CLERGY IN CONFERENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18173, 19 August 1922, Page 11

CLERGY IN CONFERENCE.

_ , 4» . : ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE GATHEBIXK}, So large a number of the clergy oilße Auckland diocese assembled at Bit. John**. College, Taraaki, for a " refresher "course of leisures daring this week that the .accommodation of the new buildings was taxed to its- utmost limit. The course <#nsisted of lectures, coniereneea ? ,on. inv portant present-day questions, and ad-' dresises upon special subjects. Bishop Averill delivered a series of lectures in the historic chapel of the college on the subject of "Pastoral Efficiency: the Life, and Work of a Parish Friesfc?** The new light thrown by modern scholar-, ship upon the Old Testament Scriptures was described by the Rev. R. G. Finch. " Modern Scholarship and the New 1 Testament " was the title of a series'of . dresses given by the Rev. PhUip Carring--ton, a young New Zealand eenol&r who had a distinguished career at Cambridge University. ' • * [At the conferences the subjects most I keenly discussed '[ were the supply and I training of candidates for holy orders- and" the duty of Ghurch in f ace of : tho ? frave moral laxi% of to-day. Di- A. B. Itt, of the Auckland Training College,; gave an address oh the basi>-: of the reported instances of demoniacal' possessionamong the Maoris. Takirij; one - ' case, as "reported by Canon Arthur Williams, the lecturer dejenenstrated ■ tfajit' the reported symptoms of the so-called posses > sion by demons are all phenomena well known: to the expert psycno-analysi;, and can be both explained and' treated by . scientific method. The Rev. P. Carrington dealt with the much-talked conference or V modernists" at Girton College, Cambridge, last year. He criticised the belief* of these extreme churchmen, whom he described as a small and not very distin'' guished minority. TKe Rev. W. 'G. Monckton spoke on the teaching- of our Lord. In the course of a survey of the Labour movement all over the world Be said he saw clear and most hopeful signs that the aims of the movement were be- r coming less material and more spiritual: