REUNITED CHURCHES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 397, 4 July 1928, Page 13

REUNITED CHURCHES

BISHOP’S PLEA AT SYNOD "AN IDEAL FOR EVERYONE” (From Our Own Correspondent) HAMILTON, To-day. The hope of reunion entertained by many Christian people was referred to by Bishop Cherrington in the Waikato Diocesan Synod to-day. He said the need of open and visible unity was great. Reunion was eminently desirable, and not to pray and work for it was actually sinful. “Are we,” he asked, “a Protestant sect, or part of the Catholic Church of Christ? Are we only one of the Christian bodies, or are we a part of the original Church of Christ / “May it not be that the Anglican Communion, with its historic episcopacy, its catholic creeds and sacraments, its liturgy, simple yet profound, its love of the open Bible, its firm adherence to evangelic teaching and practice, its subdued yet stately ceremonial, its love of freedom, its ripe scholarship, its broad and catholic comprehensiveness, will under God be the instrument for the eventual welding into one of the body of Christ? It is an ideal for every one of us to be reaching to and studying for.” CHARGE TO SYNOD In his charge to synod, Bishop Cheri|ngton referred to several appointments, and said Archdeacon Evans was now styled “vicar general,” instead of commissary of the diocese. Parishes had ventured to secure the assistance of other clergy than the vicar, but there were not nearly sufficient assistant clergy. There were still half a dozen parishes in the diocese which ought to have more clergy if the work was to be properly done and if the funds were available. The bishop expressed the hope that the good work that could be accomplished by the Church of England Men’s Society would be realised and that the claims and aims of the society would be urged upon the people by synod. Congratulations were extended by the bishop to the Dean of Hamilton and to the ministers of other denominations in formulating and setting on foot the Nelson system of Bible-read-ing in schools in the schools of Hamilton. All success was wished the Bible in schools movement and the hope was expressed that the Bill would pass through Parliament this year. Synod would be asked to undertake the obligation of apportioning the work of giving Sunday School lessons by correspondence for those living in isolated districts. A resolution was passed thanking the bishop for his charge.