George of The Cloth

NZ Truth, Issue 1201, 6 December 1928, Page 6

George of The Cloth

•"THE Presbyterian Assembly has 1 nominated a new moderator. There's nothing unusual about that of course, for the august and reverend seigneurs go about the momentous business of conferring 1 a rightreverendship with silken sown upon one of their number every yean Quite a few yards of black silk will be required to envelop the person of the new moderator, the Rev. George Budd, of Devonport," for he rises over six feet m his marl sox. It's commonly known that a moderator merely functions as a president or chairman and is not, m these enlightened days, required to exercise a moderating or restraining influence upon recalcitrant, authority-defying covenanters! But the Rev. George looks a_s if he' would be quite at home m the part of an old ' time moderator and could effectively wield the jaw-bone of an ass as a weapon of authority or intimidation! The kirk deserves a pat on its collective back for handing- out its highest honor to a native-born New Zealander. He hits it well with men. It shouldn't really be necessary to say this about a parson, but just count heads m most congregations and you'll find the female of the species not "more dangerous" but overwhelmingly more numerous than the niale. But Rev. George is more than just a man's man. He is the whole congregation's man and the signs and portents are that he's just the man to speak with authority for the whole church.