ANGLICAN SYNOD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10997, 29 December 1897, Page 2

ANGLICAN SYNOD.

The first session of tha eleventh' Anglican. Synod was held in St. Paul's Schoolroom last evening: there were present—Bishop Nevill (president), the Very Rev. Dean Fitchelt, Archdeacon Robinson, Archdeacon Gould, Canons Dodd, King, Lucas, and Richards, Revs.* C. S. Bowden, Fynes-Clinton, Leach, Mayne, Piatts, Small, and Brooke. There was a good attendance of the laity. The' President delivered the following address :— .-.-.'.. .■,.,-■ Dear Brethren of the Clergy and of the Laity,— I fear the time at which this session of tbs synod is summoned is an inconvenient one to many of you, but it has seemed difficult to avoid this inconvenience. It is true thai the General Synod has laid down that, in the s.bsence' of the bishop the commissary lawfully appointed for that purpose shall have all fche powers' ordinarily exerciseil by the bishop in the Diocesan Syned or the Standing Committee, save in the question of the election or coufirmation of a bishop; but there is not only a doubt as to tiie interpretation of this provision—viz., in th« words "ordinarily exercised,"—but if it be held that, save in the texcepted case of the election or confirmation of a bishop, the commissary shall vote as a bishop— that i«, that his separate assent is required in order to the validity of any act of the synod, as provided by the canon,—it would then seeru^to say the least, very undesirable that any other •thau merely formal, business should be t'ansacted by the synod in the bishops abseoce, inasmuch as in any act of legislation a single one of tbe bishops clergy may give effect to a law by which the bishop himself would be bound, however contrary to church principles or practical desirability he "might esteem such a law to be. Bnt beyond all that, when we take into consideration the spiritual character which all well instructed church people believe to be conferred by consecration upon the bishop as a responsible member of an order to whicli much of authority and special endowment is entrusted by the Head of the Church .Himself, it becomes a question cf-niuch gravity whether any "act" of a diocesan synod—nieaoine thereby any enactment professing to have the force of a law—can have validity, conferred upon it in the absence of the member of that order to whom the government of the church is in ths main committed. Having long held views upon this subject such as the foregoing remarkj would indica te—views in which I have been supported by eminent persons both in Australia aud in England—l was very desirous that the consecration of Archdeacon Robinson as assistant bishop to. my«elf should have taken place before my departure to England. There could then have been no doubt as to the full power of the synod, when presided over by him under my commission,. to have transacted busiuess of every kind. _ The archdeacon being acquainted with my views upon this subject, and at the same time being aware that he had no power to confine the synod to merely formal business, such as the passing of accounts and the like, preferred gpt' to call a meeting at all during my absence, and I found it impossible to return at an earlier date without seriously interfering with the success of the work which I had in hand for the diocese. . I need only add to these explanatory remarks that although we are now m«t together, and with undoubted power to act in any matter, it would