Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973

E. W. Hames was born at Takapuna, Auckland of pioneer Albertland stock. He served for two years with the 1st New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and saw active service in France. Accepted for the Methodist ministry in 1919, he trained at "Dunhoime", Auckland. While in his first charge at Nelson in 1923 he graduated M.A. of the University of New Zealand with first-class honours in History. After some years in the Circuit ministry he joined the staff at Trinity Theological College, Auckland. In 1950 he was elected President of the New Zealand Conference, and the same year was a delegate to the World Methodist Conference at Oxford, England. In 1949 he became President of the Wesley Historical Society (N.Z. Branch) and in 1951 he was appointed President of the International Methodist Historic Society for a five-year term. He retired in February 1963. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 1

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973

CONTENTS Foreward I Indian Summer — February 1913 to August 1914 II The Great War — 1914-1918 III The Search for Maturity IV A Time to Change — 1919-1929 V A Time of Tension and Dismay — 1930-1939 VI War and Rehabilitation Once More — 1939-1950 VII A Time of Innocence — 1950-1965 VIII Honest to God and All That — 1965-1972 IX Where Do We Go From Here?

FOREWORD It was Thomas Carlyle who in his dyspeptic way described contemporary Methodism 'with its eye ever upon its own navel.' That was a long time ago, but we are at it still. Our excuse is that as denominations go we are an adolescent body, only a little over 200 years old. We entered New Zealand in 1822, but our work among the settlers did not take precedence over the Maori Mission for a full generation. It is characteristic of adolescents to be concerned about themselves, seeking an identity. They may be moody today, confident and outgoing tomorrow; impatient of tradition but capable of intense constructive effort; self-centred but generous when the imagination is touched. During the nineteenth century our New Zealand Connexion was governed by men who looked to British Methodism for guidance. For the first half of the twentieth century as a small denomination we tended to be locally imitative, and the most convenient model seemed to be the Presbyterian. Since about 1950 we have been more concerned with finding our place within the ecumenical movement, where we seem to fit into a slot between the Anglicans and the Presbyterians and where we find a welcome for anything useful we have to offer. The publication of this volume completes the series offered by the Wesley Historical Society (N.Z. Branch) as our contribution to the 150th Anniversary of our Church in this country. We did not intend to write the story of individual congregations. We have admirable local brochures and regional histories, which make such a venture

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 unnecessary, while it would require a volume the size of the old Family Bible. Out of the Common Way covered the pioneering period. This book describes the process of settling down into a pastoral situation at a time when Christian faith was slowly fading in the community and the Connexion was more and more thrown in upon itself. One takes a risk in publishing contemporary history. One's judgment is bound to be wrong about so many things. There is a risk of misrepresenting people and events before time has matured judgment. But on the other hand contemporary witness is invaluable. Emerson said that there is no such thing as history, only biography. History is about people, and the writer represents a generation that lived through the events described. I received my first ticket of membership in 1913, the year of Union, and I speak as a witness, I hope without malice. In describing some things I dropped into the first person experimentally, intending to rewrite the final draft, but the late Bernard Chrystall who went through the mss. told me to leave it as it was. He said it brought the story to life. I hope he was right. The book is meant mainly for Methodists, and some liberties may be allowed within the family. It is impossible to name individuals in a book like this. The narrative would be nothing but names, and then some would be left out. I have named ministers in some cases because they are well known throughout the Connexion and the reference helps to 'fix' dates and types and events. In this there is no clerical bias. Methodism has been built on lay effort and our faithful men and women are the salt of the earth. Main sources of fact are the Minutes of Conference and the Methodist Times. Many correspondents have helped willingly and promptly. The mistakes and prejudices are mine alone. Mrs Hames I thank from my heart. As this volume concludes by far the most ambitious publishing programme the Society has attempted in the forty-five years of its existence it seems appropriate to express thanks to the many organisations and individuals that have subsidised the venture, and especially to the Secretary, the Rev. L. R. M. Gilmore, who has held office for twenty-seven years. By his vigorous advocacy and untiring attention to detail he has done far more for the Society than any other person. E. W. HAMES, Conference 1974. President, Wesley Historical Society.

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I Indian Summer FEBRUARY 1913 TO AUGUST 1914

The Methodists are one People — John Wesley

The Uniting Conference The citizens of Wellington didn't quite know what to make of it when on the early afternoon of February 6th 1913 a couple of hundred men set out to march in orderly fashion from the Town Hall in the direction of Taranaki Street. Some thought it meant industrial trouble. As the marchers approached they recognised "Onward: Christian Soldiers" and the next guess was the Salvation Army. "We are not divided, All one body we, One in hope, in doctrine, One in charity." It was not the Salvation Army but the Primitive Methodists and the Wesleyans coming together for their Uniting Conference. Apparently the procession of witness was a last- minute unrehearsed effort which caught the public by surprise. After meeting separately on the morning of February 6th to transact preliminary business and pass machinery resolutions the two bodies came together in order to witness to their intentions in public. Arrived at Taranaki Street Church, the representatives took their places according to Synodal Districts, not denomination, and sang the traditional Conference hymn: "And are we yet alive And see each others' face? Glory and praise to Jesus give For His redeeming grace." The verse recalls the heroic days when the preachers were liable to be mobbed and stoned and thrown out of the parish half dead. We are reminded that of the first thousand young Circuit Riders called out in America, almost half died before they reached thirty years of age, worn out by the dangers and privations of the road. They were fanatics if you like, but they were also soldiers of Christ and worthy of respect. A Spirit of Hope The Conference then settled down to a full agenda in a spirit of goodwill, hope and confidence. In a noteworthy speech C. H. Laws declared: "There is coming an age ... its very breath is upon us ... in which men will preach the vital facts of the Gospel with

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 a certainty unknown for many a decade." He could hardly have been more wrong. But the spirit of hope was abroad. The Rev. Samuel Lawry was elected President, with the veteran Primitive Methodist layman, the Hon. C. M. Luke, M.L.C. as Vice-President C. H. Laws was appointed Secretary. Guests of honour were the President-General of the Australasian Conference, Dr H. Youngman, and Dr Morley, who served New Zealand for thirty-six years before he was translated to Melbourne to manage the Australasian Supernumerary Fund. Signing the Deed of Union In the evening, following a monster Tea Meeting, three thousand Methodists gathered in the Town Hall for the official signing of the Deed of Union. The Governor-General, Lord Liverpool, chaired the meeting. The Declaration was signed by leaders on both sides (no Maori brother invited. What an oversight!) with the Governor and the Prime Minister among the witnesses. All in all it was quite an occasion. While the ink was drying the brethren rose to sing the doxology. Then "after able and inspiring addresses by four of the distinguished leaders on the platform the historic meeting fitly closed with that mighty hymn of praise, the Hallelujah Chorus."

A NEW BEGINNING It is natural to begin the study of the modem period of New Zealand Methodism at the Uniting Conference. This for three reasons: 1. The Conference marked the complete independence of the Connexion from any external ecclesiastical authority. For the first time we were masters in our own house. 2. The Conference also marked the fusion between two traditions within World Methodism which had been running parallel for one hundred years. While the Wesleyans were numerically much stronger, something like six to one in this country, the Primitive Methodists had a good deal to offer, and in any case it was a scandal that the two bodies should be in any sort of competition. In essentials they had never been anything but one people. 3. Within eighteen months we were to be engulfed in the Great War, the catastrophe that did so much to hustle us into the modern world. Those of us old enough to remember realise that the years 1914-1918 mark a great divide in the story of mankind.

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Statistics The Connexion thus constituted included 23,000 members and 92,000 attendants on public worship. It possessed 453 church buildings and served 685 other preaching places, employed 199 ministers and probationers, including Supernumeraries, and listed 939 lay preachers. It enrolled 29,000 Sunday School scholars and possessed property worth half a million pounds. It is significant however that when the statistical secretary of the united church got to work a considerable proportion of the Primitive Methodist members could not be found. While the stronger Primitive Methodist circuits were stable and well-organised, some of the smaller places were irregularly and weakly staffed, and evidently membership rolls needed revision. Also it seems that some of the fringe people took one look at the united church, didn't like what they saw, and faded out of the picture. We must notice that only just over half of the Primitive Methodist members were reported as communicants, and the Wesleyans didn't show up too well either. How our fathers could justify enrolling people as church members when they never went to Holy Communion passes our comprehension. It was contrary to our regulations, and would not have been tolerated in any properly supervised congregation. But the connexion was employing a proportion of men who were ardent but untrained amateurs. One must envisage a group of evangelists, very near the grass roots and with a gift for laying themselves alongside people, but not yet quite convinced that a Christian needed the traditional and catholic elements of order and the sacramental life. The united church was reorganised under ten Districts, five in each Island. These were Auckland, South Auckland, Taranaki-Wanganui, Hawkes Bay-Manawatu, Wellington, Nelson, North Canterbury, South Canterbury, Otago and Southland. After some merging of congregations and consequent reduction of staff at Invercargill, the Southland District was found unworkable and included in Otago. Ministerial Staff The new body was just able to find employment for all its ministers. The Conference accepted six candidates for the ministry, and a healthy number of young men went forward into probation. It was reported that one Harry Ranston had completed his B.A. Degree with a Senior Scholarship in Greek. William Gittos was made a supernumerary after fifty-six years in the Maori Mission. His mother was a sister of William White the pioneer missionary. William Gittos was a boy in Hokianga when Hone Heke was cutting down the flagstaff at Russell and troubling the North. His father who was a blacksmith, moved to Auckland and William became a candidate for the ministry from the High Street chapel. Either he was a superman, or he absorbed

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 enough of the Maori ethos to take the stress out of things. The writer was baptised by him, which is apostolic succession of a kind. Circuit Adjustments As a rule the Primitive Methodist congregations were included in the existing Wesleyan circuits where they fell geographically. In small towns every encouragement was given to immediate amalgamation of congregations. This usually meant that the P.M. buildings were sold or shifted. Here and there, as in Hamilton, the smaller church was better placed strategically, so the united congregation settled on that site. In the cities the Primitive Methodist congregations were generally retained as more or less viable units. Sentiment was too strong to allow of immediate rationalisation. But after the war in Auckland there were three once popular P.M. churches which settled down under the umbrella of circuit life, and proceeded to coast along indefinitely, with a great waste of manpower and depression of spirit. In Wellington they did better. Webb Street was assigned a special role as the Mission centre, and Sydney Street amalgamated with Thorndon Wesleyan. Before long Newtown congregations did the same. In Christchurch, where the Cambridge Terrace congregation had been the only one in the connexion to return a majority against union, the authorities had the wisdom to leave the circuit intact, which put it on its mettle. In Dunedin we were left with too many churches, a situation which has hampered our development ever since. Dominion Road P.M. church in Auckland flourished because the Wesleyans had refrained from competitive building. The new church opened in 1915 was a united venture. The building fund was started by a gift of £250 from the Pitt Street Trust and £100 from A. C. Caughey. A Growing Denomination The union of 1913 was inevitable, and should have taken place earlier. But it caused more stress than the previous one in 1896. (See Out of the Common Way p.96). This was partly because the Primitives were a gritty North of England type who were a little inclined to confuse the forthright with the rude, while the Wesleyans could be patronising. They eyed each other a bit warily at the beginning, and the first two Conferences were a little uneasy. But the shock of war helped both parties forget petty things, and the improved financial status of the P.M. ministers did something to sweeten the pill. Primitive Methodist Influence In a number of ways the newcomers did something to deflect Wesleyan practice. In the smaller denomination there was no limit to the length of pastorate, and the united body soon accepted this. Also rooted distrust of dominating circuit superintendents among the "Prims" must have reinforced a tendency towards smaller circuits. Finally, while the Primitives possessed a Sacramental Service Book it had little merit and was Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 7

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 seldom used. Dr Ranston used to tell us that he did not know of its existence till he reached Hartley College. The influx of ministers who were accustomed to a free form of administering the sacraments must have reinforced lawless tendencies among the Wesleyans. Development All Round There was eagerness to expand all over the Dominion. Probationers and Home Missionaries were in demand, but circuits were slow to provide parsonages. We were wedded to the idea of the cheap agent, and employed 45 Home Missionaries in the year of union. The powerful Durham Street Circuit in Christchurch was divided into four sections, cutting off the East, Woolston and Sydenham, leaving the centre alone as a preaching station. Mangapapa, Gisborne and Papatoetoe put up church halls by voluntary labour in one day. Richmond (Nelson), Foxton, Papanui, Woodlands Street (Timaru), New Brighton and Russell, Bay of Islands got creditable buildings. Enfield (Oamaru) gained a home of their own after thirty-eight years of faithful service. Other little places were run up here and there, all representing sacrifice and love. Tough and Tender In 1914 the Nelson District Synod reported as follows under New Erections: Murchison. New Church and vestry, 38 x 20, Cost £305/2/6; debt £111/14/10. The story is worth telling because it illustrates a rare combination of faith hope and charity with toughness and sheer indestructibility.(Methodism in Murchison, 1964) A lesser people would have given up two generations back.

