The Westport Times. TUESDAY, MAY 26, 1874.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1179, 26 May 1874, Page 2

The Westport Times. TUESDAY, MAY 26, 1874.

The proceedings of Church Synods do not as a. rule present many points of general interest. Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons ftre as occult mysteries to the great majority of the laity, and the deliberations of church dignitaries upon the governance of their Church business is a subject on which few even among the faithful of their flocks deem it necessary to concern themselves. But at the general Sj'iiod of the Anglican Chu.'ch, held during the past week at Wellington, a subject was debated and action resolved on that will commend itßclf to the approval of all churchmen. The present position of clergyinea of the Auglicaa

Church is, in a financial point of view, unsatisfactory. Their stipends are not extravagant, and the calls on their purses are not few. Provision for their declining years, or for their widows and orphans when they themselves shall have shuffled off this mortal coil is not so certainly assured as it might ho, and in poor and scattered dioceses is dependent almost solely upon such provisions as the clergy can make for themselves, independent of any special fund set apart for such purpose from church revenues. It is true that in each Diocese there is maintained by subscription what is termed a Diocesan Pension Fund, to which each clergymau within the boundaries contributes from his yearly stipend, but in most instances the funds thus accumulated are small, and in the event of a clergyman moving from one Diocese to another he loses all claim upon tho funds of the former, and has to face the contingency of the Pension Pund in his new district being greater or less than in the Diocese he has just left. This iu a measure very possibly debars mauy clergymen from changing districts, even when changes are expedient for the welfare of themselves and their congregations. At the meeting of the General Synod the following resolution of the Diocesan Synod of Wellington, passed October Ist, 18/3, was taken into consideration, " That this Synod requests the General Synod to appoint a committee to ox amine the scheme for a General Pension Puud adopted by the Synod of the Diocese of Wellington ; and to reform the General Pension Fund according to the provisions of the above scheme, or in such other way as their discretion may seem fit." In debate on this resolution it was admitted, with striking unanimity, by all the Church dignitaries and officers present that the establishment of a General Pension Fund would not only prove of great benefit to the clergy, but be a means of making closer the union of the churches, and giviug to the whole ecclesiastical province a stability which the richest by themselves cannot now ensure, and in the general distribution of claims, the prosperity of ouo diocese would then bear part of the advers : ty of its neighbor. Coming dowu to practical details the Bishop of Dunedin said that his diocese had already considered proposals from the Government Insurance Agents, and it appeared possible that advantage might be taken of the security the Government would give. He thought that insurances on the lives of every clergymen connected with the church might be obtained in the government offices, and the yearly premiums thereon paid from one general fund, and he suggested the advisability of working this matter in conjunction with the Government scheme of Life Assurance. With these views the Synod appears to have generally concurred, for the resolution, slightly modified, was passed without dissentient voice and a Committee of action appointed. The result of the labors of such Committee cannot fail to interest all concerned in the welfare of the Anglican Church. The guarantee of a fixed sum, payable after the attainment of a certain age to each clergyman, or in case of death —whenever death may occur —to his survivors, will dispel the clouds of anxiety from the minds of many worthy men who in their holy vocation should be free from all trouble in things temporal. It will do more. It will attract to the Colony clergymen who are needed, but who now hesitate at coming. Seeing provision thus made for the hour of need they will not be so unwilling to sever connection with the Mother Church which treats them but as chance laborers in the field, wresting from them the strength of their manhood, and leaving them in their weakness to the care of public charity.