CLERGY STIPENDS.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 July 1919, Page 2

CLERGY STIPENDS.

PRESENT OBSOLETE AND INEFFECTIVE METHODS. The often-discussed, question of clergy stipends wag again raised by Bishop Averill in his charge to the Diocesan Synod at Auckland. "Our methods of raising money for stipends," said the Bishop, "are obsolete and ineffective, and consequently many of the stipends at the present, time are below the standard of a 'living wage,' and below the wage of 4 capable watersider or miner. An adequate stipend should be guaranteed at the beginning of each church year, and revised every year, and the guaranteed amount should be raised by. voluntary assessment. Every churchman should pay his moral tithe in the first month of the church's financial year, and regard it as a just debt. Every man should regard it as a matter" of honor to pay his just quota at a stated time to the church treasurer, and not allow the present chaotic state of affairs to exist. Pew rents should be abolished, and Uod'p House should be God's House and the common home of the parishioners, The stipend should not depend either upoh such a source of income, or upon the proceeds of sales of work, or upon offerings at the services alone. An offertory collection is, of course, part of the Holy Communion service, but it would tend to raise the tone and spirituality of worship if the collection of money at ordinary services could be abolished. Special collections could then be increased, and freewill offerings for ordinary expenses could always be placed in boxes at the doors of the churclj. "The lay members of general and diocesan synods have expressed their desire to se the stipends of the clergy considerably raised, and I would suggest cne way in which this synod can emphasise that very laudable desire, viz., by amending Regulation 203 (Digest), Forming of Parishes: 'The minimum conditions (i.e., for the status of a parish) shall be the provision of a suitable church, a vicarage or residence for the vicar, and a stipend of not less than £250 per annum-' The minimum should be raised to £3OO or ,£3no, and the minimum for a parochial district should be £250."