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The story begins in the 1860's when gold was found on the West Coast and at Lyell on the Buller. Fossickers pushed their way up river and within a year or so there were seventy men on the Mangles River claim and three hundred on the Matakitaki. Among these miners there were five Local Preachers, and these men conducted services from the beginning. They were first on the field as they had been in Otago Central. As the claims were worked out many of the miners took up land. By 1885 more or less regular services were held and there was an undenominational Sunday School in the little library building. At that date the township was included in the Reefton circuit, and occasionally visited by the Reefton minister. Later the tiny Methodist community was reinforced by settlers from the Nelson outbacks. An Anglican church built in 1905 was used alternatively by our people when the clergyman was occupied elsewhere. In 1910 when no Anglican agent was available the Bishop of Nelson offered the use of the church to our people, and F. B. Lawrence was appointed as Home Missionary. He did well and consolidated the cause. When the Anglicans again required their church the Methodists decided to build. For sixty years they have battled to keep the doors open, half the time without a resident minister or Home Missionary. Although there have been a few quite notable ministries it has been uphill nearly all the way, with long periods when they have depended on local lay resources, with occasional visits from a Nelson minister. The connexion has never had the men available to give a consistent ministry or the money to support that ministry adequately. The Home Mission Board has tried hard and made sacrifices, but there have been too many other claims on our strength and resources. None the less we have today a decent little property in Murchison and a valiant membership of forty. The Living Church The mood was confident but by no means complacent. A notable report produced by the Welfare of the Church Committee about this time, which is eloquent of C. H. Laws, referred to the affluent society. (How modern it sounds. They would have thought us millionaires) "Our youth are absorbed in pleasure, our men preoccupied with moneymaking. 'Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked.' " The report urged much closer attention to the membership, with adequate preparation classes for young people, and fostering the habit of regular communion. It recommended a lay pastorate with systematic visitation of the members and great care in making transfers. The church needed more Deaconesses, and more Christian literature. Census returns showed that there were thousands of lapsed Primitive Methodists in the Dominion who should be sought out.

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It is evident that many ministers were seeing their role chiefly in evangelistic terms, without realising that a sane evangelism depends on a faithful congregation in the background. The writer recalls a conversation with one of the ablest and most devoted of our young ministers, who brushed off the Leaders' Meeting as irrelevant. Someone should have taught him what our Methodism was about. We were becoming clericalised. Mission of Inspiration and Appeal A series of missions aimed at covering the country was held in 1913. At one stage the Rev. and Mrs Vallance Cook, the Rev. Val Trigge and Sister Francis were all engaged in trying to stimulate the flagging evangelistic zeal of our people. Val Trigge claimed at the end of the year that he had twelve hundred converts among people twelve years of age and upwards. It did not show later in the membership figures. On Decision Day at one large Sunday school "the whole school, between 250 and 300, declared themselves on the Lord's side." Much the most effective evangelism was done by the Bible Classes In 1913 a Y.M.B.C. camp was held at Wanganui, which at that date proudly declared itself the fifth city of the Dominion. John F. Goldie made an immense impression in Auckland as Foreign Mission Deputation. Notes from the Methodist Times President Wilson offered John R. Mott the post of American Ambassador to China. Mott turned the offer down. One feels that he had his priorities right, though a man of his calibre might have made a difference to the international scene. There was a flutter in Auckland because the University College was casting its eyes on the Wesley College property in Grafton Road. It was reported that the new Octagon Hall had 'caught on' in Dunedin. Young A. J. Seamer was trying to form a Methodist Union for Social Service. There was a Sunday School Convention at Timaru, and Jubilees at Broad Bay and Otago Central. The Editor of the Presbyterian Outlook got into trouble for being too sympathetic to the striking watersiders. There was an argument about compulsory military training, and concern for the position of conscientious objectors. The Australian Methodists celebrated their centenary in Sydney. They marked the occasion by establishing a missionary outpost in India. The death of Captain Scott and companions in the Antarctic was announced. Paul Fairclough made one of the great speeches of his career on this occasion. He could rise to such a challenge.

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W. J. Williams took over the Times from Lewis Hudson, with James Cocker as assistant. The church was proud of its new orphanage work. The Women's Temperance Union was a power in the land. A Conservative Reaction In 1913 a tiny filler at the bottom of a page states that two brothers on the Pacific Coast had given a large sum towards the distribution of little booklets called The Fundamentals. This marks the emergence of Fundamentalism, a movement that was to trouble the waters in coming years. It provided a rallying point for those who could not go along with the Higher Criticism and liberal theology.

1914 — THE FATEFUL YEAR As usual the year began with Conference which was held in February in those days. It is instructive to note the distribution of connexional committees sixty years ago. Dunedin had the Sunday School and Young People's Dept. and the Temperance and Public Morals Committee; Christchurch provided the Welfare of the Church Committee, the Church Building and Loan Fund Committee, the Supernumerary Fund and Fire Insurance Fund Boards, the Methodist Times Committee and the Executive Committee for Foreign Missions. Auckland had the Home and Maori Mission Board and the Theological Institution Committee. Staff The Minutes report 8 ordinands, with 24 probationers and 14 men in residence at the theological college. There were 4 pakeha candidates and 2 maori. (Note the influence of Wesley College in bringing forward maori candidates.) Several promising men had dropped out of the younger ministry, some because they disliked the itinerancy. There was a great battle in the Conference over the request by Durham Street to be made a Mission, in order to retain the services of C. H. Laws. He had been five years in the circuit, but only two at the central church to which he transferred from East Belt. Conference refused to budge, and Laws said bitterly that if beginning again it would not be as a Methodist. The incident is reported to show the sort of tension that was rising over our rather outmoded structure. J. W. Burton, one of our brightest young men, was transferred to Australia for Foreign Mission service, and we received Percy Knight in exchange. A. H. Scrivin was accepted by the Missionary Society for service in Papua. William Slade was permitted to visit England where he proposed to lecture in order to raise funds to help discharge the debt on the Octagon Hall, Dunedin. He visited Cliff College and selected six men as volunteers for our Home Mission service. Cliff College featured in the Times. It is a training school for young evangelists, founded by Champness and led at this time by Samuel Chadwick.

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It was reported that William Walker was doing a wonderful job as supply for Mr Slade. Developments The administrative shuffle of circuits went on. Looking back over a couple of generations it seems that some of the provincial centres were playing a rather selfish game. Why insist on separating Hikurangi from Whangarei? The young man in the outpost would do better work as part of a team. We were losing a basic principle of our Methodism. There was a long list of new erections and purchases put before the Conference. Most of these represented improvements to existing work, but they showed that the church was alive. Apart from John Dawson whose position as Secretary of the N.Z. Alliance made him a familiar figure, James Cocker and Edward Drake seemed to emerge as connexional leaders from among the Primitive Methodist ministers. The membership was growing, but there was a decline in "adherents". This was always a difficult figure to assess, but the tendency was clear. As a body we were consolidating our position, but losing our appeal to the unchurched masses. For the first time the Auckland membership exceeded that of North Canterbury. The population was expanding northwards, but the financial strength was still concentrated in the south. Putting the World Right The Public Morals Committee addressed the church in sonorous terms. "The civilised world is awakening to the menace of the Liquor Traffic." "Strikes, lockouts and other violent methods of seeking redress of grievances are a cruel illusion." "A rage for amusements and personal leisure threaten to become a serious menace to the moral and spiritual welfare of our people." The Conference was its usual chuckleheaded self. Foreign Missions The decision to develop a New Zealand Missionary Society separate from the Australasian one was confirmed. J. N. Buttle who had served a long term as secretary to the local committee was allowed to retire, and William Slade was appointed General Secretary of the N.Z. Society, with the expectation that he would be freed from pastoral responsibility as soon as the separation was effected. Maori Work A recommendation that a Maori Synod be constituted was not accepted. Hammond was appointed to superintend the West Coast Mission, and T. G. Brook was to oversee the Northern Maori area, with Gittos as adviser. The Conference wanted

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"amalgamation between the maori and pakeha circuits as soon as possible." We didn't know our Maoris. The Prospect was Gloomy So said the editor of the Times as he looked forward to 1914. He was not thinking of war, but of the disturbing things happening all around, strikes especially. But he confessed that he remained an optimist. The Associate Editor, James Cocker, wrote "We have passed beyond the days of duelling, and moral questions are not settled by sword, baton or strike." We were as innocent as babes. The work went on. Vogeltown built a Sunday School in a day. Tauranga did the same. In those days Tauranga was known as "sleepy hollow". The editor referred to the first N.Z. Conference held in Christchurch in 1874, the one where they held the champagne luncheon, (Out of the Common Way, op. cit. p64.) stating that the only ministers present then and still in active work were A. R. Fitchett (Dean of Dunedin), Dr Morley, Messrs J. J. Lewis and W. J. Williams. He did not confess to the champagne. A. J. Serpell arrived from Australia. He was an unconventional man about whom many good stories were told. Alongside our brethren from across the Tasman the New Zealand ministers seemed a staid and conventional lot. One Arthur Liversedge was received on probation from the English church. Sister Grace Crump who followed Sister Mabel Morley as Superintendent of Deaconess House was given a hearty welcome. The issue of the Methodist Times for August 8th went to press before war was declared. But they managed to get a picture of King George and Queen Mary on to the front page. Inside the comment was "The world trembles on the verge of the biggest war ever known. God have mercy upon us!"

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II The Great War 1914-1918 The wars of peoples will be far more terrible than the wars of kings —The young Winston Churchill

In seeking to recover the flavour of the years just before the first world war we are impressed by their stability and our confidence in the essential decency of things. Most people worked hard, but there was less strain. One could take a penny tram ride, motor cars were comparatively rare, and few people in this country had seen an aeroplane. New Zealanders were innocently proud of the splashes of red on the world map. It seemed to be Britain's role to keep an eye on the less reputable members of the human family. When King Edward VII died Paul Fairclough uttered a panegyric which should have assured His Majesty a front seat in Heaven if Heaven were listening. It was all sincere. For the most part we were imbued with confidence in our religion, our society and ourselves. We were well-intentioned and altruistic, and could hardly conceive that things might slide back into chaos. Methodists believe in the "optimism of grace" to borrow Gordon Rupp's phrase, but at times we stress the optimism more than the grace. Since then Freud has taught us that we are not as good as we like to think we are, and the Americans assure us that "nice guys finish last", propositions supported by Jesus. There were some clouds on the local horizon. In 1913 we had a watersiders' strike, which was broken by mounted 'specials' brought in from the country. Not everyone was contented, only the ones who had been in the Dominion long enough to have in it a substantial interest of one kind or another. By now the majority of pakehas had been born in the colony, and of these most had achieved what our fathers would have reckoned a very good life. August 1914 Tension had been building up in Europe for a generation. Chiefly it was due to the German question, the shift in the balance of power following the creation of the German Empire and its industrialisation. There was also the rivalry of Austria and Russia in the Balkans. These things meant a recasting of alliances and nervousness all round. The assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in the Bosnian capital produced a crisis which got out of hand, rather unexpectedly. One can see now that the chancelleries of Europe were playing an old game in what was rapidly becoming a new world, in which the stakes were too high altogether. Of course all were guilty to a degree. Britain might perhaps have prevented the war, if she had acted

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 decisively from the beginning. The Germans were gambling on her neutrality. But the cabinet was divided and the country would not have supported a firm commitment at an earlier stage. It is established (Edward Grey, by Keith Robbins. Cassell. London, 1971.) that only a tiny inner group in the Cabinet were aware of the exact nature of Britain's obligations to France. The Government was distracted by Ireland, by a constitutional crisis, by suffragettes, and was in no mood for war. It was the German invasion of Belgium in defiance of treaty obligations which aroused Britain to war heat. Older readers will remember the Punch cartoon showing little Belgium standing up to the German bully. It was this reaction, born of fear as well as chivalry, which enabled the British Government to make up its mind, and in effect gave the war its global character. Churchill later described it as the 'unnecessary' war. Over By Christmas Most curiously all the combatants seem to have imagined that the war would be over in their favour by Christmas. The lion roared, the bear growled, the German eagle did whatever it is that eagles do, and the Gallic cock crowed on top of a none too savoury midden. But they were all wrong, though it did not take the superb German military machine long to establish supremacy over the Russians. In the West all parties settled down to a weary slogging match, trench to trench. Some twelve million soldiers were killed, and of the survivors a great number were maimed in body or soul, or both. Paying the Price As a result Britain lost her pre-eminent position among the nations. Immense treasure was poured out, and Christian Europe called in question her moral leadership of mankind. Things being as they were, it may have been unavoidable, but no European statesman of the day can escape a measure of responsibility. In Britain it was not long before Bishops were blessing battleships and Free Church leaders like Robertson Nicol of the British Weekly were throwing all their weight behind a "crusade for righteousness." While crowds flocked to the colours in search of adventure, there were also many young men who went to the war soberly and with a high sense of dedication. "My strength is as the strength of ten. Because my heart is pure." But Sir Galahad's sword, however dedicated, was not proof against high explosive. A New Kind of War It was not like the old dynastic wars, calculated affairs waged for profit where the defeated cut their losses. It was total war.

