DIOCESAN SYNOD OP NELSON.

Colonist, Volume X, Issue 956, 23 November 1866, Page 3

DIOCESAN SYNOD OP NELSON.

The annual meeting of this body, took place on Wednesday. It was presided over by the Bight Rev. Bishop Selwyn, Primus of New Zealand. The followingis his Lordship's charge :— Mt Revehend Brethren oe thb Clebgx— My Brethren of the Laity— At tho request of Bishop Hobhouse, and under a special authority from him (by section 12 of tbe 2nd statute of the General Synod), I have convened tbe Synod of this diocese, which (by the 9th section of the same statute) is required to meet at least once in every year. I readily undertook to resume for a short time the office which I administered for seventeen years before his arrival, and to assist in carrying out his Synodical system upon which I held so many conferences with the clergy and laity in this city. BISHOP HOBHOUSE. As a private friend of Bishop Hobhouse, I am not free to speak as I think of the loss which this diocese has suffered by his resignation. My delicacy is increased by the thought that it was on my recommendation that you accepted him as your Bishop. I would rather take your estimate of his character, after six years' acquaintance, and with you " acknowledge his past unparalleled bounty; as well as his munificent intentions with respect to the future endowment of the diocese." I would adopt as my own, your " appreciation of the spirit of untiring zeal and assiduity, of Christain courtesy and kindness, of self-sacrifice and liberality, with which he performed his duties." Above all, bl desire to be united to you in the prayer that "it may please God to renew that health and strength which he devoted unsparingly to the service of God in this diocese." BISHOP SUTER. We have every reason to believe tbat the interests of this diocese have been well provided for in the choice of his successor. We can accept with all confidence a Bishop nominated at your request by the Bishop of London, confirmed, at the request of the General Synod, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, J and approved by the Crown. In compliance with the proviso of the 23rd section of the constitution, Bishop Suter has declared in writing his assent to our Church Constitution: Many letters have come from him full of expressions of interest in the work to which he has been called. He has had the advantage of personal intercourse with Bishop Hobhouse. He has taken the wise ojurse of waiting till everything was clear; and he has made good use of the interval by providing such supplies as he could obtain in England for the wants of the diocese. We have all heard with thankful hearts that he was consecrated with the Bishop of Dunedin on St. Bartholomew's day. Our thanksgiving will check any disposition to murmur at the delay, but the cause of it ought to be clearly understood. The recent decisions of the Privy Council have declared our letters patent to be invalid. It followed of course that no such letters patent could.be issued to the new Bishops. They naturally wished to be consecrated in England, but the Archbishop of Canterbury could not consecrate them without authority from the Crown. A bill was brought in by Mr. Cardwell to remove this difficulty, but it was not carried through Parliament. At last, on the urgent application of the* Arcbishop, the Government consented to issue a license for the consecration of Bishops Suter and Jenner. The license, I hear, is in very general terms, and does not profess to assign the new Bishops any jurisdiction or territorial diocese. PETITION OF THE NEW ZEALAND BISHOPS. The five Bishops in New Zealand have petitioned to be allowed to resign their patents. The fact that the new Bishops have none, will prove that letters patent are no longer held to be necessary. The Attorney-General, Sir R. Palmer, stated in the House that " the maximum operation of these letters patent seems to be to incorporate the Bishops and their successors, not as an ecclesiastical corporation, within the colony, but simply as a common lay corporation, which it is in the ordinary prerogative of the Crown, to create, and for which no statutory powers are required." Even this limited operation of the letters patent was called in question by the AttorneyGeneral of New Zealand (Mr. Sewell) in a Ministerial memorandum sent to England with the Bishops' petition. This corporate character, useful in the early times of the colony, has been made unnecessary by the powers given to all religious bodies by the " Religious,. Charitable, and Educational Trusts Act, 1866." But our letters patent were not merely useless. They required us to administer discipline according to the ecclesiastical laws of England. But the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has decided that the ecclesiastical laws of England cannot be treated as part of the law which the settlers carry with them from the mother country. To supply this defect, Statutes 9 and 10 were passed by the General Synod in 1865, and have been adopted by the Synods of the dioceses of New Zealand and Nelson. We believe that it is better fos us to be governed by a known law agreed upon by us all, than by a law imperfectly known even in England, and having no operation in the colony. It was impossible we could be governed by both. THE QUEEN'S SUPREMACY. The resignation of our patents, and the appointment of the new Bishops without patents, is thought by some to be a derogation from the Queen's supremacy. If their "maximum of operation" was to create a lay corporation, it is evident that the Queen's supremacy in causes ecclesiastical could be in no way-conveyed by them. We are not clearly told what is meant by the Queen's supremacy. If it means a right of appeal, beneficed clergy have a right of appeal to the Privy Council; Curates have a right of appeal to the Archbishops ; Chaplains and Missionaries, under the Propogation and. Church Missionary Societies, have no right of appeal at all. Within which of these classes the colonial clergy can be placed, it is difficult to say. The laws of our Synod give the same right of appeal to all. If the supremacy of the Crown means the establishment of ecclesiastical courts, there can be no such courts in this colony. The Crown cannot establish them; our own Colonial Legislature certainly will not. Our own tribunals are in no sense courts. Without laws and without courts, there can be no ecclesiastical causes in which the supremacy of the Crown can take effect. What, then, is the bond of union which connects us with the mother Church ? What better bond can there be than the love which children bear to a revered mother ? We are bound to her by the fundamental law of our Constitution, that we will make no alteration in her formularies, nor in the authorized version of the Holy Scriptures. We hold and maintain the doctrine and sacraments of Christ as the Lord hath commanded in nis Holy word,: and as the United Church of England and Ireland hath received and explained the same. The petition of the New Zealand Bishops has been approved by the Archbishop, and by the late Secretary of State for the Colonies. The Archbishop writes thus : —" Mr. Cardwell referred the New Zealand memorial to me for my opinion, and I told him that the scheme proposed seemed to me to be the natural corollary from the Privy Council judgment." DIOCESAN BUSINESS. Bishop Hobhouse has conveyed the Bishopdale Estate and Clergy Replenishment Fund to Sir W. Marten, Bishop Patterson, aiid myself, upon trust, to reconvey the same to trustees appointed by the General Synod. The delay in the arrival of the new Bishop made this intermediate step necessary, as it was obviously desirable that he should be appointed one of the trustees. PENSION FUND. I have carefully read the report of the Standing Committee, and among many other subjects of interest with which I am imperfectly acquainted, I find one on the last page on which I can speak with earnestness and confidence. It was a continued subject* of regret to Chief Justice Arney that so few of the clergy of this diocese were subscribers to the Pension Fund. This may have arisen from want of information, which I shall now be most willing to supply. I lay upon the table the last report of the Central Pension Board of the Life Insurance circular referred to in the report of your committee. I shall not now trouble you with any details, but simply quote a few of the concluding words: " The Board most earnestly invite the clergy, j i the parochial authorities, and the trustees of Endow-1

