C.E.M.S.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 142, 17 May 1929, Page 4

C.E.M.S.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE. Per Press Association. OAMARU, May 15. The annual Dominion Conference of the Church of England Men’s .Society opened here to-day. Among the visitors are Bishop Cherriigton (Waikato) Bishop AYest-Watr.on (Christ- . church), and Bishop_ Richards (Dunedin), also Mr W. Nash, secretary of ; the New Zealand Parliamentary Labour Party. The visiting delegates, ot ! whom tliero are 39, were accorded a ■ civic welcome this evening by the j Mayor (Mr F. Crawshaw). . | At the opening session, the following officers were elected: President, i Bishop Richards; vice-president, Mr J Snell (Wellington); Dominion secretary, Rev. F. S. Ransom (Petone); Dominion Council, the Archbishops and bishops of the province. Revs. W. Raine (Carterton), Archdeacon Russell (Oamaru), G. C. Blatliwayt (Island Bay), A. Lambert (Christchurch), Brothers Baker (Wellington), Chapman (Waikato), Rayner (Auckland), Naslr (Dunedin); Dominion executive, Brothers J. Snell, F. S. Ransom, J. N. Henderson, W. Nash and Ivev. N. o. Barnett. . , , It was deckled that the society be organised on a diocesian basisj though provision was made for a Dominion organisation to keep the dioceses in touch with each other. In the evening addresses were given by Mr Nash and Bishop Cherrington. The latter urged a reunion of the churches, and said that there wus much to hope for in this respect, but there was little ground for hope and confidence if they looked upon reunion as a dream which could not he fulfilled. “Things today are not as they were fifty years ago,” he said, “and tire tendency now is to unite and come together, not to separate and divide.”