OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 75, 30 March 1942, Page 6

OBITUARY

THE REV. PERCY PARIS

One .of Wellington's best-known clergymen, the Rev. Percy Reginald Paris, died suddenly last night, at the age of 59. His many good qualities won him a host of friends throughout New Zealand, and the community in general and the Methodist Church in particular will be the" poorer by his death.

Yesterday Mr. Paris had completed seven years of service at Wesley Church, Taranaki Street. He occupied the pulpit in the church as usual in the morning, und was about to .conduct the evening service when he became unwell and was taken home, where he died.

Dunedin was the birthplace of Mr. Paris, who entered the ministry of the Methodist Church in 1906. Warkworth and Otaki were the scenes of some of his earlier appointments, and later he went to Dominion Road in Auckland, and to Hamilton and St. Kilda, before coming to the position of superinten-

dent of the Wellington central circuit at Taranaki Street seven years ago.

Some 21 years ago Mr. Paris began the organisation known as the League of Young Methodists, and since then more than 8000 children have belonged to it. Among other positions he held was that of chairman of the • Youth Board of the Methodist Church. During his term in that office he was in charge of many progressive movements, such as the inauguration of the new director policy, and it was largely his wise chairmanship and sound judgment that brought that policy to successful fruition. He vacated the position of chairman of the Youth Board only last Thursday.

For many years Mr. Paris was the editor of the church publication, "The Methodist Times." At the time of his death he was chairman of the Wellington district, to which he was appointed in 1937. The New Zealand conference elected him president in 1938.

Mr. Paris will be remembered for the success of his ministries in every circuit. Well read and thoughtful, he was an able preacher, and his many personal qualities, high among which were his friendliness and his soundness of judgment, won him a wide circle of friends and admirers, both inside and outside his own church.

He leaves a widow and two daughters, Misses A. and E. Paris. A brother lives in Dunedin.

A funeral service will be held in Wesley Church on Wednesday morning and will be conducted by the Rev. F. Copeland, of Auckland, deputising for the president of the Methodist Church, who is indisposed. The cortege will then leave for the crematorium.