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The British had read of romantic-sounding campaigns conducted by professionals in remote places which could be written up as adventure stories for the Boys Own Paper. There was a monument in the village church to "Lieut. John Bull, 12th Regiment of Foot, died of wounds received in the assault on the Orakau Pa, Waikato, New Zealand, March 31st, 1864, aged 25 years. 'Duice et decorum est pro patria mori'." The mass of the British people thought of wars as something that happened to somebody else, a long way away. Even the Boer War did not shake them into reality. Unlike the Continentals, they had seen no invader on their soil for generations. Great fortunes were made by profiteers and after a time there was serious industrial unrest. Total war demanded total mobilisation, but there was no compelling motive for such drastic measures in the popular mind, as men were to know it in 1939. A War of Machines It was not only total war, it was the first war in which machines counted for more than men. The overwhelming proportion of casualties came from high explosives. A man was blasted into eternity not by an enemy he could face, but by a shell fired from miles away. The ordinary Tommy or Digger_was merely a number, just cannon- fodder. In September 1918 when the Allies were pushing the Germans back for the last_time our artillery fired off nearly a million rounds a day. The Bntish Army began the war with horse transport and ended it using more petrol in one day than in the whole of 1914. Among the soldiers idealism gave way to apathy and fatalism. "If it has my number on it, I've had it." "If a Nine-Point-Two gets its eye on you, Then its Hi-tiddly-eye good-bye-ee." When I joined my unit as a fresh-faced youngster m the summer of 1918 the old hands in the platoon went into a sort dazed horror as they recalled Paschendale where the wounded if they stepped off the duckboard, drowned m a shell-hole full of mud. Most of us would prefer to drown in a can water. It was a bloody obscenity, and the all but universal obscenity of the soldiers' speech reflected their sense of outrage. And yet there is something in every old soldier which responds to these words written fifty years later by a German served throughout the war: "When we were so unbelievably young and thought ourselves to be immortal in spite of the thousandfold death around us." (With the German Guns, by Herbert Sulzbach. Leo Cooper. London, 1973.) Religion at the Front At their best (which was only sometimes) the padres were magnificent. William Walker for instance was a tower of strength. Some of the old 2nd Otago men will remember David Herron at Battalion Church Parade telling us not to be afraid to pass Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 16

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 through "that thin film that men call death." They took it from him with respect if not with belief because he was a man they admired. But the whole conflict seemed a screaming denial of all that the padre stood for. Sunday School Religion A high proportion of these men had been to Sunday School, but little they heard there prepared them for Armageddon There was plenty in Scripture to prepare them, for Biblical faith is not a confidence that life will always be kind to us, but a strange knowledge that, like the Hebrew children, we might pass through the burning fiery furnace knowing that there was one with us like unto the Son of God. But unlike Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego the smell of the fire was upon us. It sometimes seems that the Almighty is a pretty tough guy.

NEW ZEALAND AND THE WAR In 1914 this country was more patriotic than the British. We had supplied 6000 volunteers for the South African war. We sent 100,000 overseas in 1914-1918, half the eligible manhood of the nation, of which 17,000 lost their lives. At first the war seemed unreal, it was so far away, and apart from the casualty lists it did not make much difference to our way of life. But of course the long-term results were important and irreversible. We became more independent, more conscious of our separate identity. While retaining a sentimental attachment to "Home" we were henceforth to reckon ourselves a people in our own right. Church Life in Wartime Isolated by distance both from immediate danger and from undercurrents of criticism, the N.Z. Churches gave almost uncritical support to the war. The editor of the Methodist Times unblushingly confessed that he had suppressed one letter that was critical of the whole position. He was not prepared to have his paper sullied by such sentiments. "For the moment it seems as if a staggering blow were struck at the fondly cherished hope that we were fast approaching the period when nations would learn war no more. When the foremost Christian nations of the world close in mortal combat, what can be expected from the 'lesser breeds without the law'. Such problems, however, we can leave to wrestle with when we have discharged the duty of the present hour." Adjusting The Conference began in 1914 with enough ministers and a shortage of only two Home Missionaries. By the end of the year we had two chaplains in service (J. A. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 17

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Luxford and H. L. Blamires) whose circuits required supply, while a number of Probationers and Home Missionaries had joined the Forces. Ministerial recruitment was crippled at the source. Students were contemplating enlistment. Congregations lost Sunday School teachers, Bible Class leaders and members. In response to an appeal by William Slade at Cliff College, the School for lay evangelists in Derbyshire, six men volunteered for Home Mission service and came to New Zealand just before the war. Of these Reg. Briggs lost his life on active service; Wilf Bowden served the Department for a time; Tom Flower served with us and later with the Congregationalists; Norman Challenger served a good term; Harry Kings and Fred Brown served in the first war, were received into the ministry, and were chaplains in the second. Maintaining Christian Standards Allowing for a political naivette which we have outgrown, our people did not react too badly to the moral problems associated with the war. We were firmly behind the right of the conscientious objector to recognition as a human being. "What we have need to remember in these trying times is that we are always Christians before we are anything else, and the Christian obligation of consideration even for our enemies must not be overruled by any other relationship . . . Every nation drawn into this war must be prayed for, for in all their needs they all alike are open to the sympathy of Christ." Services of intercession were well attended. The connexion showed increases in membership year by year. Leaders hoped and expected that the serious issues faced by the world would bring the people back to religion. Business as Usual During 1914 and 1915 church building continued much as usual, but later there were few major projects, though circuits continued to provide new parsonages and improved Sunday School premises. The fashion for erecting small church halls or Sunday Schools in a day continued. Leeston was the first circuif to provide a motor car for the use of its pastor. Garages were going up here and there. The Wesley College Enabling Act was passed, giving the Trust Board power to develop its suburban properties for sale, the proceeds to be used for development at Paerata. Circuit Development For a year or so the Church went on juggling the board in an effort to further rationalise the position after union. It was laid down that where a redundant property was sold, debts must first be paid off, then the proceeds might be used for approved local purposes, after which the residue, if any, should go to the Home Mission Fund.

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The Stationing Committee did its best to find staff for growing areas like the Waikato, but in effect they were trying to get a quart out of a pint pot, and nothing much could be done till the war was over. Our Own Mission Field The Australasian Board suggested that the Solomon Islands would provide a suitable field for New Zealand to take as its own. Our missionary giving was buoyant, so it was decided to aim high, and to set up a Working Capital Fund in anticipation of independence. Mr Slade's health was giving cause for anxiety. He was relieved of the Dunedin Mission, but designated as secretary of the new Mission Board to be formed after the war. Huntly Mine Disaster Towards the end of 1914 Huntly suffered the worst disaster of its history, with 42 deaths, among them 17 touching the congregation of our little chapel. The young minister, Matthew J. Evans, distinguished himself during the crisis and in the later controversy about compensation. His early death in the service of the Fijian Mission was a grievous loss. Conference in Wartime Some wanted to reduce the size of the assembly, but this met with little popular favour. Instead the sessions were confined to one week. It was decided that ministerial appointments might be extended indefinitely, with the usual safeguards. Amendments to the Book of Laws required that: 1. New Members were to be admitted at a service of Holy Communion. 2. Women were eligible for any position in the church unless otherwise stated. 3. Deaconesses were to be members of Leaders' and Quarterly Meetings. Ministers were to have two clear weeks holiday each year. In 1915 the New Zealand share of the Australasian Supernumerary Fund, amounting to £78,000, was transferred to the care of the new Supernumerary Fund Board in Christchurch. It was during the war that the Conference decided to designate the President a year in advance of his assuming office. For many years aspirants to the highest office came to Conference with their updated President's Address ready in their bags. Upon election they rose up and delivered an oration that went round the world and back and settled the affairs of the Kingdom, all in sixty minutes or so. Youth Work Sunday Schools kept up reasonably well and showed increased numbers most years in spite of staff difficulties. The Young Peoples' Dept. was trying hard to improve standards of teaching. During the war the Australasian Graded Lessons first made an

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 appearance. At the beginning they were amateur stuff. E. P. Blamires, defending our Sunday Schools, quoted a dim youth who, when asked to describe the sun, said it was 'a thing wif spots.' The Young Women's Bible Class Union flourished, but the Men's Movement was almost obliterated. A camp was held in 1915, but that was the last for the duration. This was the day of the Dominion Camp, and travel difficulties were added to the leadership shortage. In Auckland a very successful camp for Juniors was held on Mr Jos. Burton's farm at Papatoetoe. This was in 1916. A. J. Seamer was President of the Y.M.B.C. Union throughout the war. From overseas he urged the remaining leaders to lay the stress on Junior Classes, and this was done. In 1918 Canterbury held a Junior Camp at Sumner. The Secretary was one 'Ern' Smith whose name should be forever green in Canterbury Methodism. There were 120 campers and it was a huge success. "We go back with a new 'something', something happy in our lives." They were mostly lads in their teens, but among them were future leaders. Staff Shortages By the end of 1916 there were two students left in the College and almost no single Probationers in the circuits. Mr Garland, the Principal took up a supply ministry at Mt Eden. In 1917 the Church began doing what it should have done from the beginning. Younger ministers and Probationers elevated from the ranks in the Army were made Chaplains. Older ministers postponed retirement, and suitable lay preachers gave a few years to helping out as Home Missionaries. Somehow we got by. The Deaconess Order remained stable with about a dozen young women in appointments. Home Missions The one bright spot for the Department was that with so many vacancies they were saving on subsidies, a poor consolation. They just soldiered on as best they might. The Board was able to improve the financial status of the married Home Missionaries and to commence a modest Retiring Fund. It also took the lead in stimulating circuits to raise stipends, offering a subsidy of 50 of the increase for the first year. Curiously there was not much said about stipends which were lagging badly at a time when the country was quite prosperous. The ministry never recovered the position it held in 1914. Maori Church At Conference 1917 there was a big debate about the future of our work among the Maori people. Once more the assembly refused to set up a Maori Synod, on the ground that "as a matter of policy, they must aim at the amalgamation of the native Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 20

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 church with the adjacent European circuits." But as this was 'impracticable for the present' the Conference went so far as to list the Maori Stations under the appropriate pakeha Districts, to remind us that the Maori did exist. In those days it was easy to forget the Maori together, those whom Edward Te Tuhi used to describe as "the original custodians of these islands." They were apart in their villages, out of sight, out of mind. Foreign Missions William Slade returned from England frustrated by the war. His health was failing. Designated for appointment as General Secretary of the F.M. Dept. after the war, he died early in 1917. He was "one of our best preachers and wisest councillors." W. A. Sinclair was designated in his place. The connexion was working up considerable enthusiasm for our own mission field, and the income was buoyant. Then in 1917 R. C. Nicholson came to New Zealand as deputation from the Solomons, bringing Daniel Bula with him. Between them they sold the Solomons to our people. Auckland got into such a fever that it wanted to double the budget for missions in twelve months, up to £30,000. Social Service With Seamer away, the Young Turks seemed to consist of Paris and Jordan and Fowles. They suggested tactfully that instead of the old moralistic issues of strong drink, gambling and Sabbath breaking members might usefully consider the relation of the Dominions to the Mother Country, the morality of strikes, and the best way to meet the needs of returned soldiers. About this time they seem to have discovered Walter Rauschenbusch's Christianity and the Social Crisis. The official Public Morals Committee was busy with the Liquor Problem and Gambling, and also the matter of Bible Teaching in Schools, which was in the public mind at that time. There was a little pacifism in New Zealand, and a few men went to goal for their opinions, but it does not seem to have been very active in Methodist circles, except for ministers lately from England who had been subjected to radical propaganda during and after the Boer war. One thinks of the journalist, H. N. Brailsford, son of a dominating Wesleyan minister, author of The War of Steel and Gold, a book that sought to expose the armaments firms as war-mongers. Brailsford worked in England for a negotiated peace. Inter-Church Relations All denominations felt the severe shortage of ministers and clergy, and the conflict brought the churches closer together. In 1916 a committee of Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Methodists recommended negotiations with a view to union, but at the following Assembly the Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 21

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 matter was squashed when a motion for the previous question was carried. That was that. The first Anzac Day commemoration was a time of sadness mingled with pride. Anglicans gave great offence by refusing to allow the clergy to take part officially, only "as private citizens". That was a blunder, as the bishops realised. There was no established church in this country. A year later Archbishop Julius acknowledged that "we are all guilty of scism". During the crisis in 1918 he opened the cathedral in Christchurch to a service of intercession conducted by ministers of all denominations. The address was given by a Salvation Army officer. That gesture was criticised also. Dr Gibb and Isaac Jolly were keeping the union issue alive among the Presbyterians. Methodist Times and Literature Committee The Committee was anxious to promote the use of sensible reading material, but was not realistic in its ideas. Optimistic as ever, they ordered 5000 copies of Fitchett's What Methodism Stands For most of which were lying around unsold years later. The Methodist Times was very readable, giving a useful insight into the mind of the average faithful church member of the time. It still carried serial stories, pious improving tales about English village chapels and the like, the sort of thing Silas Hocking wrote. There would be a page or so of obituaries and two pages at least of circuit news. When the troops reached Egypt the paper carried letters from Chaplains and others. Nobody seemed to worry about security in those days. After the landing at Gallipoli we had numerous photos of young men who had lost their lives. Luxford lost a leg, Seamer was wounded, Grigg replaced Luxford and Mitchell went overseas with the 7th reinforcement. F. T. Reed became a chaplain on a hospital ship. Our Wellington churches did wonderfully in looking after lads from camp at the weekends. It was noted at the time that the mayors of Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland were all Methodists, likewise the civic leaders of many provincial towns. Our people seemed ambitious for civic honours at that period. John R. Mott on Europe Mott must have been the most widely known Methodist of the age. After a visit to Europe on behalf of President Wilson, he wrote: "I have come back from the European war zone carrying the heaviest burden on my heart that I have ever carried. When the great struggle is over you will find the great nations of Europe exhausted, not only economically, not only in the sense of having laid under the ground millions of lives; but exhausted, I fear, in hope, in faith, in courage. Then will come the solemn hour for America to assume larger responsibilities in world service than ever before, when we, with our unspent energy, with our fresh courage will place at the disposal of

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 these nations the choicest products we have evolved." How like a Victorian imperialist he sounds: The same unconscious mixture of idealism and self-congratulation. 1916 The editor filled the New Year issue with all sorts of snippets from overseas. Australian Methodists reported a large increase in membership. A reprint from a London journal gave an interview with Dr Harold Williams, son of W. J. Williams. He was an expert on Russia. Asked how many languages he was familiar with, he said that he could speak all the Continental languages except Albanian and Basque. He could read Welsh but admitted to only a slight acquaintance with Irish. He could claim a certain amount of Arabic, Hebrew and Persian. There was a short article about Nurse Cavell, the heroine of the hour. "Standing in view of God and eternity, I realise that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone." As Fouche said, protesting to Napoleon in a similar context, her execution was "worse than a crime, it was a blunder." A little later the British were to make the same blunder over Roger Casement. One would have thought that by this time they would have learnt not to make martyrs of the Irish. Pew Rents Mt Eden church decided to abolish these. They were a survival of the Victorian boom in religion, when every established citizen had his seat in church, a mark of respectability. Ready and Garland agreed that the 1916 Conference in Auckland was a very happy one, 'the best since union.' Which suggests that the settling down process had not been without its troubles. A teacher, Mr G. S. Macfarlane, son of the late Free Church leader, asked for assistance with a projected History of Methodism in New Zealand. It is a pity he could not carry it through. Something written from the point of view of an intelligent layman fifty years ago would be most illuminating today. The three remaining branches of British Methodism were drawing together with a view to union. The Wellington Educational Trust got the green light to go ahead with their Children's Home proposals "in view of the war orphans to be expected." A special committee emphasised the need for a school for Maori girls. Patriotic people gave up Christmas cards for the duration. Walter Runciman told the British Methodists that they were surrounded by a 'miasma of respectability'. The Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, was advocating a "United States of Europe, federated like the U.S.A." 90 of the eligible young men in N.Z.Methodism had volunteered for the war.

