DIOCESE OF WAIKATO

Taranaki Daily News, 14 December 1926, Page 11

DIOCESE OF WAIKATO

FIRST MEETING OF SYNOD BISHOP CHERRINGTON'S ADDRESS. PLANS FOR CHURCH EXTENSION. (By Wire. —Special to News.) Hamilton, Last Night. In his first address to the clergy and laity of the diocese at the sitting of the Synod to-day, Bishop Cherrington, replying to a welcome by Archdeacon Cowie, said:— "My brethren of the clergy and laity: The circumstances under which we meet to-day make me humbly conscious of the responsibility which rests upon me, and not upon me only, but also upon yourselves and the whole of the church people of the diocese. “It is not for nothing that you have elected me and that I have been elected the first bishop of Waikato. All of you were strangers to me, and I was to you, and the first intimation I had of there being a diocese of Waikato at all was your cable asking me to come. "We must always be careful, even in most solemn choice that we may make in a. y of our actions, in ascribing anything we do to the direct influence of God, but it does seem as if we may with reverence say so, and that you have been guided by His Holy Spirit and that means surely that there are great things in store for us. Anyhow, I understand that that is the view of many in response to whose ardent prayers, pious hopes and earnest work this diocese of Waikato has been founded and its first bishop elected and consecrated. “I want to thank you of the Synod, and through you the church people whom you represent, with all the heartiness. of which I am capable for the warmth of the welcome you have given me. It is really amazing, if you stop to think of it, how kind people are. It only confirms us in the opinion that we ought to have, viz., that there is a great deal m.re kindness in the world really than the opposite. Anyhow that has been my experience for I have met with kindness wherever I have been. Let me thank you for yours, and for the sympathy that you have expressed with me

in my loss and that so many people here who have never seen me have expressed in the.most delicate way, which is all of a piece with your kindness. DEATH OF MRS. CHERRINGTON. “It has been a blow and the more so because it was never dreamed of or expected for a moment. I know yet very few details, and up to the first week in November at Panama I received happy cables telling me of improved health and then this! It has seemed hard that she who was present when I was ordained a deaeon thirty years ago should not have been allowed to have been greeted ever by a letter or a cable by her husband on his being called to the highest office in the church on earth. "It has been your loss as well as mine, because she has always tried to be a true friend to those among whom we have lived since our mhrriage 27 years ago. I am sure you would have loved her as other people have. She had hoped to sail in January but would not let me wait for her as she thought." The bishop went on to refer to the part played by the Chureh of England in laying the foundations of the realm and the overseas dominions. “We represent an important extension of that church's work,” proceeded the bishop. “Tn response to the prayers, hopes and work of those by whom, under God, this diocese has been founded, we as a diocese yesterday began our life, - I am told that the diocese is likely to see a jreat increase of population in the near future. That means that one and all of us must keep our eyes open and our ittention alert to be ready to -supply the sacraments and the means of grace wherever our countrymen may settle, so that the Church may carry out her work of shepherding the people of God. “It is a pity that the cathedral town is not more in the middle of the diocese, but that is the case in many dioceses at home and abroad. In these days of transit ever increasing in rapidity and comfort it need be but a small point, and I hope to be as familiar an object ni the south and scattered parts of the diocese as anywhere else.” THOUGHT FOR THE MAORIS. Speaking of the Maoris, Bishop Cherrington stated that he was glad there were many of that race in the diocese as he had been interested in the Maoris since his boyhood. By sympathy and affection their elder brothers in the faith must help them to do their part in realising the kingdom of God. “It will be a matter of careful deliberation at an early date as to what arrangements we shall make for our cathedral. ,We have other dioceses in various parts of the Empire from which to draw ideas, and it will be for us to translate those ideas into such action as shall be best for this diocese in the future and for our own particular needs. “I hope everyone is relying on the fart that I have come here to work, and anything you can give me to do that will serve you in any way I shall gladly welcome. A servant of the servants of Christ is what is bishop is, or ought to be, and it is what in all ways I want to be. But be patient with me. Remember I have no home critic who is always so great a help. We men sometimes have to go a long way round, both as regards dealing with actionsand character, to find out what a woman with her sure and unerring instinct can often put her finger on in a moment. “You kindly express the hope that I may continue here. I have no home ties now, alas, and so far as I know j have no reason for living anywhere else, so that my time here simply depends upon how long God spares me. "In conclusion, let me say that if we all put our whole heart and soul into our work, endeavouring every day we live to understand one another well and a -ve one another better, we shall with God’s grace make of our church and diocese of Waikato a worthy sister to those other older dioceses that have done so much and are doing so much to build up the happy healthy life of this fair land.” The Rev. J. L. A. Kayll and Mr. H. G. Corbett were elected clerical and lay ecretaries respectively. A resolution was moved on behalf of the "tending Committee that the diocesan trustees be authorised to be incorporated under the name of the Waikato Diocesan Trust Board, under the provisions of the Religious. Charitable and Educational Trusts Act, 1908, and in accordance with Title F, Canon 2, clauses 1,2 and 3. The motion was carried. A Pension Fund Bill was moved on

behalf of the Standing Committee to associate the diocese of Waikato with the dioceses of Auckland, Waiapu and Melanesia for the purposes of the clergy pension fund, was passed with certain amendments, and the second reading taken in committee. Rev. A. Drake and Mr. F. Harris were elected clerical and lay members respectively of the Pension Board. The consent of the Synod was given to the sale of parochial properties in Cambridge and Morrinsville. Tributes were paid to the work of Archdeacon Cowie, and Mr. Hurst moved that it be a recommendation to the Standing Committee that suitable recognition be made of the services of office as the Archbishop’s commissary Archdeacon Cowie during his tenure of for ordinary purposes. The resolution was carried, -