CLERGY STIPENDS

Evening Star, Issue 17489, 21 October 1920, Page 10

CLERGY STIPENDS

ACTION BY AUCKLAND ANGLICAN SYNOD. [Pes Uwited Prsss Assocuttox.} . AUCKLAND, October 20. The inadequate stipends now paid to the clergy of the Anglican Church were discussed by the Auckland Synod yesterday. Mr C. J. Tunks stated that the clergv of the Anglican Church were not receiving the increased wages paid to industral workers, yet. they were subject to the same heavy expenses, with the addition of many private calls on their purse and their position to maintain. The report of the committee appointed by the General Synod stated that the 6cale*of stipends in the majority of cases was wholly insufficient for the services rendered, and was quite inadequate for the support of clergy. Stipends paid to Maori clergy weTe so low as hardly to amount to payments at all, and it_ was impossible for the6e men to live without supplementing their incomes by farming or "other pursuits. In the opinion of the committee, it would be impossible if the present state of things wad not remedied to find men for the ministry, unless a much lower standard was adopted. Thecommittee respectfully submitted to the bishops that no license should be issued for filling of a cure unices an adequate stipend was assured, and that it would be better to treat eparsely-popri-lated districts as exceptional cases" to be met by visitation of bush brotherhoods, and to be worked as mission districts under archidiaconal control, than to station young, inexperienced, and underpaid men in such districts under hopeless conditions. The financial position of clergymen was discussed at length, several members, detailing personal experiences. Several laymen, while admitting that the Anglican Church was behind the other denominations in the payment of adequate stipends, said that laymen were willing to assist; but they did not fully realise the difficulties, owing to the reticence of the clergy , themselves. In regard to the stipends paid by parochial districts, it was urged that renumeration should be sufficient to give the children of those clergy the same advantages of education as were enjoyed by the children of the city clergy. Recommendations of the recent laymen's meeting were adopted, and Synod passed resolutions altering the diocesan regu'ations so as to provide that ordinary travelling expenses of the clergy, proper to the work of the cure, shall always be paid by the vestry of the parish or by the parochial district, so that the stipend actually paid to a clergyman shall be entirely" at his own disposal, and that in the case of the home mission districts the Standing Committee shall provide travelling expenses apart from the stipend paid to clergymen. It was resolved that the minimum stipend of the vicar of a parish shall be £350, and that the Standing Committee be asked to take immediate steps to secure a substantial increase in the income of the central fund. A resolution was also passed that all parochial districts should endeavor to pay a minimum stipend of £3OO and travelling expenses. The organising eecretarv of the centra! fund (the Rev. J. 1,. A. Kayll) said that unless concerted effort was made to build it up, the fund might ere long be in a dangerous financial position. The aggregate amount of stipends under £3OO was £2,000, and the speaker asked for £I.OOO a year for the fund. If 40 churchmen would give £25 a vear the Standing Committee could subsidise £ for £ the parishes which required to raise their existing stipends to £3OO. The Synod passed a resolution directing the Standing Committee to give special attention to the stipends of Maori clergy, with a view to giving them immediate relief.

A scale of remuneration for clergy performing occasional relieving service's was agreed upon. It was resolved that where the parish to which relieving ministers travelled paid the vicar a stipend of £3OO the fee shouid be £3 for each Sunday, with an additional £1 for each extra £IOO of stipend, with a maximum of £7 in a parish paying a stipend of £7OO, travelling expenses and hospitality to be also provided by the parish. The president of the Synod (Archdeacon G. M'Murray) made an appeal for funds amounting to £2.000 per annum in order to raise the stipends of clergy to a- minimum of £3OO a year. A gentleman had announced that he would give £IOO to the central fund on condition that another £9OO was raised, and he had given the General Synod six months to do this. An other churchman had" offered a donation of £25 per annum on condition that 39 others would do the same, and already five Dersons had (riven similar rjromiaes.