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The Irish question was exacerbating relations between Protestants and Roman Catholics, particularly over conscription, but while the Methodists had a few fanatics on the subject, for the most part our people disliked baiting the Romans. A correspondent complained that penny-in-the-slot chocolate machines were teaching Sunday School children to direct their pennies to secular uses. With Sunday Picture Shows and one thing and another we were going to the dogs. One Henry Ryan arrived from England, seeking health. He had made his mark in the Primitive Methodist ministry at home. Paul Fairclough died. He was a South Australian who came to the West Coast at the time of the gold rush, was drawn into our work, and became a successful preacher. He represented a type in which we have been rich, the man strong in native ability who found an outlet for his talents in the service of the church. His work was uneven, but at his best he was impressive. In the 1890's he edited the church paper with considerable verve. Indigenous Leadership The British-trained ministers who had led our Connexion for the past generation were now retired or retiring. C. H. Laws emerges as the most forceful and capable leader the New Zealand church had produced. He possessed a good mind and he was born to rule. He never tired of telling the church that while we existed for evangelism, we must learn that the less spectacular methods might be the most effective. Let the minister be an evangelist to his own congregation. Prohibition As the sad bad years wore on, the editor hammered away at the Liquor Traffic. We were obsessed by the topic. Diligent research has revealed one number of the church paper during the war years that didn't mention the subject. A leader on the fate of the Czar and his family ended with an appeal for the abolition of strong drink. King George had banished alcohol from his table for the duration. As the food shortage in Britain became very serious, Buckingham Palace had potatoless days as well as meatless ones. They lived on 'porridge and bloaters'. 1918 Ludendorf made a desperate attempt to break through to Paris before the Americans could reach Europe in force. It almost succeeded. It was 'a damned near thing' as the Iron Duke said of Waterloo, but it failed. The toll of the dead mounted again. There was an outbreak of meningitis among troops training in New Zealand. Of one young B.C. man of ours who died just then, his commanding officer said "I thought of him as a sort of Oliver Cromwell." Praise indeed.

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The Americans were 'leaping' into Europe and the British overran the Hindenburg Line. The Bulgarians gave up, and Allenby moved into Palestine and on to Damascus. But the average digger was apathetic. The armistice caught us by surprise. Our unit was moving back to rest after clearing the Mormal Forest. General Young drove past as we were fallen out by the side of the road. He got out of his car and gave us the news. There was a half-hearted attempt at a cheer but it was as if we did not believe him. We were conditioned to war and needed time to adjust. Welcoming the Men Home William Walker wrote to the Times about the problems of the returned soldier. He said it was already apparent that the church was failing to grip these men. Great numbers would shortly be coming home, with nerves overwrought after the strain they had undergone, and there was bound to be a severe reaction. They are sick of everything, themselves included. "When I've done with this outfit I'll have the devil of a time." The church must see that these men had justice, that their social and material welfare was adequately provided for, and above all it must make and maintain contact with them. Of the pulpit they required plain blunt speaking. The Prohibition Vote It was most unfortunate from the Prohibition point of view that the poll came in April 1919, when the soldiers were looking for relaxation from the regimentation under which they had been serving. The issue was carried in New Zealand by 13,000 votes, but the men overseas reversed the decision. They voted four and a half to one in favour of Continuance. Historically we puritans have never understood public relations. Our psychology could not be worse. The name Prohibition alone is enough to damn any movement. The indications are that the churches will have to take up the matter of strong drink once more, but we will need to study strategy and objectives very carefully indeed. A New World I forget the name of our padre on the boat returning to New Zealand, but I remember the text and substance of one of his sermons. "Strengthen the things which remain." Rev. 3:2. The men listened closely, even the hard cases. The bloodiest war in history was over. People in general, including the politicians, thought that they could resume life where they had left off. They had no idea that the world had been given a huge jolt which demanded adjustments all round, socially, economically, politically, industrially, internationally. We blame a vindictive peace for the problems that followed, but it was not only that. Man was feeling his way into a new sort of world without knowing where he was going, and he was bound to make a lot of mistakes.

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For the Church also things would never be the same again. By and large the common man had lost confidence in the Church, whatever respect he might retain for the Man of Nazareth. Henceforth Protestants at least would rely mainly on the middle income group for their support. Because of its working-class origins and background Methodism particularly suffered a loss of confidence and its appeal was narrowed. The war accelerated the process by which our principal recruiting ground was withdrawn. Since 1919 we have been living mainly from our own natural increase.

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III The Search for Maturity

Ephraim is a cake not turned (N.E.B. "half-baked") Hosea 7 vs 8

The war of 1914-1918 brought home to the churches the extent to which they had become alienated from the common people. Respectable citizens no longer attended church as a matter of course. Not that they were hostile as a rule, but they were no longer interested. The Victorian boom in religion was over. The process of secularisation had been going on from the middle of the nineteenth century, when the impact of literary criticism began to shake men's confidence in the infallibility of Holy Writ, and the theory of evolution seemed to undermine their place at the centre of the universe. Popular education spread the agnostic mood from the intelligentsia to the working man. By 1920 the working man's wife still saw that the children went to Sunday School, but her husband had abandoned salvation by faith for salvation by political and industrial action. The church failed to Christianise the Industrial Revolution. In addition to all this the Methodists had troubles peculiar to themselves. Cell or Crowd A few years ago a well-known Methodist scholar, one who rather enjoys putting the cat among the pigeons, shocked the Wesleyans by saying that Wesley cannot have been the clear-thinking church builder he is claimed to be, since he left the Connexion with so many inconsistencies in its make-up that it has been forced to spend a century and more sorting itself out. This is very near the truth, after a mischievous fashion, though it was not Wesley's fault. He set out to do one thing, but history or fate or God forced him to do another. Methodism began in the Holy Club at Oxford, where a group of young men banded together for mutual support in a spiritual quest. Later, after the interlude in Georgia and while associated with certain religious societies in London, the Wesley brothers both went through a conversion experience which made them vividly aware of the grace of God in forgiveness. Then almost against their will they were caught up in an urgent evangelistic enterprise, the biggest thing by far that happened to English religion in the 18th century. John did his best, through personal supervision, through his preachers and class-leaders, and through his insistence on discipline and high ethical standards, to hold his converts to an intense level of consecration, "having the form and seeking the power of Godliness." To a surprising degree, considering the material he had to work on, he succeeded in maintaining the integrity of the United

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Societies. But as he grew older and came of necessity to depend more on his lieutenants, and more swiftly after his death, the movement ceased to be so selective. How could a popular movement do otherwise? As Dr Ranston used to say, the tail began to wag the dog. Big crowded congregations and holiness didn't go together. Methodism loses its method. It is not too much to say that Methodism grew too fast for its own good. It gathered more converts and adherents than it could assimilate to its original aims. To a considerable degree it lost its 'method' which meant not organisation but discipline, living according to a rule. It moved instead towards a sort of sentimental egalitarianism which has little warrant in the New Testament. The Decline of Enthusiasm For several generations the Methodists prospered exceedingly. They left the other Free Churches behind in England and gathered a world-wide community of forty or fifty million people. It seemed as if the stars in their courses were fighting for us. But somewhere about the turn of the century the tide turned. We had lost our special relevance to the times in which we were called to live and witness, and by the end of the Great War it should have been clear that the Methodists were just another denomination, in a world that already had too many Churches.

EXPERIMENTAL RELIGION Christianity means different things to different people in the same congregation. To a majority it is likely to be a philosophy of life, a more or less articulated system of belief and practice inherited and absorbed in one's youth, only gradually modified by time. For others life is concentrated round the faith in a way that can only be expressed in personal terms. "He loved me and gave Himself for me." The subject is 'called' and 'chosen', to use the Biblical words. He feels that God has laid His finger upon him and there is no escape. He is oriented emotionally about his God and Saviour. To psychologise over this 'experience' is apt to destroy it. We tend to feel, somewhat illogically, that if we can explain how a thing works we have explained it away. But there are still many people in our modern congregations who would not claim very much, but would be desolated if God were taken out of their life. We still sound the experimental note. For one hundred years or so the Evangelical Revival flourished. In later Victorian times it went into a sort of silver age. Its emotions and its technique were manipulated in a way that seems questionable to us, though we must not be too critical. We cannot control these waves of religious revival. They come and they go.It is worse than Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 28

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 useless for people to flog emotions in an effort to repeat yesterday's religious experience.

AN IDENTITY CRISIS

A Peculiar People Wesley claimed that the original Methodists were called 'out of the common way' to witness to an intense experience of the kind described above. As the experience ceased to be normative the Methodists had to settle down to the ordinary round of church life, nurturing their children in the faith and influencing the community in indirect ways. For a time we were uncertain of our role. A minister with a record as an evangelist was sent to a small country community with an unusually high standard of literacy for the times, and a firm Christian faith. The minister suggested a mission. The Quarterly Meeting demurred. On enquiry it appeared that not a single member of the meeting felt that he owed anything personally to any direct evangelistic effort. One has the impression that the Methodist people went on loyally talking about evangelism in the old-fashioned sense, long after they had ceased to really believe in it, for themselves at least. The world does change, even the religious world, and we must grow with it. Bridging the Generations It is comparatively simple to pass on a creed or a code of ethics, a way of life, to one's children. It is quite another thing to pass on a religious 'experience', which is by definition a private and personal thing. It is more easily caught than taught. Therefore a denomination which is committed to an 'experimental' Christianity is faced with a problem. It must either be content to be indifferent to numbers or it must change its basis of membership. Like the Methodist people everywhere, and others as well, the New Zealand Connexion has been working through this problem over the past two or three generations. Not Indispensable In theory no properly instructed Methodist regards his Methodism as indispensable. (We are not all properly instructed!) There is no compelling reason for our existence, once the conditions that called us into being ceased to apply. Our history is too short to provide unbreakable traditions. We are not sustained by the memory of Flodden, or the Battle of the Boyne. We have no marked theological eccentricity round which to rally. We have a 'soft’ theology and a rather easy-going mental attitude. We had few martyrs, and were denied the hatred of the English Establishment which has been such a strength to the Scots Presbyterians, the Irish Catholics and the Welsh Calvinists. We are happy among our own people, and for them we are responsible, but we do

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 recognise that they might find their way to the Promised Land along some other route, led by another Moses. For this reason we find it easier than most communions to contemplate the union of the churches. We are not wedded to any system but our pragmatism makes us open to new ideas and new paths. During the interval between the two world wars there was a spate of books, good bad and indifferent, dealing with Wesley and Methodism. Writing a history seems to presuppose the death of the subject. (Jesus said something about building the tombs of the prophets and garnishing the sepulchres of the righteous. He was not favourably impressed). Methodism is not dead by any means, but it has been through a period of readjustment. It has been growing to maturity, or so we hope. That is the thesis of this book.

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IV A Time to Change "The time is out of joint. O rare delight That ever we were born to set it right."—Horton

The parody quoted above is taken from an official leaflet advertising the Centenary celebrations. It was phoney of course. It represented not our real response but what we thought we ought to feel. We were whistling to keep our courage up. We were worried all round. For the majority of New Zealanders the decade following the war was an uneasy, unsettled time. For a little country on the far side of the world we had made an immense effort, but seemed to derive little benefit from the sacrifice. We were unsure of ourselves, dependant on Great Britain for ideas as well as for markets, and unwilling to assume the nationhood the Anzac Day orators assured us we earned with our baptism of fire. Most people felt that there was something wrong somewhere, and not a few were in real trouble. During the war our farm products had realised high prices. Land values rose. We are told that half the occupied land in the country changed hands between 1915 and 1924. (Sinclair: Penguin History of New Zealand.) Many returned men took advantage of a well-meant but rather feckless scheme to put them on farms at what proved to be inflated values. The country was gambling on continued prosperity but when prices fell many new farmers could not service their loans and had to walk off the land. There was growing unemployment. The country carried a huge overseas debt, the interest on which absorbed too large a slice of our exports. The population grew in the twenties, partly by natural increase, partly by immigration. The cities spread into new suburbs, and the larger provincial towns gained at the expense of the smaller centres, owing to the increased mobility provided by the motor car. Suburban churches did well, but for the first time the central churches were hard to fill. There was a demand for expansion which the Methodists found it difficult to meet. Church Life After the War It was under these conditions that the churches set to work to gather in a new generation. They had hoped that a revival of religion might follow the peace. But few of the soldiers were interested. They wanted a job and a wife and a home, and to be left alone. No more bloody sergeant-major bawling them out, nobody telling them what to do. Never again.

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In one religious topic there was a revival of interest, though not among the troops. For a few years after the war popularly-written books on the life after death enjoyed a ready sale. As Dean Inge said, Esau, a more attractive character than Jacob, had died in his thousands, in careless unbelief. He made a good soldier. What use had God for Esau? Esau, my son, my son.

