TO RAISE £300,000

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23491, 4 May 1938, Page 18

TO RAISE £300,000

AIM OF PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH SPECIAL CENTENARY FUND ADDRESS BY ORGANISER The proposal of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand to raise a sum of £300,000 as a special centenary thanksgiving fund to wipe off all congregational debt and assist in missionary and other church work was fully explained by Mr Harry Lang to a gathering of Presbyterian ministers and prominent church workers in the Savoy last night. Mr Lang, who is the organiser of the scheme, is at present on a tour of New Zealand enlisting support for the undertaking. The Moderator (the Rev. G. H. Jupp), who presided, extended a welcome to Mr Lang and said he thought that the proposal to raise £300,000 was one to stir the blood. He was sure that Dunedin Presbyterians would give such a spiritual undertaking their wholehearted support. Mr Lang, he said, was a native of Christchurch like himself, and it was fitting that it was a New Zealander who was organising the campaign. A Challenge to Faith The scheme to raise £300,000 was, Mr Lang f said, a challenge to faith and courage. Probably in the church there would be a number of members who had questions in their minds concerning the undertaking. But these would soon be removed, as once the right information had been furnished in the north, the proposal had been received with enthusiasm. From a spiritual point of view, Mr Lang said the scheme offered a magnificent opportunity for thb Presbyterian Church to launch out in a great spiritual revival. It should be used as a spiritual campaign to strengthen the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. In the second place, Mr Lang said, the plan offered the Presbyterian Church a chance to give a demonstration that its business men could carry a big task to a successful issue. It was not a small fund to be organised by a little committee, but t) something that would have to have the backing of all the business men and women of the church. The church was charged on occasions with lack of vision, but surely this undertaking was an answer. Support in the North But, the speaker asked, how were they going to do it? It was planned to have the fund in existence in the centenary year. There were many fine men behind the undertaking. He referred to the support that had already been accorded the undertaking in the north. In Auckland a gift of £ 500 a year for three years had been promised, and another of £IOOO a year for three years had been given. The first gift to the fund, however, was from a widow, who had given out of her pension a little over £3 a year. Mr Lang detailed the proposed organisation and outlined the various committees that would be appointed. It was the organisers hope, he said, to have on the first Sunday of October, .when a special thanksgiving offering would be held, the v/hole £300,000 subscribed, not in cash but in promises. There were men and women in the church today who could carry it out, and it would be necessary to have in every congregation a new volume of workers. In New Zealand 45 per cent, of the Presbyterians were not under pastoral care, and the speaker suggested that many of these could be brought into the scheme. Confident of Success “Another thing that gives me confidence,” Mr Lang continued, “ is the fact that the Presbyterian Church has the financial resources to raise £300,000. The appeal should not interfere with other church giving, but should be over and above it. In fact, I am not so sure that it would not be a great encouragement to people to give more to other church activities. If 40,000 members of the church will give Is a week for three years this will yield the thanksgiving offering of £300,000. What I want to emphasise,” Mr Lang stated, “ is that if we take up a collection we shall not get the money, but if we take up this special offering we shall. I am confident, obtain the £300,000.” „ „ Mr Lang concluded by stating the five objects of the undertaking. The first was to clear all congregational debt in the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. The sum of £200,000 would be set aside for this object. The four other objects would each account for £25,000, and these aims were for assisting home, foreign, and Maori mission work; for the augmentation of stipends of ministers and home missionaries; for assisting the Beneficiary Fund; and for a special fund to be used for sites and buildings. . . Several questions pertaining to the raising and administration of the fund were answered by the speaker, after which he was thanked for his address, and a resolution expressing the gathering’s approval of the general principles of the scheme was passed.