METHODIST SYNOD.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 November 1921, Page 6

METHODIST SYNOD.

GATHERING AT HAWERA x CIVIC RECEPTION. The delegates to the annual meeting of the Methodist Synod, which this year is being held in Hawera, were, accorded a civic reception on Tuesday evening. \ ; The delegates were welcomed on behalf of the citizens by Mr. Morrissey (Deputy-Mayor), who said that it gave him very great pleasure to give the Synod a hearty welcome to Hawera. 'The Rev. Mr. Grigg, in returning thanks, congratulated the, people of Hawera on their progressive and beautiful town. He hoped they would have prosperity in the town and district, more especially in connection with the work of the church. He felt it a great pleasur4 to occupy the presidential chair of [ the Methodist Conference between two centuries- To step from the first to the second was a very significant thing to do, and there was something in It which touched the imagination. One hundred years ago New Zealand was a savage and barborous country; today it was a self-governing Dominion, taking a share in the Imperial Conferences. Instead of being the newest outpost of the Methodist Church it was a home base, and contributed between £12,000 and £13,000 per annum towards foreign mission work, and the church was' about to take over the responsibility for a foreign mission field itself. What had been done enabled • them to look to the future with confident trust iu God. They realised that in the church, as in the people, great ; changes had taken place. They had i not all the same way of thinking or of i worshipping. Those who remvmberod the Methodism of a generation ago heaved a sigh of regret as they thought of these things, but there was no need to' fear the future. Changes must come, but with all the changes the spirit of the church remained the same. Welcomes were extended by the Rev. R Franklin (Anglican Church), and Mr.

L* A Bone (Presbyterian Church). 'The Rev. W. J. Elliott returned thanks on behalf of the ministers for the welcome given. Th a large extent be was cosmopolitan. Ho had been baptised bv Bishop Selwyn, and some of the members of his family had been baptised by Presbyterian ministers, while others' had been baptised by Methodist ministers. As an examiner of divinity students on church history he could be considered as having a good knowledge of this subject. He could [ not say whether the Methodist C hurch .was the apostolic church Of not. It ! was not creed that, tliev wanted to magI nify but Jesus Christ. They were en- ; -aged in the finest work this side of | Heaven—a work that opened and widI ened the heart and called for purer moi lives than “what shall I get out of it. • There was no work comparable to tae i Christian ministry in sublimity ana ■ prcciouspess. The importance of the i Methodist Church might- be gathered i from the fact that its adherents num- , bered ten millions more than those of i the Church of England, and 15 millions ; more than the Presbyterians. As evii dence of the Catholic and tolerant spirit : of the Methodist Church, Mr. Elliott I mentioned several hymns which found I a place in their hymn book and which had been composed by Roman Catholics.