SUPPLY AND TRAINING OF THE MINISTRY Filling the Ranks Chaplains and some young men from the Forces were demobilised and available for appointment within months, but recovery was slower than it might have been. Garland's death in November 1918 precipitated a crisis, while the band of men he had trained was decimated. Some had lost their lives, others felt unable to continue in the ministry. The senior Bible Classes which were our natural recruiting ground had disappeared. Our rule which required Probationers to remain single before ordination had made the younger ministry peculiarly vulnerable. The position was desperate. At the Conference held in February 1919, six men were ordained, four of them senior Home Missionaries of proven worth. Two candidates for European work were accepted and one Maori, Matarai Tauroa. Dunholrne was reopened with G. T. Marshall temporarily in charge. During the decade J. Napier Milne, Frank Leadley and E. S. Emmitt came to us from England. The following Conference promoted a further group of Home Missionaries and accepted three single candidates. In 1921 we accepted four, in 1922 one, in 1923 the number rose to five. We were not keeping pace at all. A New Inspiration We then began to feel the benefit of the renewal of Bible Class life. At the Centenary in 1922, and elsewhere as he moved up and down the land, C. H. Laws appealed to the young men of the connexion to consider the claims of the ministry as a calling. By 1926 we had twenty-six students in residence. The future ministry looked secure. The Order of Home Missionaries The connexion was currently employing as many as sixty Home Mission agents, from experienced married men to raw recruits in single men's stations. One feels that we lost an opportunity to tackle the situation with a little imagination and freshness of vision. We might have provided more in-service training, and used the power of the Stationing Committee to bring some lonely men into the main stream of the church's life instead of leaving them permanently in the backblocks. We might even have experimented with the 'worker priest'. That would have been right in line with our genius. We were imitative and orthdox-minded, but because we were over-extended Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 32

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 we came to depend on unordained men, which gave other denominations the idea that we did not take ordination seriously. Looking back one has the impression that we might have accomplished more if we had attempted less. Welfare of the Church Membership figures presented to the 1919 Conference showed a considerable increase, connected perhaps with the tension felt in the last months of the war. But for several years following the returns were depressing. Most of our people had anticipated a further measure of church union and were disappointed and a little affronted when this did not eventuate. We had to clarify our objectives and mobilise our resources. Inferiority Complex Fifty years ago our people used a tell-tale phrase about the connexion which is never heard today. We Methodists were "the smallest of the larger denominations." It would have been better for our morale if we had said "the largest of the smaller denominations". As it was we wanted to play with the big boys, and we got hurt. We were always being left behind, and we didn't like it, especially when a leading Presbyterian said "The Methodists are on the run everywhere". Older and stronger bodies stationed men in developing situations where we could not hope to maintain a resident ministry, with the result that we were forced to retire. It was not their fault. It was inherent in the situation. Our organisation had given us an advantage in the pioneering situation which we could not hope to maintain in the era of closer settlement. For this and other reasons some of our ministers rather lost heart. I had glimpses of this when a candidate for the ministry. Several ministers conveyed to me the idea that I might do better for myself elsewhere. A few years later at a Bible Class Camp a very promising lad in his teens confided in me that he was turning his mind towards the ministry. On visitors' afternoon for his encouragement I introduced him to the District Chairman, explaining what he had in mind. "Don't be a fool"! exploded the Rev. Father in God. The young fellow took his advice and achieved a distinguished career elsewhere. We needed men like him. It was true that the connexion had been slow to adjust stipends to a rising cost of living, so that the ministry never recovered its pre-war position, the 'relativity' we hear so much about today. But I suspect that the main reason for such a loss of morale was chagrin at a certain loss of status. In 1910 a minister of any competence could gather a congregation and enjoy a measure of success. He was a person of consequence. By 1925 he was likely to see his congregation slipping away, which hurt his pride.

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Loss of Discipline The coincidence of the disruption caused by the war with the adjustments demanded by our recent union led to some loss of standards. The consistent pattern I knew in the little chapel of my boyhood was somewhat blurred. I remember a conversation with a leading minister, one who was a District Chairman for more than half his ministry. I said something critical about our revised Book of Offices. "I never use it," he said. "Haven't for years. I always use Hunter." Apart from the fact that Hunter, a Congregationalist pioneer, was wordy and hopelessly inept as liturgy, and about as digestible as suet pudding, the man had no right to abandon the prescribed liturgy just to please himself. Apart from the hymn book and Bible it was our most important theological teacher. Our sense of churchmanship was at its lowest ebb in the twenties and thirties. A ReOrientation of Faith There was a good deal of theological adjustment going on. The older men could use the language of Zion, but this was becoming repulsive to the new generation. The theology of the evangelical Protestant was grounded in the Puritan concept of personal responsibility towards God. Members of a 'catholic' congregation might shelter under the Faith and the Sacraments of the Body, but like Bunyan's pilgrim the evangelical had to face the burden of his guilt and find the release of conversion. The concept of salvation was eschatological, related to eternal destiny. As men revolted against the older doctrine of hell, a legacy from the Dark Ages, they turned away also from the traditional views of the atonement. Much of this was the effect of secondary education, now universal. Growth of the Sects There is some evidence that the Methodists contributed more than their quota to the sects which were multiplying at the time. This was evidence of social tension, and a failure to bring up our members in the way they should go. We floundered a bit over the process of adjusting to a new theological climate. The fundamentalist controversy which flared up in the twenties cost us some good people, more than it should have done. An Imitative Period Because of these uncertainties, and also because we had cut ourselves off from the only strong Methodist fellowship within reach, we tended to imitate our nearest neighbour with whom we maintained easy relations, namely the Presbyterians. I suppose that for every Methodist minister who subscribed to the Methodist Recorder

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 or the English Methodist Times there would be ten who took the British Weekly. Ministers were poorer so that few were able to travel overseas. We tended to envy Presbyterian buildings, their numbers and wealth, the stipends of their ministers, their security of tenure, their 'one man one church' system, and so on. Failure With Immigrants Year after year the Conference expressed its concern that of the large number of declared Methodists entering this country, so few became members. A lot of energy went into organisation and paper work, and appeals to somebody to do something, but one suspects that these people did not find themselves at home in our New Zealand churches. Most of the class emigrating would have been used to the Mission Hall and would have found our services strange. A man like Harris Whitfield might have hit the right note. Confusion of Aim For whatever reason, the early twenties were a troubled time. The Welfare of the Church Committee, a much stronger body relatively than it is today, was urging evangelistic enterprises, spiritual life campaigns, etc. upon us year by year, but a decreasing proportion of the members responded. A section of the laymen, led by Mr A. H. Reed of Dunedin, was sure that the way of salvation led through an enthusiastic and well-trained Sunday School effort. Others were dabbling in economics. Moses Ayrton was bravely waving the pacifist flag once more. He said that the nations should be 'compelled' to take their differences to arbitration, but omitted to say how they were to be compelled except be force of arms. There was a tendency for people to mount their hobby horses and ride off madly in all directions at once, as Stephen Leacock the Canadian humorist noted. Recovery of Nerve But by the end of the decade the connexion was battling along bravely, and though we failed to recover the census position held twenty years earlier, we were increasing our membership and in general doing a creditable job. Several features of our life at the time both expressed this renewal and helped to create it.

THE CENTENARY Before the end of the war the church had been planning its centenary. Several Synods in 1917 had recommended action to secure and preserve records which might be forwarded to the connexional office for safe-keeping. Already much valuable material had been lost. The Conference of 1918 set up a strong committee to suggest suitable ways of celebrating the beginning of the Methodist Mission to New Zealand.

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The 1920 Conference adopted a comprehensive scheme, involving commemorative services in every circuit on January 22nd, 1922, a great rally to be held at the Auckland Conference in February to which representatives of overseas Methodism should be invited, and follow-up meetings throughout the Dominion. Full preparations were to be made throughout 1921, and the Rev. A. C. Lawry, grandson of Walter Lawry who touched the Bay of Islands in 1822 on his way to Tonga, and was later to superintend the New Zealand Mission, was set apart to canvass for the Thanksgiving Fund. A Great Success The celebrations were a great success and must have helped to raise morale. The focus was at the Auckland Conference. C. H. Laws was President, L. M. Isitt M.P. was Vice-President, and the British Wesleyan Conference, the Methodist Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. and the Australasian Conference were all suitably represented. Following the Conference a large party filled a Northern Company vessel for a pilgrimage to Whangaroa, where a memorial cairn, gift of the Maori people, was unveiled. It is amusing to notice that W. J. Williams, when reporting on the vast Thanksgiving Service in the Town Hall, made mildly disapproving noises over the order of service because it included responsive prayers. He would have preferred to harangue the Almighty in the old style.

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Centenary Sketches Mr Williams was commissioned to prepare the Centenary History, to be published if possible at 5/- a copy. They didn't allow for inflated printing costs and it came out at 7/-. Williams was a capable journalist who should have produced an inspiring story. He had played an important part in the life of the denomination for fifty years and had known many of the pioneer missionaries in their old age. His first appointment was to Coromandel in the gold and timber days. But the story he produced was curiously flat and uninteresting. He made no attempt at critical analysis. His narrative was as bland and self-congratulatory as Morley. For him the modern appraisal had not begun. A large part of the edition of 3000 volumes remained unsold even at half price, and had to be remaindered. To mark the Centenary the degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon President C. H. Laws by the Victoria University of Toronto, Canada. The Thanksgiving Fund Some £43,000 was promised to the Fund, not all of which was gathered in. The country was already suffering a mild recession. But after some hard driving a sum of a little under £42,000 was received by the Treasurers. Donors had been allowed to allocate their gifts, with the result that some objects gained more than was planned, others less. The figures follow: Supernumerary Fund £8632 New Theological College 8000 C. B. & L. Fund 6232 Foreign Mission Fund 4298 Wesley Training College 2257 Deaconess Fund 2311 Maori Girls' School 3000 Kaeo Memorial Church 2575 Local Preachers' Association 1000 H.M. Retiring Fund 100 Working Expenses 2950 Loss on Centenary Volume 292 One can only feel that they were dirt mean to the Home Missionaries! The Theological Institution In 1919 Dunholme was reopened with three students, on a make-shift basis. C. H. Laws was designated to take over in 1920. It was resolved to employ a second full- time staff member as soon as possible. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 37

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Laws was not highly qualified in the biblical or theological fields, but he was a cultured man, used to administration and trusted by the church. It was understood that in accepting the appointment he was to lead the connexion in providing a worthy home for the Institution. Raising the money and building the college was to be his last outstanding service to the church. On the 29th of March 1920, six of us gathered for the opening day of the new regime. Within a few minutes of our arrival the youngest and least reverent of our company had dubbed the new Principal "The Boss" and the boss he remained. In his younger days he had exercised a remarkable influence over young men. There were many of his converts in key positions up and down New Zealand Methodism. But in his mid- ministry, the perils of which he used to dwell upon in pastoral theology, he lost touch to a degree, and he really had no idea how to handle the post-war generation. He expected returned soldiers to jump to it like schoolboys. He had the same effect on me that Jehovah had on the Children of Israel. I feared him, I adored him, I resented him. Gradually, with increasing numbers, the students wore him down. They can always win in the end. He mellowed in retirement, and no-one could have been more gracious to his old boys. His teaching was authoritarian, but he had the supreme virtue of clarity, and in his homiletics class he was a master, as he was in the pulpit. I have never heard anyone to equal him for sheer challenge. But when I recommended him to students twenty years later they did not know what I was raving about. So much for the generation gap. Harry Ranston Ranston was employed part-time till 1923, when he was given status as Tutor in Biblical Languages. He was the antithesis of Laws. We laughed at him and we loved him. He was utterly transparent, most of all when he meant to exercise guile, and he was a walking encyclopaedia of Biblical and theological information which he was eager to share. He was responsible for lifting the status of the college to a level that it has never lost since, though the emphasis has changed from time to time. I soon discovered that if I lingered in the classroom and made sympathetic approaches he would respond by giving me the lowdown on what happened at the Council meeting and the latest ministerial scandal and gossip, even to the cruelties perpetrated upon him by the Principal. He too could preach with point and power, in a racy Yorkshire idiom. He complained that Laws' preaching was too polished. "It ran off the congregation like water off a duck's back." In 1923 he was awarded his doctorate by the University of New Zealand for a thesis on Ecclesiastes and the Early Greek Wisdom Literature.

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THE NEW COLLEGE SCHEME The decision of the University College to build on the Princes Street site led the Conference to dispose of the Epsom property to the Education Board. The mind of the church was now set upon Grafton Road, the site granted to the Native Institution by Governor Fitzroy in 1844 and still owned by the Wesley Training College Board. By taking over the block occupied by church, school and parsonage, a magnificent site was available. The Grafton cause had been made redundant by the erection of the Grafton Bridge. The plan was to shift the church a few yards down Carlton Gore Road, adapting it to serve a dwindling congregation and youth work, and temporarily as college chapel, releasing the corner for the main new block. In 1923 Dr Laws visited England, recruiting some young men for our Home Mission service and studying the British college system. The following year active planning began. It appeared that all the available cash would be absorbed in bulding costs, so a lease of the site was secured with the intention of purchasing later. A house was provided for Dr Ranston in Grafton. The Conference of 1925 adopted the scheme in outline. It was planned to spend £47,000 of which £11,000 was in hand from the Thanksgiving Fund plus the profit on the sale of the Epsom property. The Board was given authority to select an architect and move ahead. Pitt Street Shops Trust promised £2000 and Prince Albert College £300. The Conference of 1927 was shown plans and gave permission for tenders to be called. The name Trinity College was chosen with the motto Spiritus Ubi Est Ardet, and the Rev. A. B. Chapell designed a coat of arms. The foundation stone was laid by the Governor-General, Sir Charles Fergusson, on June 27th. "An afternoon of radiant sunshine, the presence of His Excellency, together with the President, Vice-President and Secretary of Conference and many representative citizens, and the attendance of a large and enthusiastic audience made the ceremony a most memorable one." The old Board became the College Council established by Deed of Trust. The connexion was thoroughly canvassed and money gathered in sums large and small. The Hamilton Trust added £500, Taranaki Street £1500, £150 came from Wellington South Trust and £500 from the Cowie Trust (Christchurch). By a variation of the Edson Trust after provision for upgrading the old Grafton organ, funds were made available for furnishing the library. The Common room was a gift by Miss Diana Kent in memory of her parents, George and Diana Kent. All in all it was a most impressive effort, the culmination of years of dreaming and planning and praying, supported by impressive lay effort. To the grief of the church, Mr A. C. Caughey died before the building was opened. He had been an unfailing supporter of our educational schemes through the years, and a strength to the College staff. The new building was occupied for the opening of the session of 1929.

