UNITED METHODISM

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8345, 4 February 1913, Page 7

UNITED METHODISM

THE FIRST CONFERENCE. METHODIST CHURCH OF NEW ZEALAND. An ©vent which has been looked forward to for many years will take place in Wellington on Thursday, when the new Methodist Church of New Zealand will be formally constituted. Tbis will be done at tho opening session of the united conference of the two religious bodies at present known as Primitive Methodists and Methodists respectively. The united conference will open in Wesley Church, Taranaki street, at 2.30 o’clock on Thursday afternoon. Dr. Youngman, president of the general conference of the Australasian Methodist Church, who has come over to New Zealand to complete the separation from that church of tho Methodist Church here, will bo th© chairman and assist at tho consummation of tho union of New Zealand Methodists and Primitive Methodists. On Thursday evening a public meeting will bo held in the Town Hall, when his Excellency tho Governor, Lord Liverpool, will preside. It is at this meeting tha"t the Deed of Union will bo signed. The conference proceedings will occupy over a week. Before tho united conference sits, the .two now existent churches will hold their separate conferences for the last time. To-morrow morning, at 9.30 o’clock, tho Primitive Methodist conference will be opened in the Webb street church, and will continue in session until ' noon on Thursday. The Methodist conference will bo opened in Wesley Church, Taranaki street, at 7.30 o’clock to-morrow evening, and will also be continued on Thursday morning. In case there should be any flaw in the legal formalities, it has been arranged that at the conclusion of the united conference, separate ’•rceding'; of the two constituent con. vc- '’"’ll bo held to confirm the . HiLacjj ki-j has been. dona.