GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22421, 16 November 1934, Page 5

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

; .THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH \ FINAL DAY’S SESSION The sessions-of the General Assembly of.tte Presbyterian Church of New Zealani kwere concluded yesterday afternoon, j. A mpnber of delegates left by the second for the north at mid-day, and practically all remaining business of an ; importknt nature had been disposed of before departure. The work of the afternoon session was largely of a formal .fixture, and the assembly rose ‘finally at 5.30 p.m. , MCLASHAN FUND ..1 When on the M'Glashan Fund for Indigent Gentlewomen was presented, Mr A- D. Thomson mentioned that the fund afjdll consisted of only one bequest, no further bequests having been received. Many, distressful requests, were received, they would be glad td give twice as qinch. He hoped that members of the chtxrch would remember the fund when making 1 donations or drawing up their wills. j The following ,deliverance was adopted:—“The comisittee anew commends the fund to the\ consideration of ! the wealthy members W\our church, and : in particular to our The fund is proving a boon to mam keen workers in our church, who, in\ ( \yie eventide of ‘ life, find themselves in reduced circum- <■' stances. ’ r

i ADVISORY BOARD : The Advisory Board recomn {ended that | the Foreign Missions be stall tiqned in- Wellington after. thtV, close of Hhe assembly. . \ 1 The Rev. F. B. Barton (Auckland) Amoved as an amendment that consideration of the next location of the committee be deferred' till next assembly. ; The amendment was carried. .! It was decided on the board’s recommendation that the Missfbna Committals of the church arrange for their offictip j.to' yisit the presbyteries and P.Aw j Annual. ' \ \ t t The board’s final recommendation in i-respect to foreign -missions was that, 1 ' when a foreign missionary was on fur- >• lough, he should for the first three ' months do no deputation work, and also I fOr the closing three months, he. should ! be free. f; (This was defeated in favour of an amendment,, moved by Mr Barton, that i the matter be referred to the Foreign ’ MMsiolfs^Committec. I The assembly was recommended to ; instruct the Advisory Board, to hold a '-conference with representatives of the jjPiS.S.A.’s with a view to, securing closer ’jCo-ordihation in the administration of the! social service work.

'y%'An amendment by the Eev. John :[Paters6n- was carried as ;foltyws:—“That the. Church ' Property j'Tfuptees and the Social Service Associations confer on the matter of reporting jand recording income, expenditure I'sndtbegoests left to Social Service Associations.” . : - - "i *• J; .'lnf answer, to a, question by;Mr Bar-., .ton ,why the ■ estiihdtes "of committees Kverej cut down by . the Advisory Board, it wfis explained that when the estimaieij came before the board it was felt tjiat'there was ho chance of raisingthe whole amount. It was, therefore, decided to redhce the estimates all round by 10; per cent. Mr * Barton -moved that the original submitted by.- the- committees, to the board at its meeting on May .23>'(sh(juld be approved. r , ( '?'< The I moderator held that the motion’ washout of order, ‘fThere is no saying might disturb what , has been ‘arrived] at by the assembly” he-said. 1 A motion that the house proceed to the next business was carried.

‘OP PRESSYTERY CHANGED A petition was received asking that the name of the Nelson Presbytery be cha ngedStO' the " Nelson-Marlborough Presbytfery. -'Df. ■ ;■ i;i The jietition was granted.

FAITH .AND ORDER MOVEMENT The report of the Committee on the World Conference on Faith and Order was preseii ted .by th& Rev. James Milne. Mr Milne explained that the movement; which aimed at encouraging unity among fee various,churches, was experiencing gome; financial worry. The jeliverance,- which- expressed the desire .«f the assembly to encourage church members, to work for Christian unity, was adopted,: a grant of £lO being made to; the funds of the movement.

BIBLE] ; SOCIETIES COMMENDED The. the assepibly reaffirms its deep interest in the \4brk of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the ~ National Bible Society of Scotland and commend them to the generosity and sympathy of the church as'.doing, a work-essential to the welfare Of. the church both at home and in its foreign missions, and that the first Sunday' in May be appointed as Bible Sunday. v • ■ ' • , - Speaking to the motion, Mr Miller: said thaj; last year the total number of Scripturfe published bjf the British and Foreign t Bible Society, the United States Society and the National Bible Society -of Scotland was practically 23,000,000. ..The income of the local society for the present year was £ISOO. They could db-nothing greater, he said, than lend their aid to the dissemination of the Scriptures. The nfotion was seconded by the Rev. J. Hubbird (Palmerston North) and carried unanimously. ■ I RIGHT OF CALL - Tli« Dunediri Presbytery submitted an overture" asking . the assembly to enact that the right of call be granted to all congregations raising a minimum of £250 towards stipend, and, furthermore, that all! matters affecting the right of call be sent down by the assembly under the Barrier Act. The presbytery submitted the following reasons, why the overture.should be adopted:—“The right of call js looked upon by , many as a sacred privilege, and is a factor in bringing abotjt happy conditions in .a charge. The'minimum of £2BO tends to discourage weaker Charges from attempting full self support,' Many such aid-receiving congregations are really self-supporting in that their contributions to schemes of the church are greater than the grants received} and are thus tempted to be disloyal)to the churph- The regulation the right of call to congregations w|iich receive no grant tends to hinder rather than to help in many cases.” | In support of the motion, the Rev. C. G. Wilcox, said they must look at the question* firoin the point of the principle involvedf—the encouraging of congregations jin a maximum way to be selfhelping.j Giving a congregation the right to call jts own minister was one of the ways iii which it might thus bo encouraged. If the'minimum was set at £250 they would be encouraging more churches to go forward than at present. He moved that the overture be sent down to presbyteries for consideration and report to the Home Mission Committee by June 30i The Rev. H. A. Mitchell said that if the overture were adopted, charges whose contribution to stipend was at present slightly below £250 would be encouraged j to come up to that figure in order that | they might have the right of call. S The motion was carried. I

