KIKUYU CONFERENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 61, 1 August 1914, Page 2

KIKUYU CONFERENCE.

OPENED AT PALACE. By Cable. —Press Association.—Copyriglit London, .July 30. The Kikuvu I'oiirereiice Jias opened at Lambeth Palace. A private statement will be issued to the press at the, conclusion of the sesTlie Kikuyu ("(inference (Kikuyu is a village in British East Africa), attended by representatives of all the Protestant missions in the Protectorate, decided on a federation on the basis of the acceptance of the Apostles' and Nicene reeds as a general expression of fundamental Christian belief, with acceptance of the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God, the Deity of Jesus and the Atonement. The scheme was to divide the Protectorate into "spheres," so that the missions would not poach on «ich I other'* territory, 1 and the conference ended with a service of Holy ilom- , munion in the Scottish Church at Kikuvu. Bishop Peel administered the sacrament; a minister of the Church of Scotland preached the sermon; and all (he mission delegates received t'he Holy Communion from the Bishop's hands. As soon as this news reached England,, the High Church party began to protest. The Ohurch Times, their leading organ, published an editorial article headed "Jerry-building," in which it spoke of this "amazing conference" and sneered at the position of a native Christian who vvoird be addressed in turn from the pulpit of Iris Church ny a Presbyterian, a Lutheran, a Seventh Day Ad'ventist, and a Quaker. It protested that "such grotesque performances'' could only "injure the cause of true Christian unity." The controversy was spreading all the autumn, until the Bishop of Zanzibar took the bull by the hatns, by demanding tlmt the Bi>hop of Canterbury sllall hear the Kikuyu matter in his Provincial Court.]