OVERTURE AND STATEMENT.

Southland Times, Issue 1148, 18 March 1890, Page 3

OVERTURE AND STATEMENT.

Mr Hay gave notice of motion to the following effect : — Whereas, in consequence of a proposal with reference to the doctrinal term of office in this Church on the ground of there being doubt or difficulty in connection with parts and passages of the Confeerion of Faith, committees of inquiry have been appointed by two Synods of this Church in 1888 and 1889; and whereas, irrespectively of certain questions as to terms of office or as to the fitness of the Confession to serve the purpose of a doctrinal testimony of this Church, such inquiry, so occasioned, has a bearing upon the truth of (jiod and upon stability of Christian belief in the community. It is hereby overtured by the Presbytery of Oamaru to the Synod of Otago and Southland that, irrespectively of questions as to term of office and as to the fitness of the Confession for that particular purpose of doctrinal testimony, the Synod of this year 1890 now declare distinctly whether, in the Synod's judgment, it has appeared, in the light of the inquiry for which those committees were appointed, that there is any part oC the Confession that has not Scriptural warrant of its truth and divinity, in accordance with the solemnly professed belief of all the ministers and elders of this Church at their ordination. In connection with this proposal the following statement was made by Dr. MacU.regor :— For the purpose of defining my position as a member of the Synod's committee on the Confession of Faith, I beg leave to state here why I make no protestation against the Presbytery's receiving this notice of motion : — 1. The overturing proposed is no interference with the committee. If they inquire in the direction of the overture's pointing, the overture will only strengthen their hands ; and if they do not, there will )je no possibility of interference, as there cannot be collision of bodies not moving in the same auhere. 2. While the committee is only a aervaot of the Synod, collecting information or otherwise preparing materials for its judgment, the Presbyteries, which the committee in no way represents, are, distinctly from the Synod, the radical courts of the Church, her primary witnesses ; and as such have, in relation to such * matter as the pre sent, an indefeasible eonstitntional right to address the Synod in the Church's interest for themselves. 3. On this occasion there it a special call for the witness-bearing in the present state and course of things, through which our Supreme Court is, relatively tc the truth of (Jod, made to appear as a debat ing society, listening to periodical assaults upon articles of the Church's belief in him under the name of pleadings for adjustment of her term of office. In the circumstance every imaginable claim of a Synod's com mittee upon consideration is, irrelevant tc ffoe question whether a Presbytery ought not »y means of such action as this overture to endeavour to prevent a continuance of s< lamentable a state and course of things, tvn 1 brin? it to a closing pobt. I fur her be* leave to submit the following note as t< fact: At the committees meeting. Mi Clarke, our Clerk of Presbytery, Mr Ftnlay son, Clerk of Dunedin Presjbjytery and of th< Synod's committee, who moved fhe Synod i resolution to appoint it for this inquiry, auc JwbowitbdwwoySyaoiwotioQißUvojH

I ' of his, maintained that the committee are bound, under their instructions from the ; Synod, to inquire into the particulars of I confessional doctrine, in connection with I which there is allegation of doubt or- dirH- ' culty relatively to the Confession ; and I > strongly reclaimed against the Synod's re- . solution to do nothing until the middle of ! August, when it will be practically imi possible for the committee, with members in . the remotest parts of the Church, to make real inquiry into the doctrinal matters in question before the Synod's meeting in . October. Mr Clarke stated that, as to the allusion at the close of the second part of the statement, to the effect of the delay upon practicability of inquiry, he was not prepared to endorse the statement, but that he fully agreed with the representation in the first part