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Difficulties The new college made a brave show on the opening day, but it soon revealed defects both in planning and in execution. It was a three storey building on a windy ridge with no heating, a misery to live in during the winter term. The Oamaru stone facings were unsuited to the climate, and soon became pitted and defaced. The brickwork was defective. For economy the interior partitions were made too light, so that when a solid youth bumped against the wall the plaster cracked and fell out. The acute-angled comer site proved a pitfall to the planners. The front door was kept locked because the prevailing wind blew the place inside out. There was a lot of waste space. The main bathroom was over the dining room, and when the students became a little exuberant in the showers the water dripped on to the tables below. The one really satisfactory room in the place was the library. The Hostel The scheme included some provision for university students as boarders. It was thought that this would be a useful service to the city, as it proved, and that the contacts would be helpful to the divinity students, and that the hostel fees would help to meet the running costs of the institution. But there were difficulties. With a male arrogance typical of the day, the Council and the Conference required the Tutor's wife to oversee the house-keeper and stand by in an emergency. The place was too small to carry the expense of proper professional domestic management. Also it was overcrowded. The architect planned for thirty-two students in residence, sixteen on each floor, but under criticism of the high cost per bed the single rooms on the first floor were made to accommodate two men, and ultimately we had over fifty young stalwarts packed into inadequate space. Owing to financial pressure it was impossible to relax these conditions for thirty years. A Boost to Morale It is easier to scramble an egg than to lay one, as the man said on the telly, and it is unfair to be too critical. The building of the college gave the connexion a thrill of accomplishment, and helped us to hold up our heads in a difficult era. The project reflected great credit on the loyalty and generosity of our people, and it was carried through a difficult generation by a band of devoted laymen. To the students it was no small thing to be a Trinity man. Wesley Historical Society The association of the college scheme with the centenary resulted in the institution becoming the repository of valuable historical material. Mr A. H. Reed of Dunedin made some notable gifts and members of old missionary families deposited diaries and other records of permanent importance. Additional gifts have been added since, including the valuable Baumber Library, and other rare books. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 40

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It was agreed that while the Connexional Office in Christchurch should hold items relating to the development of the New Zealand church, material belonging to the early mission days should be housed at the College. From these circumstances and from contacts made by Dr Laws in England sprang the suggestion that steps should be taken to found a N.Z. Branch of the Wesley Historical Society. A modest start was made with about fifty members in 1930. Dr Laws was President and Rev. George Frost was Secretary. In the early days the subscription of 5/- a year entitled members to the British Proceedings, together with a leaflet dealing with some topic of local interest.

THE DEACONESS ORDER The decade after the war was probably the most active and hopeful the Order has known. In 1919 the connexion was employing eleven deaconesses in New Zealand, with two overseas and four in training. A year or two later a modest beginning was made with a Retiring Fund. At that stage the stipend was £100 p.a. How we have exploited our women! For a body striking moralistic attitudes all round the compass we were mean to our servants. For a number of years the Order maintained its numbers and a significant move was made when women workers were provided for service among Maori women and children. For the first time Maori girls were accepted for training. In June 1923 a large house in Latimer Square, Christchurch was purchased, which enabled the committee to provide Hostel accommodation for students along with the Deaconesses. The Durham Street Trustees generously threw in their equity in the. old St. Asaph Street property.(Out of The Common Way, pp. 125) At this stage and until the depression reduced the demand for their services the Order continued to grow, and something was done towards improving conditions and stipends. But apart from the central city churches and city missions there was now little demand for deaconesses in the European congregations. This reflected a better coverage by Government social services. THE BIBLE CLASS MOVEMENT It would be difficult to exaggerate the part played by the Bible Class Movement between the two world wars. The Young Women's Movement was in good heart during the war, but naturally they expanded when the boys came home. They returned a gain of over seventy per cent in membership for the decade. The young men more than doubled their numbers as they rebuilt the senior classes. At the beginning the few leaders remaining concentrated mainly on the juniors, soon to be Intermediates and Seniors, and almost at once the chain was complete.

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A feature of the Movement was the switch from Dominion Camps to District ones. This made it possible for greatly increased numbers to attend, and also helped to build up District loyalty. Bible Class life brought a gust of fresh air into many congregations, and blew away some hoary conventions that had long outlived their usefulness. It owed a vast debt to the quality of its Travelling Secretaries, and could also take credit for producing them. They were healthy and intelligent and outward- looking and spoke well for their generation. The list below is taken from W. E. Donelly's Heritage of Methodist Youth.(Published by the Methodist Youth Department, 1954.) Y.W.B.C. Movement Y.M.B.C. Movement 1922-24 D. M. Lynn 1923-27 G. C. Burton 1925-29 L. M. Hodder 1928-29 W. E. DonneUy 1929-32 E A. Sewell 1929-31 B. R. Hames 1932-36 D. Sheat 1931-33 J. D. Grocott 1936-39 A. Firth 1933-34 G. C. Burton 1935 A. Dingwall, S. G. Brooker part-time 1936 H. Tozer Missionary Representatives The young women had supported Miss Nellie Hayes as a worker among Maori women in Taranaki from the second year of the Union's foundation. After ten years she was succeeded by Sister Edith Goodall who laboured in the Hokianga district, and Sister Nicholls who continued to work among the women and children in the Waikato and the King Country till the B.C. Unions were merged in the C.Y.M.M. Among workers overseas the Y W B C Movement supported Sister Ruth Grant and later Sister Ada Lee in the Solomons. In addition of course most of the workers in all fields at home and abroad had a Bible Class background. The Young Men decided to support Ted Sayers, one of our own from the Sydenham class, who after training sailed for the Solomons in 1928. On his return they transferred their support to Harry Voyce. In those days we bred a generation of the young which was vitally interested in the outreach of the Gospel. Growth at Home Throughout the decade the Youth Movements grew, with some fluctuations. The Travelling Secretaries gave a great part of their time to organising classes where the Movement was not represented. Voluntary District Organisers were sometimes extra- ordinarily devoted and effective. The supply of adequate leaders was always a problem.

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SUNDAY SCHOOLS The Church invested a vast amount of devoted labour in its Sunday Schools at this period, as well as spending a lot on accommodation for them. It is essential of course that we should cherish the children, gather them in, teach them, make them to know that they are a valued part of God's family. But it is also true that we expected far too much of our schools. Our people were encouraged to believe that they held the key to the Kingdom, which was not true. Expecting Too Much We Anglo-Saxons forget that the Sunday School is a peculiarly British-North American institution, and a modem one. Like the evangelical revival, it is a child of the industrial revolution. Continental Protestants have gotten along quite well without it. The movement began in the late 18th century as a response to the same social pressure that produced Methodism. We remember that John Wesley, who was always practical in his reaction to the needs about him, led the members of the Holy Club in paying the wages of a woman to gather neglected children off the Oxford streets and teach them their letters. That was about 1730. Half a century later Robert Raikes did the same on a larger scale in Gloucester, and he did it on a Sunday, because that was the day when the children of the poor did not work but ran wild. (They probably raided his orchard while he was at church). Anyway he started a movement. Red Revolution From the French Revolution onwards till the decline of Chart-ism in the middle of the 19th century the middle classes in Britain were terrified of 'atheistical' red revolution. One method of combating it, they said, was to indoctrinate the children of the poor with Christian sentiments, and at the same time help them to better themselves by teaching them to read and write, thus improving their chances of employment. Both the Anglican Evangelicals and the Dissenters went into the movement in a big way, with motives that were partly evangelical, partly prudential. The appeals issued for assistance laid great stress on the prudential motive. (The Big Little School, by Root. W. Lynn and Elliott Wright. Harper and Rowe, New York, 1973.) But from the time of the Great Exhibition onwards (1851) the fear of revolution receded, and as popular education became more common the three R's were dropped from the curriculum. Sunday Schools continued with the sole object of leading young lives to Christ. In the early nineteenth century few Methodists were rich enough to patronise their neighbours either socially or spiritually, but they were always enthusiastic S.S. advocates. It is significant however that by the 1870's in both Australia and New Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 43

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Zealand the connexion was concerned that while it could gather in the children, only a very tiny proportion of those from indifferent homes found their way into the adult church. This complaint is found in the Minutes of Conference almost every year for two generations, but the church refused to face the obvious conclusion, namely that it could not evade the problem of adult evangelism, however difficult it might be. The Escalator Theory Many will remember Maltby, the Warden of the British Deaconess Order and an influential leader of the Wesleyans between the wars. He used to make fun of what he called the 'escalator' theory of church membership, as if it were possible to place a child on the bottom step of the Sunday School and feel confident that in a few years he would move off the top as a committed young Christian. Where was the point of committal? Our S.S. experts repudiated the theory, but none the less they did something to encourage it. They probably owed more to Jean Jaques Rousseau than they realised. One thinks of David, the young airman in A Family At War, who said in a moment of bitter self-realisation "I have never resisted a temptation in my life". Developing the Department After the above caution, we may turn to recognise the positive achievements of the movement. The schools suffered during the war. They missed the young men. At the Conference of 1919 C. H. Olds was appointed Organising Secretary, and the movement quickly regained momentum. For some years the Dept. campaigned for properly graded schools. This meant in turn that buildings had to be adapted to provide separate accommodation for infants and various classes, which involved Trustees. Gradually all teenagers won the right to be ranked with the Bible Classes, which caused some heart-burning among the more conservative Superintendents. E. P. Blamires. For the sake of his growing family Mr. Olds returned to circuit work. His place was taken by E. P. Blamires, who was to make a marked impact on the church during the eighteen years he served the Department. He was a tireless advocate and propagandist, fertile in invention and persistent in aim. The short one between two tall brothers, he made sure that he was not over-looked. He would have made a successful publicity agent. Not deeply read himself, he had a nimble mind and could pick on the telling phrase and drive it home. He could hypnotise himself into believing his own propaganda. Under his leadership the Department became a centre of discussion and debate throughout the connextion. It became a partner in the Australasian Graded Lessons which he pushed with praise that was extravagant, since in the early stages it

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 compared poorly with its commercial rivals. He kept the church on the alert, sometimes with admiration, sometimes with irritation. Unfortunately we were recording losses in Sunday School rolls by the end of the decade. These were partly due to a declining birth rate, but were disquieting none the less. Solid Achievements In its report to the Conference of 1930 the Dept. listed the following gains: 1. Better Sunday School buildings. 2. Better staff training and teaching methods. 3. More church membership classes and recognition services. 4. Better understanding between S.S. and B.C. 5. In the B.C. Movements we possessed one of the healthiest youth organisations known. All these claims were correct. N.Z. Council of Religious Education One of the best things E. P. Blamires initiated was the association of church agencies connected with youth. He convened the first meeting and acted as secretary thereafter. FOREIGN MISSIONS Another most encouraging feature of the time was the enthusiasm with which our people adopted the Solomon Islands Mission Field as their own. The wisdom of the decision to go it alone may be questioned in the light of subsequent events, but it was popular at the time, and it went far to justify itself by the response it provoked. Apart from mission Methodism has no justification for its existence. The cry "O let me commend my Saviour to you" has no national boundaries. The first Wesleyan outreach to non-European people was in Antigua which was officially occupied in 1776, and the Missionary Committee of the Conference has been reporting without a break since 1789. A generation later the Conference had a network of stations round the world. This was their most romantic field of effort, and simple people all over England gave their pennies and their prayers and their sons and daughters to carry the Gospel to the benighted. They had been conditioned to expect miracles, and if the going was heavy at Home there were always the triumphs of the Gospel in Ceylon or Jamaica or the cannibal islands to lift their hearts. All this was more alive to our consciousness sixty years ago than it has been since. My own grandmother remembered how, when she was a little girl, her parents decided that the household should go without sugar till the day when the slaves were made free within the Empire (1833). It was quite exciting and it made an indelible impression on the mind of a small child.

