ANGLICAN CHURCH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22327, 30 July 1934, Page 8

ANGLICAN CHURCH

WORK OF MISSIONARY SOCIETY A comprehensive review of the history and work of the Church Missionary Society in New Zealand and elsewhere was given by Canon Percival James in an address in Wellington last week. For 135 years, said Canon James, the society had been one of the missionary agencies of the Church of England, and was now the largest of its kind. It was interesting, said the speaker, to recall the names of its founders, William Wilberforcc, the great liberator of slaves in America, Charles Simeon, Zacharay Macaulay, father of Lord Macaulay, and others. In 1804 the society sent out its first two missionaries to Africa, then a dark and unknown continent. So perilous was the work that in the first 20 years 53 of the missionaries died at their posts. The society next turned its attention to New Zealand and India. In 1814, Samuel Marsdcn, who had been chosen by William Wilberforcc, preached the first sermon to the Natives in New Zealand. Turning to present-day activities, Canon James said the society maintained 27,000 workers in the field. It had 54 hospitals served by 200 doctors ns well as a large company of nurses. It also developed the policy of missionary schools, one of the greatest of civilisation’s agencies among the natives. The New Zealand Church Missionary Society, which was founded 40 years ago, enabled the English churches in the dominions to repay the debt they owed to the parent body for its wont in connection with the evangelisation of the natives. The New Zealand society supported European and native workers in China, Japan, India, Africa, and maintained 14 beds in a hospital in Persia. Canon James said that the work of the society was ever on the increase, and he stressed the point that additional funds wore necessary to carry on its work.