NOTED WOMAN PREACHER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19797, 18 November 1927, Page 11

NOTED WOMAN PREACHER.

MISS MAUDE ROYDEN. ' VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND. LECTURE-SERMON TOUR. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received November 17, 5.5 p.m.) Al and N.Z. LONDON, Nov. 16/ The noted feminist and preacher, Miss Agnes Maude Royden, will leave England on December 28 for America. Afterwards she will spend three months in. New Zealand and Australia, whera she will lecture and preach in the principal ; cities under the auspices of the British Commonwealth League. Miss Agnes Maude Koyden, one of the first women pastors in England, was born in Birkenhead in 1876. She is a daughter, of Sir T. Royden, chairman of the' Cunard Line. She was educated at Cheltenham and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She then did social work in the . Liverpool slums for three years in connection with the Victoria Women's Settlement and subsequently took up f arish work in the country district of Luflenham. Then for a time she was ail Oxford University Extension lecturer on English literature. In 1908 she joined the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and edited the Common Cause till 1914, when she resigned from the executive. During her connection with tho movement she wrote and spoke chiefly on its economic and ethical aspects. Brought up in tho Anglican Church, Miss Royden wished to become one of its clergy, but this idea was looked at askance. She therefore, in 1917, accepted Dr. Fort Newton's invitation to be assistant preacher at the London City Temple. Before going to England, Dr. Newton had asked Miss Jane Addams, the famous American social worker, who was the wisest woman there, and she replied "Maude Royden." In 1918 the rector of St. Botolph's, Bishopgate, invited her to preach at the Good Friday service in his church, bat this was prohibited by the Bishop of London and the rector instead arranged a service in the parish hall. This procedure was repeated in . , later years. When Dr. Newton returned '' to America in 1920, Miss Royden's succession .to the pastorate was discussed, but instead she joined the Rev... Dr. Percy Dearmer in the establishment of a' spiritual and social fellowship move* ment at Kensington Town Hall on Angli- >, can lines. This was a great success and Dr. Dearmer applied for permission to » use St. Philip's Church, which had long been closed. At first the bishop seemed inclined to consent, but eventually said "no." With the failure of this attempt to carry on her work within the Anglican Church, Miss Royden secured the lease of the Congregational Church in Eccleston Square, where, after the retirement of her colleague, she conducted the movement alone. Miss Royden is an eloquent speaker. She preached at Geneva as tho first woman to occupy Calvin's pulpit. . Her views on marriage, divorce, sex and re ligious matters generally are tmconven. tional. She holds that human beings can rise from moral lapses more easily than from the "subtler spiritual sins which have so much more respectable an air." At the City Temple she instituted a "confessional" for women and" girls, which was much resorted to and was continued at Eccleston Square, where the number of applicants, who included men, was larger than she could cope with. She visited the Tjnited States in 1922. Her visit to New Zealand will be in May, I 1928.