METHODIST CHURCH.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16153, 6 March 1918, Page 8

METHODIST CHURCH.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE. (PRESS ASSOCIATION' TELEGRAM.) DUNEDIN, March 5. At the Methodist Conference to-day the welfare of the Church Committee reported the number of full members to be 22,953, an increase of 290; junior members 6411, an increase of 516. Conference adopted a loyal address reaffirming the conviction that nis Majesty's Forces are engaged in a, necessary crusade against a Power thai; ignores the eternal principles of right and wrong, and seeks by methods which are a dishonour to humanity to crush the liberties of others. It reaffirmed the confidence that the Empire and her allies will shortly triumph. Tho Foreign Missions Committee recommended conference to reaffirm the decision to postpone the allocation of a separate field for foreign mission work until after the war; that the appointment of tho Rev. Mr Sinclair as organising secretary be postponed till 1919; that the Rev. Mr Marshall be appointed foreign mission secretary at an honorarium of £75; and that for the ensuing year conference aim at raising £15,000 for foreign missions. The recolumendations were agreed to. Further consideration will be given to the report at another session. j A NORTH CANTERBURY REMIT J THROWN OUT. (3riiCIAL TO "the press.") DUNEDIN. March 5. At the Methodist Conference to-day, the Rev. E. P. Blamires (Christchnrch) brought down the remit of the North Canterbury District Synod urging the conference to set up four commissions on: (1) Our Church, (2) our Gospel and doctrine, (3) our evangelism, and (4) our social task; ihe commissions to institute enquiries, collect data, apply themselves to tho problem disclosed, and issue interim reports of progress and recommendations, with the . object of directing tho corporate thinking and acting of our Church, and to report to the following conference. The proposal was very trenchantly and generally opposed. The Rev. S. Lawry Christchurch) said that they should be' very careful about settling up commissions to tell them how they were to feel. Ho believed in every man solving his own problems. He was not going to shape his ends to tho intention of any commission set up, and he did not want his brethren to do &o. They must be individuals on such matters and speak according! l to the voice heard in their hearts. Ho moved the previous question. The Rev. C. H. Garland (Auckland) asked the conference to. imagine a commission on the Gospel. Did Mr Blamires think the Church would accept the finding of three men on the Gospel ? Mr. Blamires: That is quite off the track. Mr Garland: "I have been following Mr Blamires: that is why I am off the track." He went on to say that the difficulties of the Church lay* not in the matters suggested as suitable for consideration by commissions, but in tho will of man. Tho heroic days of tho Church had been when there was little dogma. If commissions were appointed on these matters there would be a divided Church. The remit was thrown out on the voices. "PROUD OF METHODISM." The Rev. M. L. Blamires. a returned chaplain, in the course of his remarks at to-day's sitting of the Methodist Conference, said he had come back with less and less svmpathv "for denorainationalism ; with less and less time for thrbigotry that somotimes characterised Church work in New Zealand. At the same time he had come back more and Tnore proud of Methodism. People I were apt to think of them in New ZoaI land as members of a very small body, because of the relative smallness of the I Church in New Zealand, but with ' America now in the war there would be more Methodists at the front than any other English-sneaking Protestant Church. The work he had seon revealed the Methodist Church as one of Abe greatest _ and most God-blest Churches in existence. SCARCITY OF MINISTERS. I In the station sheet presented at the Methodist Conference 26 of the stations are marked "one wanted," As further showing the scarcity of men, the Rev. T. G. Brooks announced that there were i 33 vacancies for home missionaries, and 11 places that were filled last year now had to be marked as vacant.