CHURCH CO-OPERATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3996, 14 October 1930, Page 70

CHURCH CO-OPERATION.

PRESBYTERIANS AND METHODISTS.

PREVENTION OF OVERLAPPING. CHRISTCHURCH, October 8. Proposals for church union as affecting co-operation between the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches were discussed at to-day’s meeting of the Christchurch Presbytery, when recommendations were carried which, it was hoped, will do away with a considerable amount of overlapping, but which do not amount to a union in the commonly accepted version of the term.

.The Rev. J. Lawson Robinson submitted a report by the committee which had discussed the proposals for church union. There was some idea at the back of every mind of a reunion of the Christian churches in the world, said Mr Robinson. Everyone was in favour of it in some way, and although they as Presbyterians might like a union by absorption that was an impossible position. The union would incorporate the best elements in all the churches. Mr Robinson read proposals from the Church Union Committee of the General Assembly in Wellington, which had been a basis on which the local committee had investigated the subject. A union had already been tried in Plimmerton, where the success achieved had resulted in a desire to extend the scheme to otfcer districts. There is no suggestion of any union of the church as we understand it,” he said, “and for the time being only the Methodists and Presbyterian churches are concerned. The proposal might do away with much overlapping.”

The recommendations of the committee were then discussed, and the proposals were adopted in the following form:— “ (1) That a permanent joint committee consisting of four members from the Presbyterian Church to be appointed by the Presbyterian Assembly and four members from the Methodist Church appointed by the Methodist Conference be set up, one member from each church to be the home mission superintendent. (2) In cases of areas where both churches are engaged in church extension no action towards union be taken by the joint committee unless representations have first been made by a majority of people in the districts concerned. (3) That with the object of removing and preventing overlapping in sparsely populated districts a committee be set up in each presbytery to consult with a similar committee from the Methodist Church, th'-, committee’s report to be submitted to presbytery and through them to the joint committee.

“(4) That in districts where either Presbyterian or Methodist Church people find that they are unable to attend their own church that their church recommend that they link up in communicant membership for the time being with the existing Presbyterian or Methodist Church, as the case may be, and inform them that by so doing they are fulfilling their loyalty to their own church and to the Kingdom of God.”