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The New Zealand Field After much discussion the Board of Missions meeting in Sydney, October 1919 recommended that the Solomon Islands Missionary District, including Bougainville and Buka, be transferred to the New Zealand Conference in 1922. The area was awkwardly placed geographically with respect to this country, but it was a young field (pioneered 1902) and it offered plenty of challenge. Our designated P.M. Secretary, W. A. Sinclair, was to visit the field during 1920, if possible with a layman, and J. F. Goldie, the Island Chairman, was to come to New Zealand in 1921. The income for 1919 was in excess of £11,000 and the officers were anticipating an annual expenditure of approximately £10,000, together with the accumulation of a Working Capital Fund of about the same amount. The General Conference held in Sydney 1920 gave its blessing, so the N.Z. Society with its gov-erning Board was constituted at the Wellington Conference in 1921. John F. Goldie paid a short visit, A. H. Cropp was sent as a pioneer to Bougainville, and New Zealand contributed Rev. A. H. Bensley and Sister Constance Olds (later Mrs Bensley) and Sister Ethel McMillan to the staff. 1922 proved a year of financial stringency, but the Board carried on in hope. Arrangements were made to establish our mission magazine, the Open Door, and the children's paper, the Lotu, which served us splendidly for many years. By the middle of the decade the income had increased somewhat, but not enough to cope with the outlay, which of course proved greater than was anticipated. We were supporting six European missionaries with two lay missionaries, six Sisters and one Tongan minister, besides many Tongan and Solomon Is. teachers. We needed £15,000 p.a. to do the work properly, but in spite of sacrificial giving the deficit grew year by year till it amounted to more than the annual income, and in effect the Society was bankrupt. But we were wholly engaged. Women’s Work Our first Missionary Auxiliary was formed in Dunedin, 1902. Others soon followed. In 1915 the Methodist Women's Missionary Union was set up at a conference convened at East Belt, Christchurch. With central encouragement Auxiliaries grew in number till they covered the country. They managed their affairs most efficiently and never lost their drive. During the post-war decade they established the principle of women's support for women workers overseas and among the Maori people, and with some assistance from the Centenary Fund they set on foot the Kurahuna Maori Girls' School at Onehunga in 1930. They proved that a large number of ordinary people working together can accomplish almost anything, and do themselves good in the process. Their morale never flagged.

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THE HOME AND MAORI MISSION DEPARTMENT The Department has always been a target for criticism. It has been expected to help the lame and encourage the beginners, but at the same time it has never enjoyed adequate support. There is not much romance about it as seen from outside. It never had enough men, and it never had enough money. But it was indispensable. T. G. Brooke retired in 1924, an old warrior who had earned his rest. A senior minister was nominated by the Board to succeed him, with Seamer to direct the Maori work; but in one of the historic debates the Conference indulges in from time to time the Young Turks banded together and had Seamer appointed General Superintendent. The declared aim was to hasten the integration of Maori and European work. Seamer was as strong as any man in the connexion at this stage. Following war service his health was poor but he did the work of two men. Mrs. Seamer died soon after the war and he wedded himself to his calling. The Department was responsible for stimulating an aggressive approach under the disorganised conditions obtaining after the war. It was necessary to persuade circuits and home mission stations to raise stipends to compensate for a rising cost of living. The most promising younger men in Home Mission ranks were promoted to the ministry and others had to be recruited. Workers from England The day when England could send surplus ministers to this country was long past, but we continued to seek young men for Home Mission service. On his visit to England in 1924 C. H. Laws was commissioned to seek "at least six" young preachers ready to serve as Home Missionaries, in addition to "others. Candidates, Probationers or Ordained Ministers who might be interested in our N.Z. Ministry." It appears they got their lines crossed somewhere, for two of the men recruited as Home Missionaries told me that they joined on an understanding that the ministry was open to them, and would have returned at once if they could have raised the fare. E. T. Olds Olds joined the Department as Asst. Superintendent in 1925. "It is confidently expected that 1925 will begin a new era of fellow-ship and evangelism in the church." This was the beginning of the Spiritual Advance Campaign. Olds was as well suited to the task as any man could be. He travelled the back country with a large tent, and light-heartedly described his meetings as "the sky-pilot's circus'. But the claims of a small family led to his return to a circuit after a short term. Literature and Colporteur Society There were still remote and lonely areas where communications were poor and preachers skidded round the puddles in a 'tin Lizzie' and the sects might be better Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 47

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 represented than the churches. For a number of years the Dept. kept a van on the road, with a driver who could sell a cheap wholesome book or take a service if required. The van needed a depot and an ordering service to back it up, and in this way our Epworth Bookroom had its beginning, with Mr. Hemer its devoted servant. The Maori Parties With a view to making the church aware of the Maori, as well as to raise money, Mr. Seamer gathered groups of Maori workers and led them up and down the land singing and speaking. The effort must have taken a fearful toll of his strength, but he persisted, and it paid off handsomely. The Ratana Movement. The Maori people were in economic difficulty before the depression hit the pakeha. Their young men had gone to the war and proved themselves (as if there were any need to do that) and come back to a stalemate. They possessed land of sorts but it was mostly worked out and they had no money for fertiliser and implements. They were lucky if near the coast where they might fish. Being a proud people they had withdrawn into themselves, and conditions were bad in many settlements. The population was growing but the tribes were confused by poverty and ill-health. It was under these conditions that Ratana, the Maori prophet, arose to lead his people. The movement was partly spiritual, partly social in origin, and it tended to escape the control of its founder before he died, but Mr Seamer regarded it with sympathy and kept as close to its people as he might. All in all one would judge Seamer as influential as any man who came to the front in the twenties. He seems old-fashioned today, with his notions of loosing a young man on a horse to go out and live on the land as he preached the Gospel, but it was only twenty years since he had done that very thing himself. His war service also has been largely forgotten. A Toughening Process We have devoted a disproportionate space to describing how the connexion fought back and recovered its nerve. It was a critical decade, and on the whole we came out of it with credit. We now turn to a brief survey of the business organisation of the church and its institutions.

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CIRCUIT DEVELOPMENTS The connexion did not occupy much new ground during the decade, apart from the growing suburbs. In Otago we tended to withdraw, in South Canterbury and Nelson we were static, in the North we expanded our efforts mainly by dividing circuits and upgrading Home Mission Stations. Auckland The Mission came off the station sheet in 1923, and the East St. Hall was put up for sale. At the same time Alexandra St. was separated from the Central Circuit and made a centre of such Mission activity as remained. The membership there was down to 15, there was a heavy Trust debt, and no future on conventional lines. In the meantime Pitt Street kept an eye on the situation. In 1926 David Goldie died, and in 1927 the Mission was constituted a H.M. Station under a Board of Management chaired by the Pitt Street minister. With some daring Seamer introduced young Colin Scrimgeour as Missioner. He initiated Sunday evening picture services in a Queen St. theatre, and gathered public support for a programme of social relief. Two years later he was given a Probationer assist-ant and in 1930 E. T. Olds took over as Superintendent for a year. At the time the Mission had a well-balanced programme of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison, and preaching the Gospel to the poor. Pitt Street paid the salary of a deaconess and Messrs Smith and Caughey found the salary of the Probationer. The North Shore was expanding. Takapuna was made a circuit with an ordained minister. Auckland East was given a third minister to serve the new Remuera church opened in 1922. The Central Circuit employed a Probationer to look after Roskill and Sandringham. Auckland West lost its second minister. A Probationer was found for Avondale and another for Papatoetoe. Bombay-Tuakau came on the sheet, and Coromandel was transfer-red to Thames, as road transport superseded the boat. Moving Northwards, we tried unsuccessfully to keep agents at both Kaukapakapa and Silverdale. Port Albert was made a circuit in 1929. Further north the Bay of Islands circuit was set up in 1924. It covered a wide area. We opened a cause at Kaikohe. In 1927 a separate appointment was made to North Hokianga. This unaccustomed activity reflected the opening up of a long-neglected isolated region, when with better roads, lime and fertiliser, it began to capitalise on its warm and wet climate. In the aggregate big sums of Home Mission money went into the North, and quite a lot from the Pitt St. Trust. It was still a land of small communities and difficult to organise into effective pastoral units.

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South Auckland Hamilton was growing rapidly. Hamilton East became a separate circuit and Frankton gained a Probationer. The King Country Mission was broken up, Te Kuiti and Taumarunui becoming circuits. Opotiki and Whakatane needed ministers but Conference could not guarantee continuity of supply. Ngaruawahia, Huntly, Putaruru and Te Puke were H. M. Stations. Taranaki-Wanganui The pattern did not change much during the twenties. Wanganui East was given a Home Missionary, Inglewood made a circuit, Taihape and Waimarino were staffed with H.M's and Mokau came of the sheet. Douglas remained a problem. New Plymouth gained a third agent. Hawkes Bay-Manawatu Gisborne was expanding and wanted a second agent. The name of the Rangitikei circuit was changed to Marton. In 1925 we sent a Probationer to open a cause at Wairoa, H.B. In 1927 Ashurst-Bunnythorpe was created a circuit. Fielding, Hastings, Napier and the two Palmerston North circuits were in good heart. Wellington District Masterton sought a single agent for Kuripuni in 1920. As they became available Probationers were sent to Brooklyn, Kuripuni, Wellington East, Lower Hutt and Ngaio. As in other Dis-tricts the impression is of a rather haphazard approach to extension. A missionary-minded Superintendent would keep his people on the move, while another allowed the situation to stagnate. North Canterbury District Christchurch Methodism was strong and devoted, and it kept pace with the growth of the city. In 1921 Linwood gained a married minister. Cashmere Hills was afforded a Probationer in 1924, Sumner in 1925. The next year Woodend-Sefton and Wadding- ton were given separate status, Harwarden followed a few years later. South Canterbury There was little change in this small developed District. The two Timaru circuits combined to employ a Probationer to serve the smaller centres. Otago-Southland. Invercargill successfully integrated the two branches of Methodism after the union. Leet Street and Don Street were united with a view to building a central church, the Teviot Street property was sold and the congregation merged with Elles Road. There

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 was some shuffling of Riverton, Tuatapere and Nightcaps in an effort to create a workable unit. In 1924 Dunedin sought Probationers for St. Clair and Maori Hill. In '27 Broad Bay and Mosgiel were each given H.M. status. The next year Balclutha and Kaitangata were put together. In 1930 the agent was withdrawn from Broad Bay and Maori Hill made a separate station. District Executive Committees In the late twenties the Conference authorised the setting up of representative District Executives. At first this was permissive only. Auckland did without for many years, perhaps because it had the Home Mission Board at hand. In time the Executive gave place to the Synod Standing Committee and then to more frequent meet-ings of the Synod itself. Removal Expenses Fund It was quite soon after the war that the church established the Removal Expenses Fund, with the object of spreading the costs, which could be heavy, especially in inter- island moves. From this time there was a tendency to encourage longer pastorates.

PUBLIC QUESTIONS In its 1919 report the Temperance and Public Morals Committee referred to 'this terrible war' and prayed that 'permanent peace might be assured and that social unrest should be a thing of the past'. It seems curious that they bracketed war and strikes. The following year they were hot about bad language in military camps, the quality of cinema films, and the gambling mania. A year later it was Sunday pictures. In 1923 the members deplored the set-back to the prohibition vote, and commended the Bible in Schools proposals. They also introduced the Social Creed of the Church which was supposed to be read to congregations on or about Labour Day. Peace Manifesto A token of things to come appeared in the Peace Manifesto sponsored by the North Canterbury Synod and remitted 'to ascertain the mind of the church'. The question of dancing came up. There was 'great moral and spiritual danger attached'. The generation gap again. In 1929 after a long wrangle the Conference passed a resolution declaring that 'resort to war .... is not in harmony with the spirit of Christ'. That caused a heap of trouble later. Nine tenths of the Conference had not the slightest intention of declaring themselves pacifist in the modern sense, but they did wish to protest their utter abhorrence of war. There was an ambiguity in the meaning of the word 'pacifist' in

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 those days. The dictionary defined it as 'the doctrine that the abolition of war is both possible and desirable'. Not a word about non-resistance. This helps to explain why Hitler was misled by British peace propaganda in the thirties. For most of us there was a sticking-point beyond which we were not prepared to go. Hitler also was not in harmony with the spirit of Christ.

CHURCH PROPERTY The amount of building that followed the war was less than might have been expected, in view of the backlog to be overtaken. To some extent this reflected the uncertainty about church union. Most activity was in providing better housing for ministers, and new or enlarged Sunday School and Bible Class accommodation. Because our constituency was not growing very fast we tended to make do with an old building when a new one would have improved our public image. In ten years Auckland acquired eight parsonages and six additional school buildings. There was a similar movement in the Waikato. Hamilton opened Wesley Chambers, cost £38,500. Taranaki-Wanganui equalled Auckland in its extensions and improvements, and Wanganui put up shops costing £25,000. There was similar activity in Hawkes-Bay Manawatu. Wellington District headed the list with a marked burst of activity. This was partly due to growth and enthusiasm, partly to funds available from the sale of ex-P.M. properties. Nelson reported three new brick churches besides Sunday Schools. North Canterbury was extending its hold on the new suburbs. South Canterbury was improving its position. Otago-Southland withdrew from Winton and Alexandra, but consolidated elsewhere. CONNEXIONAL PROPERTIES AND TRUSTS Church Building and Loan Fund By 1920 the capital had grown to £22,000 and the Centenary Fund added another £6,323. With increased building costs this was not nearly enough, but it helped. Mission Property Trusts These relate to properties originally acquired for the Maori Mission. For administrative convenience they were transferred to the Home and Maori Mission Board. Probert Trust In 1920 the Trust held property valued at £45,000, consisting of potentially valuable land in Upper Queen Street and shops at Great North Road. It was contributing £550 p.a. to the Theo-logical College, a useful sum in those days. In the late twenties the trustees borrowed heavily to develop their property, were persuaded to add a further Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 52

