NELSON DIOCESAN SYNOD.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 359, 24 September 1868, Page 3

NELSON DIOCESAN SYNOD.

The eleventh Diocesan Synod' of Nelson, —and the second summoned by the present Bishop —met on Tuesday, September Bth, at the Provincial Hall, and remained in session till the following Saturday, with the exception of the first day, when the proceedings were chiefly confined to the delivery of the Bishop's opening address. The time of sitting occupied not only the business hours of the day, but extended also into the night. This session has been the best attended, the most interesting and altogether the most satisfactory that has yet been held, and characterised throughout by a spirit of kindliness and concord. The long, vigorous, and suggestive speech of the Bishop, was listened to with the greatest interest, and the time of the Synod was chiefly spent in the discussion of questions to which its attention was therein directed. It may not be amiss to premise that a Diocesan Synod consists of the Bishop, (who acts as the President), of the whole of the Clergy of the Diocese, and of a body of representatives who are elected by and from the lay members of the Church. In the Synod of Nelson just held, the whole of the twelve clergy of the Diocese were in attendance, and fifteen out of the twentyfour lay representatives. In cases of division the votes of the clergy and laity are separately recorded ; and no question is carried without the consent of a majority of each order and that of the President. Many of the duties of the Synod are, of course, of a routine character, and for other reasons are of little or no general interest. The distribution of the revenue annually accruing from its Endowment Pund "is about £II,OOO (from the interest of which, and from the contiibutions of their flocks the stipends of the clergy chiefly arise) the election of the various officers of the Diocese and of its Standing Committee occupy much time ; and any account of such portion of its proceedings would be here out of place, It is our intentention merely to notice that part of the proceedings to which any general interest may be supposed to attach.^ The subject of religions education was one of the earliest and most portant that engaged the attention of the Synod, and a resolution was unanimously passed, concurring in the report of a Sub-committee appointed last year to consider this question, which report expressed theopinion,that the present Education Act admitted of a greater amount of religiousinstruction being afforded to the children attending the Government schools, and that the Svnod viewed with great dissatisfaction the entire prohibition of religious teaching in that part of the dioceße lying within the Provinces of Marlborough. Among other business of general interest, a " valedictory address" to the retiring Primate and Metropolitan (the present Bishop of Lichfield and New Zealand), was proposed for the adoption of the Synod. This long and laudatory address dwells wij;h eloquent and affectionate admiration on the acts of a man whom the whole world has long consented to praise and love, and

was of course adopted with acclamation. In the discussion of a document of this nature in the Synod of Nelson, it was impossible to forget that the very existence of that body and of the See of Nelson itself, is mainly due to the action of his Lordship. It is not too much to say that to the efforts of the Bishop of New Zealand, aud to the stimulating effect on the zeal and liberality of the people of Nelson, occasioned by his Lordship's timely and munificent promises of assistance in the endowment of its see, Nelson is chiefly indebted for its bein«i now the seat of a bishopric. The large number of his Lordship's acts of munificence precluded any distinct recognition of these facts in the valedictory address, but grateful and graceful allusion to these fruitful efforts and more fruitful offers on the part of his Lordship was made in the course of the debate.

On another question brought very prominently before the Synod in the Bishop's address, and one now occupying very much of the attention of the religious world, not much was said. That little, however, served to show that the views of the ereat majority of the Synod on Patualism are in complete accordance with those of his Lordship. The following resolution was passed without division, and with scarcely a dissenting voice : " That this Synod desires to record the great satisfaction with which it heard that part of the Bishop's opening address referring to Ritualism, and to identify itself in the fullest manner with the views thus boldly, earnestly, and decisively announced ; secure that as long as his Lordship remains at the head of the Church in this Diocese, no attempts, open or insidious, will be made or permitted to undermine that Protestant faith which, in the opinion of this Synod Ritualism tends and seeks to destroy." The thanks of the Synod were given to Mr. Stafford for his liberality in granting the free use of his house at the Port to the Bishop of Nekon, from the time of his Lordship's arrival until nearly the present time. Although devoting itself closely to the business before it, the Synod with some difficulty terminated its pr ceedings in the same week in which it entered upon its duties. Indeed, but for the considerate and wholesale withwithdrawal of fourteen notices of motion on the part of one of its members, the Synod must still have been in session.

Closely connected with the proceedings of the Synod are three events which deserve notice. The introduction of the Rev. PL E. Butt to the Archdeaconry of Marlborough was to have been celebrated in Christ Church, Nelson, <>n the day of the opening of Synod. This ceremony, however, owing to the non-arrival of the reverend gentleman on that day, did not take place till a following day, during the meeting of Synod The dedication of the official residence of the Bishop, Bishopdale, just conpleted, took place on Thursday, September, 10th. Nearly all the members of the Synod attended, bnt owing to the wetness of the weather, the the general attendance was small. At an evening meeting, held in the Provincial Hall, to which the public had beeninvited, Mr Hunter Brownread a carefully prepared paper, in which the necessity of extending the means of public worship in the diocese, and of promoting the religious education of the yonng were ably and warmly advocated.—"Nelson Colonist."