ANGLICAN CHURCH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 118, 20 April 1931, Page 8

ANGLICAN CHURCH

PASTORAL LETTER. HELP FOR WAIAPU DIOCESE. The following pastoral letter from the Bishop of Wellington, Rt. Rev. Dr. Sprott, was read in All Saints’ Church, Palmerston North, , yesterday, and in other Anglican churchas throughout the diocese, the letter constituting an appeal for help for those members of the Church who suffered in the Waiapu Diocese as a result of the big earthquake : “At a recent meeting of the standing committee of the diocese the following resolution was passed: ‘ln order to give effect to the Archbishop’s appeal the Bishop be respectfully asked to issue an earnest pastoral appeal for help towards the very urgent needs of the Church in the Diocese of Waiapu, such pastoral letter to be read in all churches, and that vicars be asked to emphasise the reason for the appeal and to arrange for an organisation in each district for the collection of funds for (1) the personal needs of the Waiapu clergy, and (2) the re-habilitation of church buildings in that Diocese.’ You have all doubtless read the letter of His Grace the Archbishop; published in the Press and also in our own Church Chronicle, giving some account of the devastating losses suffered by our fellow-churchmen in the Diocese of Waiapu. Since that letter was published, fuller details have come to Hand from Ven. Archdeacon Maclean, giving the surveying architect’s estimate of the cost of repairing or replacing the damaged buildings. “The urgent repairs are estimated to cost over £22,000. It is to be noted that this sum does not include the cost of restoration of the Cathedral, which must be postponed for maiiy, years, but provides for the erection of a temporary church only, at a cost of £3500, to serve the needs of the Cathedral parish. Further, it includes no provision for the re-building of the Deanery, which ■was totally destroyed. Beyond this figure for repairs,. losses of destroyed property are estimated at £79,000, making a total loss of a little over £IOO,OOO. “In addition to this, the Church authorities find themselves unable to pay the stipends of the clergy and lay workers, or to provide the balance of their quota to the Board of Missions. As to this last item, the executive of the Board of Missions has by resolution expressed a hope that it will be made good by the other dioceses, our share for this year being £4OO. When we remember that our fellow churchmen in Waiapu suffered private losses equally with the rest of the community, it is quite clear that they cannot, out of their own resources, reconstitute the work of he Church, and that the other Dioceses in New Zealand must make a strenuous effort to assist them—an effort which I think must be extended over some years to come. I am fully aware tHat there could be no more inopportune time for issuing an appeal. Already there have been appeals for the unemployment fund and for the earthquake fund, to which I think the people generally have made a splendid response, especially when the very serious financial depression is taken into account. Further, I am painfully aware that most of our own parishes and districts are suffering from the financial stringency. Nevertheless, as Church people, we cannot ignore the claims of our fellow churchmen, and therefore I very earnestly commend those claims to your most sympathetic notice. “We certainly must do our utmost to help them, if possible along the lines suggested by the standing committee. So we may show that our brotherhood in the Church is a reality. St. Paul has taught us that the Church is a body in which the members are so closely bound together in Christ, the Head of the Church, that if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. ‘Therefore,’ as St. Paul says, ‘as we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.’ ”