PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH PARLIAMENT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2934, 21 November 1916, Page 4

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH PARLIAMENT

Wellington for tho rexfc eight days will be tho meeting-place of an ecclesiastical parliament of some importance. Tho General Assembly of tho Presbyterian Church of New Zealand begins its sittings to-night Sk John's Church, and will have tho largest membership of all tho Church Courts in tho Dominion. It has a possiblo membership of nearly fiOO, but tho actual membership is much less, for, whilo every member can speak, and move motions, only fifty, per cent, aro allowed to vole,

s* <l ° 1 scuts a Church tuf b - Iy ropre " arvl n ,?T la j loU of Dominion, n f numbered 234,662. These fig(tres embracing men, .women, and nominal' lu ,? ludc \ a number of E w! for tho acfc ual 75 $0 ? C ° m 1911 Was onl y thoniT,J« discrepancy between theso two figures shows that there "f S<? i UU! ? bol \° f Pre sbyterians 0 and religious institutions, and among these there is an open door for Some Mission lk y* b - In 1911 tho Presbyterian L-fturcl* occupied the premier place among all tno Ohurchcs for its attendance. The gross revenue this year is £158,839, and of this £76,569 was contributed to the support of tho ministry. Tho pregnant question has been raisod: How would

men of other professions fare— schoolmasters, lawyers, medical men and others if they were cast upon the freo will offerings of tho people for their support, like tho parsons 1 Within recent years the .Presbyterian Church here has launched out m social service work. There aro Presbyterian in our four centres, in which 300 children are cared for, and agents are at work in our criminal courts, and are the means of paving young offenders from a life of crime The Church has launched out also in educational institutions. _ Knox College, Duucdin, a noble pile of buildings, for tho erection of which one of the donors gave no less than £20,000, finds a home and school for students for tho ministry, and also gives residence to students of other professions. Girls' colleges have also sprung up in several centres; and in Wellington a boys' college has recently emerged. In this zeal for an education inspired by the highest ideals, tho Presbyterian Church is true to its traditions. The Presbyterian Church, like other Churches, is a, great asset in the Dominion. Our real wealth is not

our material products, but our intelligent and virtuous manhood and womanhood, and the Presbyterian Church is doing its part in the making of true and good men and women. The New Zealand Presbyterian Churoh, large, relatively to our Dominion population, is only a young and small child of the great Presbyterian family of Churches. The other year an article in the Contemporary Review described the Presbyterian Church as a "worldwide democratic Church," and the writer showed the übiquity almost of the Church. It is hardly triio to say that the Presbyterian Church is tho _ "Scotch" Church, for it found its revival in the sixteenth century, in Franco, and not in Scotland, and the' largest Presbyterian Church in tho world to-day is in America and not in Scotland. But from Scotland and from tho North of Ireland came the men that formed tho i Presbyterian Church herd, and a particular nationality marks tho rank and file of its mem-

bers and adherents. The Church has played an important part in history, and counts for much in the lifo of to-day. It is not for us here to anticipate the business that will bo discussed by the Assembly, further than this—the Assembly will likely do honour to itself by conferring an honour on a Wellington citizen who is !a loyal Presbyterian and a large-minded Christian. The Assembly will almost certainly nominate as its Moderator for next year the Hon. J. U. "W. Aitken. Probably do lay elcler has been Moderator of a Presbyteran Assembly for 350 years. Such at least is the judgment of Presbyterian historical experts in their "Report on the Eldership to the Pan-Presby-terian Council at Belfast in 1884":

—"Since the. days of George Buchanan it is not known to-this committeo that a layman has acted as Moderator of a General Assembly." The ©lection of Dr. Bruce as Moderator in England in 1881 was not an exception, for Dr. Bruce, though not ordained, was a licentiate of the Church. Some 350 years ago the first Moderator of the Scottish General Assembly in Edinburgh was George Buchanan, humanist, historian, and so-called layman. John Knox approved of the election in Assembly in 1567. The Assembly had conducted its business without a Moderator up to that year. A Presbyterian Assembly today, in raising an elder to the Moderator's chair, is simply following in the steps of John ICnox.