BAPTIST UNION

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 133, 7 June 1937, Page 7

BAPTIST UNION

CENTRAL AUXILIARY,

ANNUAL REPORTS

The annual meeting-or--the-central auxiliary of the Baptist Union.of ls Tew Zealand, embracing delegates' from the churches in the Wellington-New Plymouth, Napier, and Nelson.area, will be held in Lower Hutt on Wednesday. The annual report shows that , the auxiliary and the individual churches have made steady progress during the year, and that church membership has increased. ■ . ■ Grants totalling £300 were made by. the general assembly to seven churches in the area, but .in1.'.. ..return these churches contributed a total of £140 to the union. The total collection for union • funds rfrom the, auxiliary churches was £725 18s 7d or £65 6s 9d more than in 1936. There were changes in the pastorates of the'Karori, Petone,' and Lyall Bay churches, the, present ministers .being Revs. J. A. Clifford, J. A. McKee, and C S Matthews respectively. Owing to ill health Mr. G. A. N.'Freeman resigned the secretaryship of the auxiliary and Mr. A. E. Edridge was appointed. ■ . , In ■ connection, with Baptist World Alliance Week, special .combined meetings were held, and were attended by Dr::Alexander Hodge,;of-Auckland, and Dr. Charles North, of Dunedin. Evangelistic missions were success* fully carried out by several churches. A campaign for systematic , giving through the agency of "duplex envelopes" was inaugurated to increase .the funds of the New Zealand Baptist Mission in-India and the.New Zealand Home Mission BranchT N The Home Mission Committee reports a forward move in regard to the Chinese Mission, • arid -through/ the "friendly gesture" of. the Presbyterian Church, a commencement 'of work at Houghton Bay under the Island. Bay Church. Towns : where the Baptist Church is not represented are being surveyed with a view to the needs of the districts. : ■ : > .. ■.: ■'■■'< . The finance committee reports that through a special effort the, Lower Hutt Church hoped shortly to complete the payment of its indebtedness to the auxiliary and that the Miramar Church had paid its debt to the Vivian Street Church. . , ■ ■ The Foreign Mission Committee reports the departure'of. the Rev. Royston Brown for India, and the visit of the Rev. H. A. 'Jones; and Mrs. Jones from India to the churches in NewZealand. . ~.'...-.. ■The Chinese Mission Committee . appealed for increased interest in the work in Wellington, where good service is being rendered. • The agent for the Manurewa Children's Home records the appointment of sub-agents in several churches to mam.tain interest in the work of the orphanage. - Each of the individual churches; re» ports steady progress. • .