CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10042, 9 January 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHURCH NEWS AND NOTES.

A POSSIBLE REFORMED ISLAM. tTnd«r the afcoro heading the New York, twjependent deals with a question vrhich some conflict of expert opinion •t the present moment. "One thing in »ja history of Islam which gives hope," jjvs tho paper, "is tbo fact that it has for a tiite reformtxl itself. Under tfg Afcassids, from the 9th to the 14th catforv, Islam first borrowed, through tejir-i Syriin Christians, all the literaSe and wisdom, of Grtxoe, and were the MBt cultivated, learned and progressive Tjjj peoples. Th» LsLici of Mahommod, -juch offered the Koran or tbe sword, jjgiria, was a -very Afferent Islam from •jat which created at L'agdad and Corthe two greatest universities in the vac ]f}. There were cultivated ' all tho ba>wn sciences—mathematics, astronomy, Chemistry, pootry, history, law, art. The Arabic article in al-gebra, al-cehmy, al-emhie, reminds us of tho tuna when (juistian stodents went to Cordova for aJbcation, and when they brought to £jris Oxford their Arabia transiijjuos, their knowledge of Aristotle, and If# learning of Averroes and Aviccnna. list was a reform of Islam, not permanent, not spiritual, bat gained from jje old Greek learning, just as Christian jcfiolarship took, its renaissance later from gna 6 im> source. Islam took nothing then jjan conquered Christianity. The Cirisjjmity it saw, with its images anl pietares, was. detestable to the purer Mcslexn monotheism. But that rennaiseance of Islam was temporary. Cordova was lost to Spain, an.il tbe big Moslem university at Cairo is » pretence beside that of Bagdad. fsjam jas gone back to its bigots, its renc'.kn■Qiesi while Christianity has moved forward, of its own nature, to progress, letsujng- and liberty. So Islam is discredited in the .dishonor which has befallen the Jfosiem Turkish Empire. 2,'ow, can it be reformed? Can the words. Liberty, Fraternity, Equality, Justice, be incorporated into its system" Ther» are othur hooefu! facts besides the &ct that it once did, centuries ago, allo.v jefonn. AtK t, specially, the fact that there is r.ohnj great world religion that has not ai[bwed reform. Our Protestantism U much fefiJrnied from that of the days when Caijiii burnt Servotus and the Puritans janged witches. It has learnt much of liber tv and equality. The Catholicism we jte is vastly reformed from that of Liaate i£i Chaucer, or what now prevails in Stain and Peru; and the pressure of •jioHemism is an effort sure to be finally jaoKssfnl, to accomplish-a further refonn. , da great pagan religions, Brahminism W buddhism, are now in toe very throes ofrefonu. It is to the spirit of the times, fo modern Christian civilisation, espotialto the: teaching of Christian ittio by their side preaching the doctrine of one great Father and the brotherhood cf man, that we owe the appearance cf a multitude of reformed sects, which have thrown off the superstitions and vulgarities and cruelties of old beliefs and practices, »nd come as near as they csn in substance {o Christianity, while retaining the old pnrriggHEJIS. Tie Rev. W. I). Walters' retirement jrom tie general secretaryship of tbe Loil- ] <fon WesJeyazi Mission will involve an im- 1 jortant change of offioes. A reorganisa- < tica. is projected not. only of tha missions i grouped under the title of the London < afarnn, but of the weaker churches in i [ tie inner ring of suburbs. A heavy re- t I naoraibility will therefore devolve upon : fcM successor to Mr Walters. Xo one has ] yet been named with any authority for ■< f.lin succession, but the Rev. S. F. CoL- f

