£2,200,000 REQUEST

Shannon News, 10 December 1926, Page 3

£2,200,000 REQUEST

NEW ZEALANDIiR TRUSTEE. 1 BIG CHURCH POST. That an Australian—or, at any rate, an Australasian —can make good in America is proved in the case of the Rev. E. G. Guthrie, a graduate of Otago University, and a native of New Zealand (states the Sydney "Sun"). He sailed by the Otranto on November 13, en route for Chicago, where he is to direct the expenditure of £2,200,000, and determine the strategy and policy of the Congregational Church in that city. The money was left to the 104 Congregational churches of Chicago by. the will of the late Mr. Victor Lawsbn (editor of the Chicago "Daily News"). It is the largest single bequest ever made, and it has created such an lmpressio.n that a Chicago banker declares that the church will receive another £2,200,000 in bequests in the next decade. For 12 years Mr. Guthrie has been minister of one of the largest churches in Boston. Later he waselected president of an organisation of 600 Protestant churches in Boston. When Mr. Lawson's immense bequest was made known Mr. Guthrie was appointed to the trusteeship and directorship. There will be a staff to attend to executive details.

Mr. Guthrie has made a short trip to New Zealand. It is his object to study the administration and special, aims and methods of tb*j churches of the large cities in the world, and with Ihis view he has spent a month la Sydney. He intends to devote some timie %o study of the churches of London and then swUl take up his duties in Chicago. He cannot see far enough ahead to say when if ever, he will return to New Zealand. ' ,-, ,