SYNODISMS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXX, Issue 3783, 4 July 1899, Page 3

SYNODISMS.

POINTS FROM CLERICAL DEBATES

Rev Air Coffey: "Bishops must, above all things, be conservative.” Rev Mr Sprott; “It is not necessary for ns to pass a law to alter the inexorable conditions of sex which God has made, and men and women cannot alter.” Rev Mr Sprott; “ I have the greatest reverence and even awe of a vestry.” Rev Mr Sprott: “In the days of the Romans, women chose the ruler of the household. That condition of things has altered. Women do not now choose the ruler. We seem to be the ruler.” ■ Rev Mr Sprott (alluding to the illtreatment by the Church of woman—its wannest ally-—from time immemorial) ; “ That insane desire for the burning of witches. Have you ever observed how few wizards were burned?" Rev Mr Sprott : “ Woman, the greatest sacrament and assurance of God’s grace to man that we have got.” Captain Hewitt: “ I have paid the greatest attention to the development of the human race for some years now.” Rev Mr Coffey : “ If it were not for the women in the country districts, the churches might close, and the clergy’s occupation would be gone.” Rev Mr Sprott'; “It has been, said that if women were allowed to vote for vestrymen, the men would all stay away. I think it would have quite the opposite effect.” Rev P. C. W. Earee: “ Certainly, the colonial hoy is father to the man in the worst sense of the word—about the age of ton.” Rev Mr Sprott: “ Presbyterian, communicants, men and women, are allowed a vote on all church matters. Notwithstanding, a larger number of men take an interest in the church than in our case, and are far more, liberal than quite a number of our churchmen.’* Rev A. N. Johnson: “Directly a Church Brigade boy gets a belt round his stomach he is a man at once—it makes such a difference all round!*’ The church militant here below. At the sitting of the Synod on Friday it was stated that the. best method of enticing the larrikin within the fold andultiin.iteiv to bring him into a condition of mind to become a member of a Bible class and a communicant, was to make him a member of a Church Lads’ Brigade, arm him with some sort of a rifle,, and teach him the first principles of infantry drill. Archdeacon Towgood: “lam very diffident in coming to a conclusion on any subject, I. prefer to take English precedent for most things.” Rev P. C. W. Earee : “Instead of exhibiting favourable symptoms of evolution, he (the colonial larrikin) seems to be undergoing a process of devolution (dovilution!) —Smiles from the Anglicans of Scotch extraction.

Yen Archdeacon Stock was the only clergyman ■ to quote Biblical maxims in opposition to the admission of women ,to the franchise for the election of vestrymen. Rev —r Sprott simply grilled the Archdeacon in his blood; by quoting Biblical texts to mean that women both should and should not take a. leading part in every religious movement. It came as a palpable shock to many present to near a reverend Synodsraan make St. Paul, womankind’s dogmatist, contradict himself quite a number of times. ■ Rev Mr Coffey; while pointing out that those who were opposed to allowing women to vote for church vestrymen were perpetuating an “antiquity of error,” wished it to be made very clear that he himself would resist to the uttermost any attempt to innovate' in the -direction of allowing women to take seats on a vestry! -

Rev P. C. W. Earee: “When I first went to Masterton I took the liberty of confiscating a .good many of the' hymn books. .They were not in rags, they were simply in tatters.” t . Dr Fyffe: “Gopd music in churches increases congregations, and thereby increase! the offertories. Therefore you owe a great deal to your choirs. I don’t say the choirs are responsible, for the whole of the attendance, but a great deal of the attendance is due to them.”

The President (to a member who wished to refute something said by the incumbent of St. Mark’s): “Oh, no! I■ could not let yon'’ do that. (Laughingly)—You know we allow Mr Coffey to say almost anything. But he was really out of order, dreadfully out of order.” Rev T. H. Snrott: “Synods are not really representatives of parishes. The representatives,here are merely.personal representatives, and have no right to bind the parishes to anything.”