RUSSIAN MISSIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20241, 29 April 1929, Page 12

RUSSIAN MISSIONS.

WORK OF THE SOCIETY,

VISIT OF REV. A. L. LEEDER.

Several meetings were addressed in Auckland during the week-end by the Rev. A. L. Leeder, secretary of the Russian Missionary Society, who is visiting New Zealand in the interests of work being performed among the Russian peoples. On Saturday evening Mr. Leeder gave a lantern lecture j*in tha Grafton Library Hall, and yesterday ha spoko at the Orange Hall, the Y.M.C.A.i and the Baptist Church, Grange Road.

Mr, Leeder has been in close touch with missionary work in Russia for about 20 years. In his addresses he referred to the foundation of the society, which was interdenominational. It was given its present constitution in America by Pastor Fetler, who was on exile there in 1917. The first party of 23 missionaries returned to Russia in 1921, and today thero were over 100 on the staff, with several Russian students in training at the headquarters in Latvia. Russia presented the greatest opportunity for evangelistic work in the world to-day, Mr. Leeder stated. Millions of Russians who for centuries had been under the domination of the Greek Orthodox Church lost their temporal head by the dethronement of the Tsar. The Church was no longer ruled by the Stata and millions looked for some new. faith to take the place of the old.