METHODIST CONFERENCE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 58, 4 March 1909, Page 3

METHODIST CONFERENCE.

(New Zealand Times.)

On Monday the sittings of the Weslevan Methodist Conference were continued at Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, the Rev. Thomas Fee presidinS' PROPERTY MATTERS.

The Rev. Henry Bull (connexional secretary) presented a report upon Church property, announcing that the debt upon Church buildings had been reduced, since the inauguration of the Church Building and Loan Fund from 25 per cent, to 14J per cent., resulting in an annual saving of interest aggregating £20,000. l>etails of the operations m Wellington district. during the year were given. The committee's general statement showed under the head of properties the following increases as compared with the returns .of 1907:—Church and parsonage sites, £3742 19s; erection and enlargement of churches, £3026 0s 8d; erection and enlargement'of schoolrooms, £528; erection of parsonages,; £868 6s 6d; other ■buildings, £3308 3s 6d; the total increases for the year being £11,0 16 The total cost of land and buildings reported amounted to £380 860 9s 3d bearing a total debt of £64,172 7s lid. Of this sum, £55,190 15s 3d is upon ordinary securities, and £8981 to the; church building and loan fund, free of interest, thus saving to the trustees some £500 for the ' Deducting land values from buildIngs, the cost of value of the latter amounts to £315,009 0s Bd. On this there are insurances from risk of fire, amounting to £215,372. The amount levied on the trusts by the connexional fire insurance fund is £151,»oo, leaving a balance of £63,484, representing the amount insured in. the offices of the fire insurance companies of the Dominion. Under the head of current trust accounts, tlje annual income, £32,----fOl 3s Bd, showed a falling off of nearly a thousand pounds. This was more than accounted for by the shortage from "subscriptions and donations." The other items of current income were well sustained, and indeed in excess of 1907. The falling off of- income at this point, viz., subscriptions and. donations, would, sta-fc-■«d the report, be the identical source where stringency might be expected to begin in any decline of financial prosperity. A hopeful feature, however, is presented by the fact that the debit balances, £4724 13s lid, ■carried forward, are less by nearly £300 than were the debit lalances for the previous year. Resolutions of thanks to donors of church sites, including th© anonymous donor of a site at Worser Bay, were adopted, and the report was agreed to. , FIRE INSURANCE. The connexional fire insurance fund committee's report indicated that the total insurance value of •Church property on which levies are now paid is £151,888, distributed over the districts as follows: ■ —Auckland, £24,533; Wanganui, £16,215; Wellington, £18,204; Nelson, £10,----.355; Canterbury, £56,126; Otago, £26,455. Fires in two churches had occurred during the year. One'was promptly .suppressed after very slight damage. The other, at Blenheim, promised to be of a much more serious character, as it would have been but for the heroic efforts of a few who fought -the flames. The fund's share of the loss slightly exceeded £50. After meeting these losses and providing for re-insurances and the working expenses of the fund, the ■committee had added £300 to the investments, leaving a cash balance of £79 4s 2d, nearly £40 in excess of last year. The connexional secretary mentioned that £2750 now stood to the credit of the fund. j The report was adopted. CONNEXIONAL SECRETARY. A special vote, of thanks was accorded to the Rev. Henry Bull for the •efficient manner in which he had performed the exacting duties of the office of connexional secretary during the year, and Mr Bull was re-appoint-ed. METHODIST MEN'S BANQUET. In the evening the whole of the delegates to the conference, about 180 in number, in company with over a hundred representative laymen from the Wellington churches, sat down to a banquet in the Town Hall conceit • chamber. The chairman was the Rev. C. H. Garland, of Nelson. After calling upon the assemblage to do honour to "The King," to which a most hearty response was made, the chairman congratulated the young men of Wellington Methodism for striking upon such an unique method of marking the conference as that of the banquet, which ■• was, indeed, the very first he re-

membered in connection with their annual gatherings. The idea of the banquet was that the brethren should sit down at table together, should realise the cohesion ofr the Church, and should appreciate the fact that if they worked their organisation properly the Methodists could sway the world It was an idea which reflected the highest credit upon the young men who were its originators. "The Contribution of Methodism to Modern Life" was the title of the address given by the Rev. \\. blade, of Dunedin. First, however, he went back to the beginning of the eighteenth century, and described the state of the times when the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, was born and spent the earlier years of his life The condition of Gociety then, he said, was such as tp call urgently for what was now known as the great evangelical revival, the foremost figure of which was that of Wesley himself. He was no narrow ecclesiastic, bent solely upon the work of saving souls, but had a large, broad outlook and recognised that religion should permeate every department or life. Methodism, he claimed, had changed the character of religion m England, and had entered fully into the life of the country. A wonderful effect had been produced upon other churches by the Methodist revival, and in every way its influence had been markedly noticeable in all departments of modern life. Apart altogether from its armies of adherents and its thousands of ministers, the Methodist Church had had much ta do with all movements for the amelioration of modern living conditions —many of such movements, in fact, had had their origin m it. In short, the contribution of Methodism to modern life was so great that it could not be measured. It had attacked all the problems the solution of which was of such importance to the people of to-day. He thanked God that Methodism stood m the front of all movements for bringing to men in this earthly life what they could know as the Kingdom of God. The second speaker was Mr H. JN. Holmes, secretary of the Wellington V.M.C.A., whose subject was lhe Call of the Methodist Church to its Laymen."' As showing to what the Church had grown, he first stated that to-day Methodism had 49,000 ministers, 30,000,000 hearers 88,000 separate churches, and reached b,00U,----000 scholars: Methodism in the United States.raised'£4,ooo,ooo as a centenary < effort, the largest sum raised by any church in a single effort in Christian history. It was due to the manner in which it had used its laymen and given them a frank partnership in its spiritual and financial affairs. Some of its most magnificent victories had been won by its laymen., In fact, Wesley had been aptly described as the discoverer of the possibilities of laymen, for no other church had used them m the way that Methodism did. The Rev. C. H. Laws, 8.A., of Dunedin, followed by speaking on "Our Programme for the Next Five Years.'.' One of the greatest dangers into which New Zealand Methodism was like to fall, he thought, was a state of querulous and despairing complaint. But that would not do, and they must strive all they could to rid themselves of it. No man advertised decadence in his own business, and all knew that they were more likely to improve conditions by putting a bright face upon them, even if they were. bad. Why should New Zealand Methodists do what no sensible business man would do?— and yet there were Jeremiahs who went about speaking of the decadence in the Church. There was nothing the matter with their Methodism, and all it wanted to make it go forward by leaps and bounds was an increase in leadership. They had to remember that they were in a rapidly-developing country, where the calls for church extension were loud and insistent. The Church simply could not afford to neglect those who were going out into tho backblocks to settle the country. A great problem was also presented in the cities, where was growing up a preat non-church-going class to which the Church did not appeal at all. If they neglected to make full provision

for dealing with this problem they would have failed in their work.