tue smxesaion, out me u. -r. tvifier and Rev. Simpson Johnson are possible appointments. Mr Walters himself las served as general secretary of the Mission Committee with untiring energy since 1889, in the days of Hugh Price Hnghes' pioneer work. "He will be seventy yeans old not October, and his approaching resignation is du-e to age. He has been extraordinarily successful in raising so mo £4GOO amraally for the mission by means of meetings in the provinces. Oce of the most interesting sides of the London. Missionary Society is its medical watt In 2856 it had three medical missionaries, and these in China. Ten years ite it bid stiß three, one being devoted to ath of spheres of M&dasoßcar, India, and China. Xot till 1896 ■ any great bound upward occur. In tht year iladagascar had one, Africa two, rmifi four, and China 13. Madagascar has one, Africa three, India nine, f aai China 25, a total of 38. The L.M.S. was one of the first missionary agencies to discern the possibilities of medical work, and it now possesses 53 hospitals, including leper asylums, with 820 beds, seven missionary nurses, and 28 dispensaries', which employ 38 assistants. Last jar the in-patients numbered 7869 and tie ont-pattenta.l96,llß. Generally speak; me, whereas in 1890 there were only 120 medio! missionaries holding British diploma!, to-day there are 395, 237 men and 158 women, more than a trebling in 18 years. The total of Protestant medical missionaries must be over 830. • Tie episcopal arrangements of the Anglican Church in Australasia afford an interesting glimpse of the way ia which »leading Church endeavors to deal with TOt territory, and also of the directions m which it would be advantageous for the work to fce strengthened by further extension. Recently reference was made to the proposed creation of a new bishopric in the north of Western Australia. The existing western bishoprics, Bunbnry and Perth, like thooj of Adelaide and Tasmania, are separate dioceses. The rest of Australia is divided into three "provinces," the qualification being that a province shall consist of not lees than three (Socage. These two are Queensland, which besides Xew Guinea includes the northern ialt of Sooth. Australia, the Gulf and Rminsula country as the immense diocese of Carpentaria, then Xorth Queensland, Ecckhampton, and Brisbane, three big *gments which bring vs south to New Sooth Wales. The division of the parent State is familiar. Ifew South Wales has cx bishoprics, and Victoria five. Oversea O Xew Zealand we find six bishoprics rader a primate, Auckland, Waiapu, and Wellington in the Xorth Island, and Xelson, Christcharch, and Dunedin in the South. A glance at this map reveal several itriking contrasts, for example, the halfdozen small sees of the Dominion as ijimst the huge areas of Australia, that of Carpentaria being pretty well as big as tie whole of Xew Zealand. The vast resan5 an covered by the term "diocese of etan-esia" 13 supported perhaps more ieartily in Xew Zealand than in AnstoSa. Ihe second anniversary of the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches' Union. t«k place on October 22. High- Mass, preceded by the Litany m procession, was snng at St." Alban's, Holbom, the preacher beui? the Rev. Mr Davey Biggs- A large congregation was present. Dr d-calt ffflpefiiily with the difficulties wcich the pfay of politics in the East throws ia the way of reunion. In the afternoon a convereazkme at the Church House was attended by many well-known clergy and laymen, including Bishop BJyth, Dr Gentadics, ex-Minister of Greece at the Court of St. James'; Dr Pouptis, Canon Ingram, Archd-eacoa Potter of Cyprus, and other Anglicans and Easterns. The vice-presi-dent of the Union, Mr Suckling, who presided over a meeting at the same place m the evening, read, mesagos from, the presidients of the Union, the Bishop of Gibraltar, and Archbishop of Riga (Rus- •&), Bishop Gaol, who ha-d joined the committee, the American branch secretary, tad many absent sympathisers and memtiers. He said the progress of the past twelve months had been great. They had now twenty-ei?ht bishops of both communions on the list of their members. Anionz other things which the union did, wjs the getting them out of that miserable habit of thinking that the Anglican wis the onlv Church. The Rev. Leightton Pullan spoke' on the bearing of the resolutions on the Eastern Church of the lambeth Conference. If these were not always as strong as they could wish, at least they recognised in an unique manner the Eastern Orthodox Church. They Slight all live to see grea chitiges-in the Xear East, in Turkey, : in Russia, and whatever light they saw dawning ozu;ht to rekindle their hopw. Dr Gennadins (aid that he rejoiced to take part- in the

; great work of the union. It had aroused enthusiasm' in the East. Ihe Greek Church had never disputed the validity cf Anglican Orders, and looked with hope c to closer relations with the English comj munkn. » -