ment Funds, to support this institution, the advantages of which, even at the present time, may be seen to be great, and to be increasing so fast as to justify the hope that ample provision will soon be made for all oyr invalid clergy, and for the widows and orphans of clergymen." CHANCELLOR AHD ASSESSORS. By the 3rd Section of 9th Statute, it is directed that tbe Bishop shall from time to time appoint a fit person to preside in the Bishop's Court who shall be called the Chancellor of the Diocese. And shall also from time to time appoint, with the concurrence of a majority of both orders in Synod assembled, not less than four clergymen and four laymen who shall be called Assessors of the Bishop's Court. Statutes 8 and 9 of the General Synod having been adopted in and for the diocese, it will be necessary, on the arrival of the new Bishop, to draw his attention to this subject, in order tbat the Assessors appointed by him may be approved by the two orders in Synod assembled. It would obviously be most inexpedient to allow the appointment of Assessors to be delayed until some case should occur to require the action of the tribunal. west coast. , I gather from the address of the Bishop of Christchurch to his Diocesan Synod, that he has received authority from Bishop Hobhouse to act for him over that port;on of the Nominal Diocese of Nelson which is included witiiin the Province of Canterbury. But a large population seems to be spreading northwards within the Province of Nelson, for which we may hope the new Bishop will be able to provide by engaging the services of one or more clergymen in England. APPROPRIATIONS. I entirely concur in the recommendations of your Standing Commitee, that the proper distribution of the Endowment Fund should remain undisturbed until the arrival of Bishop Suter. CONCLUSION. I need not detain you with any long remarks. On most of the subjects referred to by the Standing Committee, I come to learn rather than to teach; and to assist rather than to guide your deliberations. One thought only I would suggest, that we are engaged in a spiritual work, that we meet for a holy purpose. There must be details of business gone through; questions will arise on what have been called the temporal accidents of spiritual things; but let us take care that these secular objects, however necessary, do not distract our thought or lead us into wearisome discussions. What we want is a few earnest and burning words to tell us how souls may best be saved how the work of Christ may best be done. And then go back to our homes refreshed by the spirit of Council, to associate our neighbors with ourselves in works of charity done for the glory of God. So, while each man dresses his own vineyard and waters abundantly his own garden bed, the incense of the progress of a godly people will go up to heaven like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed.

Yesterday, provision was made for supplying clerical aid oh the West Coast Gold-fields, for which purpose £150 was voted from the Endowment Fund.