An Urgent Appeal.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XI, Issue 6, 1 December 1920, Page 334

An Urgent Appeal.

Mr A. Turner Williams lias begun his canvass as Organising Secretary for the General Diocesan Fund. Do you realise how important this fund is? In 1872 Bishop William Williams, m his presidential address to the Synod, outlined a sqheme for such a central fund as this. From then till now, at various Synods, the subject has been discussed, but narrow parochialism and present difficulties have always been m the way of a diocesan scheme and' the future benefit of the Church. Who can tell what might have been the position of the Church m this diocese • to-day if that scheme had been working for 48 years? / The idea has never been quite lost.' sight of and a fund, called at , different' periods by various names and known to us recently as the "Home Mission Fund," has been m existence. It has met with some success, but it had only about 150 regular subscribers and was dependent upon special collections on two Sundays m the year for a great deal of its income. If these Sundays happened to

be wet, or fell during' a time of epidemic sickness, the churches were nearly empty, the collections small and the fund crippled for the year. No business can be run satisfactorily on income-^-there must be capital to draw upon m bad times or the business^goes If the Church is to undertake its obligations, to open up work m regions,- where it . is •■■■ urgently required, but which must , at first be financially unproductive, it must have a reserve fund. If it is to open orphanages, and rescue homes ' and undertake propaganda work it must have an assured income; we cannot open institutions aiid undertake new work if it means a feverish anxiety every year as to whether we shall be compelled to close them again for lack of funds. * To invest capital, for example, m building and equipping an orphanage, or m building a backbloeks church, is only rash speculation with much needed funds, unless we have a favorable prospect of being able to carry on. This need for constant begging for innumerable sectional objects is irritating ,to / Churchmen who do not, know how many calls will be made iipon their ;.. - generosity, and deters the Churcji authorities from commencing work that is absolutely necessary because every such work means a new "f u'rid to canvass for. If we are to have any stability and any justification for ini^ tiative we simply must have a strqng central fund. There is no reason why a wealthy diocese like this should be unable to raise a fund: sufficient to guarantee, no£ only the maintenance of existing work and organisations, but also the extension of its social and evangelistic work. As a matter of fact our Anglican Church people already give to the Salvation Army something like three ' times as much as would enable the Church to do the same work as they do several times . The reasons why the Salvation Army succeeds m raising such large sums, where we fail, are several: — 1. Every local S.A. captain is a Collector, m fact . collecting money is the principal part of his business; on the other hand the clergy :• of the Church devote their time entirely to. evangelistic work, classes, services, sick visiting 1 , and so on, and, if they gave this up dnd became collectors of money, even the worldiest of Churchmen would see that they were failing m their spiritual duty and would say they were "after the loaves and fishes." It is disastrous to a clergyman's ministry when people learn to look upon him as a mere collector of money and expect a call upon their cheque book every time he visits them. 2. The S.A. army wins support because it makes its doings known far and wide. No little hoiriev is opened,

no orphanage/ built, 1 no work of charity undertaken but the whole world knows about it, and the idea spreads that the "Army "is .doing 'all the social and rescue work pf the country, and all the evangelisation of the poor, whilst the Church . is popularly supposed to be neglecting these ,; obvious duties simply because she ] does not advertise what she does. . As far as we are able to obtain- statistics we gather that the Roman Catholics do far more > social work than all other denominations put together, although they form only . a , small proportion of the population. The Anglican Church, as of course she • should, : does more than all the Pro- , testant; sects -put together, including the Salvation Army. The Presbyterians are also doing good work. Through oiar obedience to our Lord's command m the Sermon on the Mount we avoid publicity, and suffer m the public • estimation. If charitably minded Churchmen would entrust their gifts to their own church they would find them better spent, and they and "their church would not be despised because of the little social work it is supposed to be doing. 3. The Salvation Army, is centrally administered and has a central fund *%. of which it can meet emergencies anof sudden aallsy whilst the Church lias to wait till a special fund is raised for the particular object; and is late m the field. If we as a Church are to do our duty "we must have a strong central fund; A provincial fund is the ideal to be aimed at, but meanwhile we must have our Diocesan Fund. . The Standing Committee .,; consists half of clergy, with the Bishop as chairman and half of laymen, business men thoroughly representative of the laity of the diocese, who can be trusted to see that a central fund is administered m the best possible way. . The Organising Secretary has sent . out to all Churchmen two f orms, ; one a blue form for, donations to capital, the other a white one for promises of annual subscriptions for present use. Both capital and annual income ' are necessary. Small as well as large subscriptions and donations are all welcome. Not merely money. s is re-, quired, but personal interest as well, and we want the personal interest of the poor man as well as that of the wealthy. A few of our wealthier Churchmen do not realise that a donationof £10 to capital is equivalent to an annual subscription of 10s, less than a shilling a month-! ! If £50,000 capital, is to be built up we heed large donations. If many of our wealthy Churchmen gave as a donation to our capital fund only the same amount as they give annually to -the Salvation Army success would be assured. We realise that, as usual, our fund is 1 late m the, day. v lt should have

been, established years ago: If an organising secretary.had been at work when money was plentiful rand; wool prices good, we should have had a big fund already. Unfortunately his work is 'beginning just when the wool market is m confusion '_'„ and sheepfarmers do not know what their prospects; are; but we believe there is still truth m last Sunday evening's first lesson, Malach iii, and iv., andj although God's favor should not be the chief motive for giving tithes and offerings, God will not "be unrighteous that He will forget our works and labour that proeeedeth of love," and .that; " whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap."