C.M.S. JUBILEE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 28 July 1942, Page 3

C.M.S. JUBILEE

N.Z. AS “SENDING” AGENCY

FIRST MISSIONARIES SENT FROM NELSON In his charge lo the Nelson Diocesan Synod. Bishop Stephenson referred to the Church Missionary Society’s jubilee tliis year and recalled that the first organisation of the society as a "sending" agency, was set up in Nelson. | -On Christmas Day. 1814. the Rev. ; Samuel Marsden, Rector of St. John’s j Church. Parramatta, New South Wales, j preached to a group of Maoris at the i Bay of Islands,” said the Bishop. ‘ He desci ibes the scene—’a very solemn j silence prevailed. 1 rose and began the I service by singing the Old Hundredth j Psalm, and I felt my very soul melt J within me when I viewed my congre- ! Ration, and considered the state they 1 were in. After reading the service I | preached from St. Luke ii. 10. "Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people." "From that day until 1892 New Zealand was a ‘receiving’ country as far as C.M.S. was concerned. Of course, between 1842 and 1892 the magnificent work of Bishop Selwyn for Melanesia and the consecration of Bishop Patteson and his successor and other work in the Pacific went forward. In 1892. however, a deputation came from England to Australia and New Zealand to help these colonies, as they were then, to lake a wider share in C.M.S. respon - sibilities abroad. The deputation consisted of the Rev. R. W. Stewart -later martyred in China, and Mr Haler Dr) Eugene Stock of the headquarters staff and tiie historian of the society. There is a note in Dr Stock’s history in which ho links his visit to that of Marsden--‘Seventy-eight years after, on 28th September. 1892. the C.M.S. deputation to the colonies landed at the beautiful City of Auckland, a little south of the Bay of Islands, and proceeded to the cathedral, where were gathered the bishop and clergy and a large congregation of white colonists. Marsden’s text of Christmas Day. 1814. was the text of the first address.’ "So this year we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the commencement of the C.M.S. in New Zealand as a sending agency. It is particularly fitting that we in Nelson should draw attention to this fact as it' was here that the first organisation was set up. And further it was from here that the first missionary under this organisation was sent forth. Again I quote from Dr Slock — ‘Two ladies were sent thither Ho Japan > by the newly formed New Zealand Church Missionary Association: one of whom. Miss Della Iris HunterBrown. the daughter of a gentleman who had long held a leading position in both the civil and ecclesiastical fife of the colony, was the first fruits of the visit of the C.M.S. Australian deputation to the town of Nelson.’ NE\V RESPONSIBILITY "It - regretted that owing t<> the war the C.M.S. in New Zealand will be unable to mark this anniversary as it would wish but functions of a less ambitious kind will be held in September or October in various ports of the country and when the war is over it is hoped opportunity will occur for a more worthy marking of this important landmark in the histoyv of the Church in New Zealand. Meanwhile the new responsibility for the work in Sindh is I being assumed and this will ever be [connected with the jubilee year 1942."