METHODIST CONFERENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23118, 18 February 1937, Page 15

METHODIST CONFERENCE

THE PRESIDENT-ELECT The Rev. F. Copeland, who will today be elected the new president at the annual conference of the Methodist Church of New Zealand at Auckland, grew up and received his early education in Auckland city. It thus seems fitting that, in the same city, he" should be elevated to the highest honour in the power of his church to bestow. As a young man he was an active worker in the Helping Hand Mission at Freeman’s Bay, and from there he went to be a home missionary. Subsequently he was an accepted candidate for the ministry, and in 1903 entered Prince Albert Theological College, Auckland, for training. After six years in the Dominion he volunteered for foreign mission service and spent four years in Samoa. Since returning to New Zealand in 1917, Mr Copeland has occupied several country charges, including Hastings and Fielding, and for the last four years has been the minister of the Whiteley Memorial Church at New Plymouth. Mr Copeland is a popular minister throughout his church and possesses distinctive s gifts for pulpit and platform. He is an efficient administrator and has been a chairman of district for nine years.