CANON W. S. BEAN TO RESIGN.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20489, 7 March 1932, Page 9

CANON W. S. BEAN TO RESIGN.

FORTY YEARS' SERVICE Af ADDIJJGTON. "There is no more beloved priest in the .diocese than Canon W. S. Bean, and ■while it is known that lie has -wished to give up active work for some time past, it will come as a blow to his parishioners to learn that he definitely intends to resign shortly," says the current issucv of the ."Church News." "One of '.he best known and most popular o- the ministers of religion in Canterbury, his appointment as vicar of Addington St. Mary's dates from 1892. He has been 51 years t in Holy Orders and 40 of those years have been spent in Addington. The number ' of couples he has msirried there topped the 1000, mark some time last year and he has never had time enough to count the number of children he has baptised—— often enough he has married*both their parents and their grand-parents, and comes perilously close to baptising the great-grandchildren of some of the early couples. . "Such a record is enviable —he embodies the ideal of the parish priest who when he gets his first parish settle's there fir life —though Ganon Bean was vicar of Malvern and of Kumara for years before he went to Addington. His achievement must be a record in overseas ministerial annals, and. while .we share the regret that will be felt generally at his retiring, we heartily congratulate him on passing the halfcentury mark in his years of active beneficent ministry." Canon Bean said yesterday .that his retirement would not take effect until about the end of this year.