MAORI BISHOPRIC

Northern Advocate, 26 July 1935, Page 7

MAORI BISHOPRIC

UNIFICATION OF WORK. RESOLUTIONS AT CONFERENCE. fSpecial to “Northern Advocate/’j , ROTORUA, This Day. Important discussions toward the unification of the work of the Anglican Church among the Maori race have been taking place at the first conference of the Aotearoa Bishopric, which completed a three days’ session at Ohinemutu late last night. The conference was • attended by 36 Maori clergy and 20 lay representatives from practically all Maori pastorates in the North Island. Bishop Bennett presided arid the discussions were entirely in the Maori language. The conference was the outcome of a long expressed desire on the part of the Maori people that some unification of the work of the Anglican Mission should be brought about. The present position of the Aoteroa Bishopric was keenly discussed in all its aspects and a resolution was passed asking that the bishops and the standing committees of the four- dioceses give effect to the bill which was passed by General Synod in 1934 for the setting up of an Aotearoa,. Church Board. Steps are also to .be taken to form an endowment for the bishops' stipend fund.

After the presentation of reports of successful missions conducted by the Bishop cf Aotcaroa, dates were fixed for many other missions in the North Island.

The training cf students for the Maori ministry occupied the attention for the conference for some time, and a further resolution was adopted that the conference believed that the time had arrived when something definite should be done to establish an institution for the training cf Maori clergy, it being suggested that a fund should be created by an assessment of every Maori pastorate with the object of purchasing the site of the first Christian mission established af Te Koutu, in the Rotorua district, in 1835.