Memorandum on Clerical Education.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 257, 30 October 1877, Page 5

Memorandum on Clerical Education.

I have thought it advisable to set before you, and so before the Church, a few facts with reference to the history and objects of the Bishopdale Theological College, in order that its work may be understood, and that it may receive the support necessary for a permanent Diocesan Institution. I put it in the form of a memorandum or I'ecord. The need of colony-born and well-trained clergy was felt almost from the first settlement of the Church iv the colony, and each year as it has passed has shown the increasing difficulty of obtaining new clergy to meet the increasing wants of the country from home. No alternative remains but training them. Some very valuable men indeed are already in the field, and are doing good work for the Church, who have been trained in the best way possible in the early years of the colony considering the circumstances, but during the last few years more systematic effort has arisen in the different Dioceses. Bishop Selwyn founded and endowed St. John's College, Auckland, for clerical education, and it has given the colony not a few worthy members of the Ministry. It has, however, been shown that the idea of any one place being the permauent centre of either political, literary, or ecclesiastical energy for all New Zealand is in the present undeveloped state of the colony an impossibility, neither is it at present to be desired, however much it may be at a distant period. The present stage of the work must necessarily be Diocesan, until railways and roads bring both North and South into much more rapid communication. Bishop Hobhouse liberally covenanted with St. Augustine's College in England for a supply of men by paying for their education, but other Dioceses than this have reaped the benefit of this arrangement, and it has been generally thought that colony-born young men were more suited to the country than young men who came from England, but had not enjoyed the advantages of a thorough University course. The need for men made itself felt so much by the present Bishop of Nelson in 1867 that he at once endeavored to prepare the way for training a small band of men on the spot at once, and was encouraged and enabled to proceed by two circumstances — Ist. The existence of a spacious Diocesan property for the ground for the Episcopal Residence, which had been before his arrival so | munificently given by Bishop Hobhouse, and was available for the erection of buildings suitable for purposes of a Theological Hall or College ; and, 2nd. The fund known as the Clergy Replenishment Fund — £3000 — which was also munificently given by Bishop Hobhouse, the interest of which was to be applied at the discretion of the Bishop from time to time for the education of the Clergy, bringing them from beyond seas or otherwise replenishing their number from time to time. In addition to the above endowments there is one of the value of £1050, collected by Bishop Suter in England, the interest of which is applied to the stipend of a Theological Tutor, or of any educational assistance necessary for the training of Theological Students, which fund is constantly receiving and is open to receive additions. With these important foundations the Bishop of Nelson has proceeded, and since 1868 students have continuously been resident under the Bishop's superintendence. Six have been ordained, all of whom have more or less studied at Bishopdale, two of them, alas ! having been, removed prematurely by drowning ; the others are bringing credit on the Institution with which they have been so long connected. There are at present five accepted sfcudeuts, though, as they are of necessity regarded as probationers until accepted for Ordination, the number will of course vary from time to time. The Bishop does not contemplate having more than six students under the present circumstances of the Diocese or the Institution. The present Bishop of Nelson at his private expense has constructed an additional building suitable for containing six students with resident Assistant Tutor, and a chapel is just finished, to which subscriptions have already been gladly received. The cost of the buildings and the chapel has necessarily been very heavy, and the Bishop will gladly receive help from those who sympathise with him in his work, and are willing to help him in bearing its burden. Contributions would therefore be accepted by him, for the Building Fund or for the Tutorship Endowment Fund, and will be duly acknowledged in the Church papers. The offertories in the chapel will go to the liquidating its cost ; debt it cannot be called, for, being built on Trust land, it has become the property of the Diocese. The Bishop has, however, entered on the responsibility of erecting these buildings, not suddenly, nor until they became

absolutely needed, and no other way of supplying the needed training for the clergy presented itself. Everything about the buildings is of the plainest character, but, it is hoped, of as lasting a nature as the material necessarily used would allow. At present the Bishop acts as Principal, assisted by the Rev. T. S. Grace as Chaplain and Assistant Tutor. The Examiners approved by the Chancellor of the University of New Zealand for conducting the Matriculation Examinations are Revs. J. C. Andrew, M.A., C. O. Mules, M.A., and S. Poole, M.&. ; J. Von Tunzelmann. Modern Languages ; and L. Boor, Esq., F.R.C.S. The Yen. Archdeacon Thorpe, M.A., and the Rev. James Loighton, formerly Tutor in the C.M.S College of Agra, have also Jcindly rendered assistance to the Bis!«op in examinations and otherwise, and Dr. Boor has accepted the post of Lecturer in Botany. The cost of each student is £11 ss. per Quarter for Board, and Tuition fees £3 15s. Two students born in New Zealand enjoy exhibitions of £30 per annum for three years kindly supplied by the Society for Promoting Christianity. All more or less benefit from the endowments above mentioned. As to the qualifications of those to be admitted as Students, they must necessarily vary. No rule can be laid down. The Church requires earnest men of suitable age, not over 45. It seeks for men who either have a calling by which they make their livelihood and who desire to give it up for the work of the Ministry, or young men of such parts as that it is quite certain that they would be able to make quite as much of a livelihood out of the Ministry as they would expect to do in that work, so that in no case may it be said that the work of the Ministry was taken up as a livelihood. In the case of those who devote themselves to it from the first, as young men, the circumstances of the Colony require that the training should be long and thorough, and this is the difficulty. Candidates will require to be entirely supported during the long probation and preparation, aud that at a time when others of the same age are in the receipt of an income. This will last for the next few years, but will gradually vanish before the development of the Colony. The Bishop as Principal wishes to invite the attention of members of the Church to this Institution and work. He will \ be happy to enter into correspondence with any, either young men, or those of maturer years, either in New Zealand or out of it in prospect of the Ministry. He desires it to be distinctly known that Bishopdale is an institution in which men are Probationers, and that if from time to time, there are students who leave without accomplishing their course, it is not by any means necessarily implied that their conduct has been unsatisfactory, or that it is for such reason they have left. It may be so ; it may not be so. There may be other reasons of a private or personal nature, which may be of sufficient importance to suspend the connection, but may yet allow those who may depart to carry with them the esteem and appreciation of those in charge, aud yet leave open the way for their working efficiently as Christian Laymen. Each case must stand and be judged on its own merits. The efficacy of the institution depends on its being perfectly free to accept or decline those who are admitted to it. As to the nature of the teaching, the doctrines inculcated and the books studied — -the aim is and ever will be to make them as wide as and no wider than, the formularies of what is known as the Church of England, viz., the Book of Common Prayer, the Ordinal and the Articles — where any interpretation of these is needed it is sought for in the plain meaning of language or hi the writings of those who drew up these formularies. The ultimate aim is that those who leave with the imprimatur of this Institution, and the four grades of the Boards of Theological Studies, should understand the Scriptures in their original languages, have some power of expounding them, and making known the contents of them by the Divine and eminently Christian Ordinance of Preaching, an Ordinance standing ou the same footing, and possessing the same authoritative dignity, as the Two Sacraments alone ordained by Christ. In the meantime the Bishop asks the help of the Church in his work of training young men for the Ministry of the Church. Exhibitions for those who cannot afford to pay for their own education, prizes, books for the library and for the students, aud additional endowments for tutorships — these are needed and asked for.