REDUCTION OF A CHARGE The Presbytery of Auckland presented an overture on the subject of the powers of a presbytery to reduce a charge to a home mission station. “ Changes of population,” it was pointed out, “or other reasons may so reduce a congregation that it ceases to be able, even with the aid of a grant, to provide adequate support for its minister, and -the presbytery may consider reducing it to a home mission station. The Judicial Committee has advised that, in the event of such reduction of status, the pastoral tie is dissolved and the minister cannot claim to be employed in the charge so reduced. One of the questions put to a minister at his induction to a fully sanctioned charge implies the right of the presbytery to dissolve the pastoral tie only on its being ‘ satisfied that the ends of the ministry are not being served.’ In the history of our church in no case has the pastoral tie been dissolved on the ground now suggested. The clause relied on by the Judicial Committee, Book of Order 26, does not clearly bear the meaning now sought to be put upon it, nor is it in harmony with usual Presbyterian practice. The assembly is asked, therefore, that in order to present undue hardship or injustice it shall provide that: —(a) Such reduction shall not take effect unless or until the minister of the charge has received a call from another congregation, or has been offered an appointment by the Home Missions Committee; or (b) the minister shall have the right, to remain in charge of the home mission station, with the rights and duties (»f a moderator, for at least one year from the date of reduction of status.”

The overture was supported by the Rev. George Budd, who said the question was what was the position of a minister when his charge had been reduced to a home mission station. His motion that the overture be sent down to presbyteries for consideration and consultation with the Home Missions Committee with a view to reporting to the next assembly was carried. APPOINTMENT OF MINISTERS The Presbytery of Central Otago asked “ that regulations governing the appointment of ministers to aided charges be expressed in more explicit terms) indicating their application to particular, circumstances.” The Rev. J. M. Patterson, supporting the overture, said the assembly should direct that a statement be framed to -deal with the position. \ It was decided to send the overture ti» ■the Home Missions Committee to £r<ime regulations. ’’i* LICENTIATES IN HOME MISSION 'l% STATIONS Tjnit Presbytery of Waikato asked the assemWy to take steps to amend the present, rules and regulations so as to permit la presbytery to carry out the ordination -of a licentiate accepting appointment to a home mission station, and to\«*ant‘, him a seat in the presbytery, unfys giving him an equal status with hisl brethren in the ministry who were in ,sanctioned charges. It, was divided to refer the overture to presbyteries for consideration and report to the*'- Home Missions Committee. , ■ ,

TRACT; COMMITTEE The Tract Committee’s report was • presented by hhe Rev. John Allan, (Christchurch),| referred to the fact that the masters who had been asked to write the tVacts had all written too much.-r-(Laugpter,)—-The tracts, therefore, had to hi sent back to be reduced in size.- Ih'answer to a question, the speaker said tract on BritishIsraelism was being He doubted, howtver, whether it would be worth while to issue separate tract on the . but the; .committee could commend somt* ofthe tracts; already in existence. G.ealcrally speak-; ■ling, it was felt that maity'of the tracts* ;now in existence, dealing, with yarioiissubjects; were iibt entirely IriVftCcord with the mind of the church, so it was felt to be, more desirable to \have the tracts compiled by theirown\ ministers. FREEWILL OFFERING COMMITTEE Speaking to the report of the and Weekly Freewill Offering Hr W, H. Rose said the had furnished full information the principle and method of working Hhe system, and it seemed that development rested very largely with presbyteries and congregations. \ As the result adoption of the system in many congte-*, gations, the stand arp of giving had maintained at a much higher level. .. .Presbyteries .were purged to adopt the' complete system. \ OTHER REPORTS The reports bn the Women’s Beneficiary. Fund , and the l . Women Workers’ Superannuation Fund were adopted without division, the deliverances being of a formal nature. COMMISSION OF ASSEMBLY The Rev. F. H. Wilkinson (Wellington), moved that in lieu .of the advisory board a standing commission of assembly be appointed, with assembly powers, to deal with causes referred to it by the assembly and such matters claiming urgency as might be brought before it. Mr Wilkinson said this was a proposal for a substitute to the Advisory Board, which was now becoming unwieldly. He moved that- the matter be sent down to presbyteries for report. Mr Barton, who' opposed the motion, said; the board had done useful work. As a result of the fact that each presbytery had representation, he thought that, the church was much" better informed than .it would otherwise be. Several members expressed concern at the proposal to clothe the cbramission with assembly powers. i The. motion was carried. ! REFORMED CHURCH PRINCIPLES The deliverance on the report of the Committee on Reformed Church Principles contained the following- recommendation:; — ; . V “ That the clerk and the moderator be instructed to write to our confessional brethren in Germany expressing our sympathy and support of them in their present persecution on account of the principles of our common polity.”' The Rev. J. T. V. Steele (Duntfoon) said the recommendation w§s purposely left vague in order that their, brethren might not be embarrassed in any tray. He thought it was a good thing that the Church should display its interest in things that were happening abroad. Those to whom reference was made were not the members of the*Lutheran Church, but of their own church in Germany, who were experiencing still more difficult times, owing to their absolute opposition to Government interference.

The recommendation was adopted. The assembly’s session concluded with a comprehensive vote of thanks to those who had assisted in the conduct of the various sessions.