McFarland (Stratford) described the wording of one paragraph as an absolute dis- j grace. The Church, he said, that took no interest in foreign missions could not be successful. Canon C. W. Turner (Te Aroha) made a strong protest against the wording of the report and said that the peace of the world depended on the spread of the Gospel. Bishop Cherrington asked Synod not to accept the words literally but as an Irishism which was intended to j draw the attention of the people to j the needs of the home and Maori mission fields. In 1927 he had advocated that not one halfpenny should go to foreign missions until the diocese had put its own house in order. One result was that the lot of the Maori missions had been greatly improved, although a great deal remained to be done.

MAORI MISSION WORK. Not a word had been said at the present Synod about the Maori mission work, he added. Either the mem- ; bers were satisfied or they did not care I "two hoots" about it. An increased ( number of helpers was needed in the ] mission field. [ Bishop Cherrington said that the Auckland Diocese did not care two '■ straws about the Maoris in the area taken over by the Waikato Diocese before that diocese was formed. Today there were only 300 Maori communicants iv the Waikato Diocese. It could certainly be said, he added, that .the Maoris as a whole were nonChristian. It was a scandal that it should be so and that more money should not be made available for the Maori mission field. The Rev. F. Long, secretary oi the Board of Missions, said he was greatly distressed by the wording oi' the report and asked that vit be reframed. A division took place on the motion that the report be referred back and the wording altered. The motion was declared lost and the report originally presented was received.