CHALMERS CHURCH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19624, 19 October 1933, Page 4

CHALMERS CHURCH

CAREER OF MINISTER-ELECT. The Rev. Ellis Llewellyn Williams, 8.A., minister of 155th Street Presterian Church, New York, who has received a call to Chalmers Church, Timaru, is a native of Wales, and is a son of the late Rev. Robert Williams, M.A., a noted minister of the Welsh Presbyterian Church. After a fine academic record at the university and theological college, M- Williams has had a distinguished career in the ministry in the English, Welsh and American fields. At the Univc-sity College of North Wales he was a Scholar and Exhibitioner, specialising in Latin, English and Philosophy. He took his B.A. degree with honours there, and also represented his college in interUniversity debating and served as president of the College Union. After three years’ service as master of English and Latin at a county High School, he studied at the Bala Theological College, taking the B.D. course and won the premier theological scholarship. Ordained to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church *of England, Mr Williams held charges at London, Brighton and Liverpool before going to his present charge, 155th Street Presbyterian Church, New York, where he conducts a bi-lingual ministry, the services being in English and Welsh. In New York. M. Williams has gained a distinctive place among his colleagues as a gifted and powerful preacher, possessing a strong and forceful personality, and a keen sense of humour. He occupied the office of Moderator of the Synod of New York and Vermont of the Presbyterian Church in U.S.A. for two years, and during the past two years has been chairman of a committee on programme and field activities. He is also an able executive and journalist, being Editor-in-Chief of “The Friend,” the official organ of the Welsh unit in the Presbyt^-' - n Church In the United States. He has represented the Presbytery of Eastern New York md Vermont, Welsh, at various functions of the Presbyterian Church in U.S.A. Mr Williams has had an exceptionally wide experien with young people in England. Wales and the United States. He was co-founder, and for five years honorary secretary of the denominational Young People’s Fellowship in the North Wales province of the Presbyterian Church of Wales, and has often been the guest-speaker at young people’s conferences. He has frequently been invited as Special Preacher to public services held in connection with General Assemblies and Synods, and has inaugurated and presided at many round-table conferences for the discussion of the tenets of the Christian faith, especially in their application to the problems of our modern life. Mr Williams’s visit to New Zealand on this occasion is the fulfilment of a plan arranged 14 years ago. when he was granted a commission from the United Frc ”* Church of Scotland, and was appointed to the Presbyterian Church of Vew Zealand. However, he was under the necessity of abandoning the trip owing to the death of his fat' er. Although many activities have since claimed hLs retention, Mr Williams had a longing to visit New Zealand, but it was only recently that the opportunity occurred.