BIBLE SOCIETY WORK

Hokitika Guardian, 16 October 1924, Page 4

BIBLE SOCIETY WORK

NEW AUSTRALIAN ORGANISATION.

WELLINGTON, October 11

The appointment of the Rev A. T. Thompson, ALA., 8.D., as general secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society in. Australia means the inauguration of a wider scheme of organisation for the Commonwealth. Jt is a tribute to the excellence of the work done by Now Zealand’s general secretary that lie has been selected fO! the pioneering of a new general organisation in Australia. The Stales have hitherto carried 011 the work independently, hut it was decided at a conference of Australian aiul New Zealand delegates held in Brisbane last .Tunc to form a Commonwealth Council, which will deal with the society’s business affecting the Commonwealth as a whole, as distinct from matters of local State ndminstration. New Zealand lms been provided with a new constitution under 0 Dominion Council, having separate iWitoluiiny, though -Mr Thompson will no doubt maintain close and sympathetic vela* lioils with the work ill the Dominion with which he is so familiar.

.Mr Thompson’s work will be to organise the new Co'iViiYioitwealth Council and co-ordinate and unify the operations uV the Bible Society throughout this great area. The Commonwealth Council, with which he will work, will appoint stall’s throughout Australia, arrange for eolportage work in neglected and scattered areas and present mil annual report showing the activities of the Commonwealth as a whole. A

very extensive scheme of literature for the work in Australia will he needed, and the literature which is supplied from the society’s headquarters in London will lie utilised and adapted for the local work. These briefly ai‘e the local or internal activities which .Mr Thompson will have to initiate attd supervise. I’M K AWAKENING FAST. There is, howovcT, a wider and quite impressive lield of work which it is hoped to inaugurate when the “basis” has been thoroughly established; “New Zealand, and Australia are tile nearest great Christian countries to the great Eastern hemisphere whore rv great awakening of tile four hundred million Chinese is taking place,” remarked Mi’ Thompson to a “Lyttelton Times” corespondent. “This Chinese awakening is likened by their own intellectual leaders to the reiiaissallce which revolutionised Western thought. We in the Christian countries nearest to this great mass must accept a greater responsibility for influencing its development. We must first organise our home bases and then direct our attention to this renaissance, for we have most to gain through the great awakening.” Mr Thompson, planning well ahead of immediate possibilities, outlined a course of action which will effectively utilise the resources already ill the field, and he will develop this scheme when he takes over his new work.

A visit to England to consult with the Central Council is first necessary. Sir Thompson will visit Coloihlki, the Hi hie Society’s, Egyptian agency (which governs the work in Egypt and .Mesopotamia,!, and several ol the Continental countries on his ,way Homo, and, alter meeting the London committee

and exploring the resources ol the principal Bible Mouse, he will return via the United States and Canada, so as to get into personal touch with the leaders of* Mible Society work in those countries.

Air 'lhompson mentioned that the new Alaori Bible, which has been carefully revised hv a committee ol New Zealand authorities, is now in the press in London, and is being produced under the personal supervision of the Vcn Archdeacon Herbert W iHiatus. The new edition will lie welcomed, as the supply of tlin former edition has been exhausted.