BAPTIST UNION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 October 1940, Page 8

BAPTIST UNION

ANNUAL ASSEMBLY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN. October 18. One hundred and forty-five delegates from all parts of the Dominion are taking part in the fifty-eighth annual assembly of the Baptist Union of New Zealand. The opening day was devoted to tlie work of the Baptist Women's Missionary Union. This organisation has now 91 branches with 2263 members, an increase of 106 members for 1940. The sum of £2220 was raised for home and foreign mission work, an increase of £4l over last year. The election of officers resulted as follows: —President, Mrs Whiteside; treasurer, Miss Wilkinson; secretary. Miss Gainsford; ropeholder superintendent, Miss Beckingsale. A welcome tea was tendered to the delegates, the Rev. J. Ewen Simpson presiding. Welcomes were given by the Mayor of Dunedin (Mr Allen), Dr. Charles North, president of the Otago and Southland Auxiliary, and the Rev. P. G. Campbell, president of the Council of Christian Congregations. At the evening meeting the .new president of the Baptist Union, the Rev. R. L. Fursdon, was inducted by the retiring president, the Rev. C. W. Duncumb. A special welcome was given to missionaries on furlough from India as well as to the new secretary of the union, the Rev. P. F. Lanyton, and Mrs Lanyon. The new president's subject was the Church in New Zealand's Centennial Year. He dealt with the peculiar difficulties and opportunities of this year of destiny. 1940, and the particular contribution of the Baptists toward world reconstruction. A communion service followed the presidential address, presided over by the Rev. C. W. Duncumb.