THE PATRIARCH OF THE BAPTIST MINISTRY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1138, 27 May 1911, Page 9

THE PATRIARCH OF THE BAPTIST MINISTRY.

Hew Evan Edwards, of Torquay, is now the oldest Baptist minister in the world. He was boni i" Waterloo year, and at •Jβ is still wonderfully halo and strong, both physically and mentally. As recently as last Christmas Hay he preached at Upton Yale — where ho ministered from I«6S to 1885—with remarkable vigour :\iu! clo(|ucncc. Indeed, until within the last two or three years he freely occupied the pulpit, and . is rarely absent from tho morning service at his old church. Ho began his ministry in IS3B at Boekington, in Somerset, a lid is. perhaps the only man living who knew personally the three great evangelists of Wales—Christmas Evans. John Ellis, and Williams of Yvcm. Robert

Hall lie never met, but John Foster, the essayist, was one of his hearers when, as a young man, he preached in Robert Hall's pulpit at Broadniead, Bristol. His interest in the most modern developments of ecclesiastical life is keen, and ho follows the. progre.-s of foreign missionary work with the, closest attention. 20,000 SQUARE MILE PARISH. A NEW STEP IN CHUKCII WORK. A new departure in the way of church expansion work has been taken by the virnr and parishioners of St. John the Divine, Kennington, London. An area of 120,000 square miles lias been assigned by the Bishop of New Westminster, British Columbia, for a new parish, and Canon Brooke and the clergy and parishioners of the Komiington parish have made themselves responsible for its staffing and working. The area has been named after their own homo parish, and has its centre at Qiiosnol, on the River Kraser. 'i'ho parish of St. Stephen's, Gloucester Road, is sharing the pecuniary liabilities, and is sending out and supporting one of the staff, the Hcv. H. Isaac Williams, Curate of St. John's, Newbury. In addition to Mr. Williams, Canon A. G. Deedes, the Rev. H. C. Thursby-Pelham, and the Rev. W. R. Drake, curates of St. John the Divine, Kennington, together with 51 r. M'Oucen, and Mr. Goodman and Mr. Pollinger, of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, will leave for British Columbia' on April 26, and will be met at Lyttoii by the Archdeacon of Yale. The party will at once proceed northwards, visiting and preaching as they go, and expect to arrive at Ouesnel by the end of June. Canon Deedes will be in charge of the, missionors, and as soon as convenient will. return to England and report on the needs of the great parish and the prospects for emigrants.