ARCHDEACONRY OF INVERCARGILL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3833, 30 August 1927, Page 29

ARCHDEACONRY OF INVERCARGILL.

CONFERENCE OF CLERGY. A conference of the clergy and cl -rch officers of the Archdeaconry of Invercargill was held in Invercargill on Thursday, the Archdeacon the Ven. W. Curzon-Siggers presiding. A welcome was extended to the Rev. J. T. Paddison, M.A., as the new vicar of Gore, and references were made to the outcome of the charge last December in the adoption of the weekly freewill offering scheme by some churches. The removing of all games of chance from bazaars in accordance with the bishop's last synod address was -ed, and regret was expressed at the noninsurance of the clergy against ac : ’ iits, and the small result of the app. for starting mothers’ unions. Coming on to new matter the Archdeacon urged the importance of the statutory declarations being made by church officers, and the signing of ti e parish rolls as all such would be called in this year. It was pointed out that the synod might be asked to assess parishes for the general church fund and bishopric fund instead of the parishes giving the collections on five Sundays annually. This would be more equitable. The grants for the help of smaller parishes from the general church fund were explained as being based on a grant of 8s in the £ of the difference between an ideal stipend of £3OO and '’ at actually paid from all sc'irces —thus a vicar receiving £2OO from the vestry, £25 from a guild, and £25 from an endowment. total £250, W’ould receive a grant of £5O at the rate of 8s for each £l—- — is, £2O. The question of parochial finance as affecting vicars and vestries was thus dealt with.

The Archdeacon did not agree with a recently published opinion of the S ding Committee on this subject. Some were

good ; some not good., The Standing Committee was a council to advise the ■bishop not to advise the diocese. If the advice was of value to the diocese, it must be sent forth by the bishop. The position was correctly this: The vestry collected and expended all money fp. ordinary church purposes. If an extra expenditure was desirable—purchase of :i car, new buildings—then a special vote of the parishioners must be taken before this expenditure was undertaken.

Hie question of the proposed New Prayer Book, said the Archdeacon, was one which concerned them very much, because it was within the right of any bishop in New Zealand to authorise its use in his dioces e at any time. This new book is meeting with practically universal consent —the opposition was dying and losing its force. It would be loyally accepted by the majority of all parties ; , the disloyal men would be few. The new book was rich in improvements. For instance, the new service for the visitation of the sick was most beautiful (the old one no one could use in its entirety). The burial service had suitable prayers for use when part of the service was held in a church, for which the old one made no provision, whilst the new prayers for mourners and the departed were in harmony with present felt needs. The alternative forms for evensong were a gain, whilst the provision of some 59 prayers from which a selection might be made wherewith to conclude morning or evening uraver and the beautiful praver for th e Empire were most timely. Taking the new book as a whole it was worthy of the 20 years bestowed on its development. The new Prayer Book conformed to the desire of the English Church to be true to herself and to universal customs. She had developed her worship according to historical tradition, catholic, simple vet dignified, even severe ritual, responding to the needs of the human heart. It should satisfy the evangelical bv its simplicity and devotion, and the ceremonialist by its dignity and order. had been said that it strengthened our sense of real membership of a supernatural society, and that the conceptions of God and revelation that lay behind the revised book were truer and higher than those in the present one. In the Litany the later portion—a war section—would not be used, ana in the Communion service, the offering of ourselves to God would be, as of old, joined to the Consecration Prayer, and the second thanksgiving (not rarely used) would form the thanksgiving after communion.

The Consecration Prayer in the new Prayer Book, continued ihe speaker, demanded a few remaiks. It was a laudable attempt to bring it into line wtih the earliest liturgies and incidentally with the Orthodox Church of the East. The present Prayer Book was Roman, and neither Anglican nor Eastern nor early, in that it had no petition for the Holy Ghost in the Consecration P-iyer.

They might say that in their new book they had returned once more to the once universal use of Christendom, to a use which they and Rome once abandoned, ’and to which they proposed to return joining with the earliest days and the present Orthodox Greek Church and some parts of their own communion, which had an Epiklesis. Let them be English and primitive, and so also harmonise with the great churches of the East. A Southland Church Fund was then outlined by the archdeacon with a view to establishing a fund to provide increased stipend for poorer parishes, and for general church purposes, and to provide an endowment for a future bishop of Southland or Invercargill with suitable residence. The trustees were taken from vicars and church officers with the archdeacon or bishop as chairman. The complete amount required for future development when there was a bishop was £7006, and until there was a bishop £luOO would suffice, whilst £l2OO capital would be required towards the stipend of £lOOO for a bishop (as the Dunedin bishopric would have to give an equivalent of some £4OO a year from its endowments) and some £2500 up to £3OOO for the see house.