PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 November 1938, Page 2

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT DUNEDIN. IMPORTANT MATTERS FOR DISCUSSION. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, November 1. Approximately 250 ministers and representative elders are at present in Dunedin for the Gerieral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, which will be convened in First Church at 7.30 tomorrow night. The Assembly, which will last for about eight days, will constitute a comprehensive review of all the activities of the church. The opening exercises will be conducted by the Rt. Rev. W. H. Howes, retiring Moderator, and the Modera-tor-elect, the Rev. T. E. Riddle, a pioneer missionary of the Punjab, will deliver the inaugural address. A notable visitor to the assembly will be the Very Rev. Dr. D. Macfarlane, a former Moderator of the Church of Scotland, who is accompanied by another accredited commissioner from the Church of Scotland, Mr A. Stewart, an Edinburgh elder. Among important matters that will be discussed at the session of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1940 are reports on the celebration of the centenary of the Church in 1940 and reports from the Thanksgiving Fund Committee which has been charged with the task of raising £300,000 to mark the occasion. Nearly half that amount is now in sight in cash or promises. Matters that will cause the assembly some concern are the position of its Chinese mission, which has been carried on near Canton for almost 40 years, and also the whole position of its mission finances. It has been found necessary to draw heavily on reserves for a number of years past. At the same time as the assembly there will be held in the city the annual conference of the Presbyterian Women’s Mission Union, which, it is expected, will be attended by about 150 delegates.