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£2,000 to the New College Fund which should have been paid off their mortgage, and were in difficulties by the time the College was opened. Prince Albert College The aim of the Trustees was to build up their capital against the day when they would be required to redeem their buildings, but in the event Trinity College and Wesley College swallowed up any surplus, keeping them poor. Grey Institute Trust (H. L. Fiebig. Inheritance — W.H.S. 1967.) This refers to the one hundred acre site in Ngamotu, New Plymouth, purchased by the Wesleyan Missionary Socy. in 1840 as a site for their headquarters in Taranaki. It was effectively occupied in '41, prior to the arrival of the N.Z. Coy. settlers. The Mission had a school on the land which had to be closed later on account of the wars. The land was leased and the income used for the purpose of the Mission. It should be noted that this property was not a Government grant for education, but a purchase. In practice the income has been devoted to Maori work. Kai Iwi Farm Trust (H. L. Fiebig. Inheritance — W.H.S. 1967.) Similarly in 1853 the Mission purchased a block of land to serve as head station for South Taranaki. The station was closed perforce in the wars, but the property retained and income used to support the continuing Maori work. Wellington Methodist Charitable and Educational Endowment (H. L. Fiebig. Inheritance — W.H.S. 1967.) It was Governor Grey's policy to encourage the Anglican, Methodist and Roman Catholic Missions to do something about education, and to this end he made grants of land as endowments 'for the education of our subjects of all races etc*. The Wellington grant was not made till 1852, and the school for the Maori people was never commenced, but the Trust did main-tain a school from 1872 to 1879, when the building was burnt down. They carried on at Taranaki Street church for a time, but the State school system made their effort redundant. By 1900 they held property valued at £8,000 and it was decided to support kindergarten work. In time this also was abandoned, but with legislative authority the Trust purchased a property for orphanage purposes in Masterton, and contributed to the Home when it was built. Trounson (James and Martha) Benevolent Trust (H. L. Fiebig. Inheritance — W.H.S. 1967.) This was established in 1928 by Mr. James Trounson, an early Paparoa pioneer who prospered in timber and farming on the Northern Wairoa. He set aside the sum of £11,000 the income from which was to be used to assist members of our church who

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 were in need. The income is small, but the Trustees concentrate on helping cases which fall outside the scope of the Social Security Dept. The Connexional Secretary Samuel Lawry retired in 1927, full of years and honour. He was a doughty servant of the church, steady and competent and utterly devoted. He was succeeded by the Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt, a very different type, more modern in his approach to the office, no less dedicated. WESLEY COLLEGE PAERATA In 1912 the Board had purchased a farm of about 680 acres at Paerata, about 25 miles south of Auckland city, with the intention of founding a new school on somewhat different principles. The historic Native Institution at Three Kings had per-formed a useful task; but it was too small to carry a proper staff, and the wooden buildings had long outlived their economic life. Also the site was becoming too valuable as the city reached out. It was hoped to found a prosperous inter-racial school at Paerata, where future Maori leaders might be educated in association with suitable pakeha lads, the running costs to be provided by 'moderate' fees. At the time great stress was laid on the inevitable fusion of races, and the benefits to be expected from co-education. Also the interests of Pacific Islanders were not overlooked. The war interrupted the scheme, while building costs rose to an alarming degree. But the building fund grew to £10,000, plans were prepared, and in 1922 the first wing of a block of modern school buildings was completed, to accommodate 45 boys. The school was moved on August 28th, 1922. The old wooden buildings were pulled down, and the farm leased. Mr Simmonds and a group of Maori lads went into residence at Paerata. In 1924 Mr. R. C. Clarke M.A., Dip.Ed., came from Australia to succeed Mr. Simmonds. He was well qualified both as teacher and agriculturalist. The school was now registered as a Secondary School. It was Mr Clarke's misfortune to take over at a most difficult time. To become a worthwhile educational institution the school had to grow and growth meant capital expense. The Board had valuable assets in many acres of what was to become suburban Auckland, but their development required cash. It was proposed to double the accommodation, and in 1925 the other wing was completed. In 1927 a hospital block was donated by Mrs. Smith in memory of her nephew W. H. Caughey who died as a soldier in Cologne, Feb. 1919, and two years later she gave the chapel in memory of her husband.

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By the end of the decade the financial situation was bad. The roll was reduced to 70 boys, the school was running at a loss, the farm was losing money like other farms, the interest bill had to be met. The Board had borrowed money to develop suburban property for sale, but with the onset of the depression there was no sale. With some connexional help and a little also from sympathetic Trusts the Board just managed to carry on. THE SUPERNUMERARY FUND The stipends of Methodist Ministers have never been generous, so that a retirement fund has been a necessity from the beginning. In England it was known as 'The Worn- out Ministers' Fund'. The travelling preachers were not expected to 'sit down' as the phrase went, till they could stagger no longer. The N.Z. Fund was set up in 1922, as we received our share of the Australasian Fund. The capital was invested in Government and Local Body loans and on mortgage. Two increases in benefits were made possible, partly by raising the contributions and partly by a grant of £10,000 from the Centenary Fund. The Deaconess Retiring Fund and the Home Missionaries Retiring Fund both provided lump sums on retirement. A Ministers' Home Acquirement Fund was started in 1928. The ministers' subscriptions were subsidised by the Fire Insurance Fund. The sums provided were pitifully small in every case, but it was a start and well meant. Epworth Office Building. It was in 1928 that the Board purchased a two-storey building on the corner of Manchester and Hereford Streets, Christchurch. Two storeys were added to afford a considerable area of letting space as well as comfortable church offices. Owing to the depression the venture was not immediately profitable but it has since vindicated itself. City Missions As indicated above (p.60) the Auckland Mission, after a short vacancy, was re- established on the old P.M. property in Alexandra St. (now Airedale St.). Under Colin Scrimgeour in the difficult years at the turn of the decade it made a significant impact on the life of the city. The mission in the capital city fell on hard times after the war and was amalgamated with the central circuit. William Walker was sent to the Dunedin Mission after the war. He had a fine ministry there. The hall was thronged with young people on Sunday evening, and every part of the life of the great congregation was healthy. Aided by the generosity of Miss Boot, a sister of Lord Trent, founder of Boots Chemists, the debt was reduced to £6,000. Their parents were very humble people but ardent Methodists, and Jesse Boot was a benefactor of the Nottingham Mission. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 55

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Children's Homes The word Orphanage was out of date. The twenty years between the wars were the golden time of our Homes. There was ample need for all they could do, and we were not as yet hampered by serious doubts as to the efficiency of the method of dealing with needy children. The emphasis at this stage was on numbers. In 1922 Auckland acquired the Epworth Home as an extension of Wesley. By 1928 the three Connexional Boards were housing 200 children between them. Methodist Times and Literature The Methodist Times was giving general satisfaction, but in 1921 the price had to go up to 7/6 for 26 issues. The following year J. Napier Milne, a recent arrival from England, replaced Williams as editor. As a further economy the number of issues was reduced to 24 a year. Milne did a competent job, but in 1924 he returned to England and P. R. Paris was promoted to the chair. Paris introduced a new note. Instead of Prohibition he had peace in every issue, which was at least up-to-date. Mr Paris was a most attractive person, a romantic with an interest in St. Francis, a Methodist who was fascinated by some aspects of things catholic. There is no doubt he helped to prepare us for the Ecumenical Movement and the Liturgical Revival. A generation of children came to know him through the L.Y.M.S. (League of Young Methodists) with its ambiguous motto "Love Conquers All". As Vergil used it the motto had more reference to eros than to agape. ECUMENICAL In 1919 an overture came from the Presbyterians and was cordially reciprocated, but the results of the vote in the local courts of the Presbyterian Church were unfavourable, so the matter rested. Our people were a little affronted, and rejected a proposal for joint theological training. In any case what money we had for the purpose was tied to Auckland, as the Presbyterians were bound to Otago. The Lambeth Appeal In 1921 the Conference reacted cautiously to the Lambeth Appeal of the previous year, which recognised the status of non-Anglican churches and the 'spiritual efficiency' of their ministries. This of course altered the whole situation, making possible a continuing dialogue. At the time our people had their eyes on a more immediate prospect; but we have since been looking both ways, and have gradually recovered our sense of kinship with the Church of England which gave us birth. One result of an improved ecumenical climate was that we become less defensive, ready to recognise our weaknesses and slovenly ways, and our need to relearn some of Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 56

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 the things we had lost. There was an immediate improvement in our attitude to responsive worship. Dr. Laws helped by his insistence on dignified and worthy pulpit prayers. It would be fair to say that by 1930 in spite of disappointments and handicaps we were functioning efficiently on the whole and making an impact. The church was much more alive than it had been in 1919.

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V A Time of Tension and Dismay 1930-39 "Dammit! Why can't they be quiet?" Lord Melbourne on agitators. "I have no gun, but I can spit." W. H. Auden. Bruce Catton, the historian of the American Civil War, in a book of reminiscences recently published, (Waiting for the Morning Train. Doubleday & Coy., New York, 1972.) makes much of the contrast between his boyhood in a remote and decaying timber town in northern Michigan, and the sort of world he inhabits in retirement. He draws a parallel with the Indians, who lost an old culture and found it impossible to assimilate the new. "We are taking the prodigious step from the 19th century to the 21st without a moment of calm in which we can see where we are going." The sense of rupture with the past was more evident in the thirties than it had been in the previous decade. In 1925 it seemed reasonable to imagine that in time we might recover the security of pre-war days. In 1935 it was clear that we were being pushed into unexplored country, and we were apprehensive. The Depression The depression crept up on us gradually till about 1930, when we felt its full impact. It has often been pointed out that in some ways acute economic distress is worse than war. War calls out the active energies of men, whereas a depression means stag- nation, a sort of lethargic rot. Lack of money slowed down the aggressive programme of the churches, eroding missionary income and inhibiting experiment. One does not remember much really creative response on the part of the pulpit. We were more resigned than we should have been. Ministers worked hard at relief, but were not equipped to tell the Minister of Finance what he should do. In any case the pulpit had lost its ancient role as educator of the peasants. If the sheep were hungry it was not for authoritative information about current affairs, but for spiritual food. There was still a place for the occasional charismatic figure, and for a steady teaching ministry which concentrated on essentials, but our people had outgrown the old exhorter, and they were fast becoming 'oncers'. The cinema provided cheap entertainment for the masses and radio was coming in, so that apart from youth groups like Scouts and Girl Guides or the Boys' Brigade, which still flourished where there was good leadership, our week-evening activities were falling off. Any reasonably strong congregation would maintain a weeknight service or some kind of fellowship meeting, but these were often rather dreary affairs, dying on their feet. In two sturdy congregations I tried to introduce the old testimony Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 58

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 meeting, but was dismayed to discover that men and women would gladly tell what God had done for them thirty years ago, but never confessed what He had done for them last week. Apparently religion was old hat. The Bible Classes operated mostly at weekends. We were still suffering as a denomination from the competition of the sects, and diligent pastoral work uncovered many lapsed families. They had just dropped out, without quite knowing why. They didn't seem to miss us. Some we lost because of the fundamentalist issue. Conservatism in religion is a supremely natural reaction for which we should allow. Older people are glad to warm themselves at the fires of youth, but they do not appreciate being lectured about what they should believe by half-baked prophets. Considering the circumstances our people gave a fair account of themselves during these difficult years. They were loyal and generous and active. As a church we were tougher than we had been. Younger Leadership. In the nineteen-twenties the church had been governed by men who had reached their maturity by the end of the century. Ten years later, while the higher administrative posts were reserved to those ordained before 1914, the younger men were speaking up and in a few cases they were entrusted with important pulpits. Witness E. T. Olds at Pitt Street, Dudley at Wanganui, L. B. Neale at the Dunedin Central Mission. Laurenson's appointment as Home Mission Secretary after fourteen years service was a case in point. It was recognised that youth could speak to youth, whereas most of us had lost the password by the time we were forty. Not Downhearted The morale of the ministry remained high in spite of a ten per cent cut in stipends that were already inadequate. Some of the Probationers did quite heroic things in more difficult stations, quixotically so. No-one could deny that they were trying to follow Christ all the way. The connexion was feeling the benefit of a stream of competent young men who spoke the language of their own generation, and of the vigour of the Bible Class Unions which were feeding leaders into the adult congregations. The Mission Boards were hammering away at their task, refusing to be unduly depressed, and the Women's Missionary Union was busy and faithful. Corporate Responsibility The older evangelical doctrine of salvation which was rooted in an intense personal responsibility towards God, with its corollary of guilt that needed atonement, was not abandoned, but it was being modified in relation to youth especially. The Edwardian evangelists were apt to play on adolescent uneasiness about sex. The logic was plain.

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To get converts men must be made to repent, and repentance followed a sense of sin, so to quicken guilt one attacked a sensitive spot. Q.E.D. God knows how much harm they did. Irrational guilts have wrought untold misery. Our real guilts lie in the failure of relationships, in disloyalty. We Christians discover that as we stumble along in the wake of our Lord. Or when we are granted a vision of God, high and lifted up. In contrast to the Victorians we have been relearning our corporate responsibility when things go wrong, the interrelatedness of all things human, the guilt that must be shared by the home, the village, the congregation, the nation, the race. Sin has taken on a new dimension, not one that lets us out because we are 'saved' but one that includes us all. It is Jesus Who forbids us to judge, to throw stones, to withdraw the hem of our garment. If we discover the peace that passes understanding it will not be because we have been given a certificate of exemption. As a further corollary we were bound to go on to think in catholic terms, in ecumenical terms, and this again influenced our worship. In a rather inchoate way these thoughts were stirring in us at this time. Circuit Developments Lack of money prevented vigorous growth even where the suburbs were spreading. Auckland put a Probationer into Mission Bay and was watching the southern suburbs, where we needed more staff. The inner belt was declining. The area from coast to coast, Helensville to Whangaparaoa, badly needed two men but could only afford one. Further north, Ruawai was made a circuit, likewise Kawakawa-Ohaeawai, Mangonui, and South Hokianga. Gonville was given a minister in 1939, and New Plymouth was extending. Taihape was holding its own, Raetihi-Ohakune was slipping back. Napier Methodists recovered quickly from the earthquake (Feb. 1931) under the dynamic leadership of E. T. Olds, and Hastings speedily replaced its ruined church, but too many places in the District were staffed by Home Missionaries. Wellington reduced staff somewhat under the strain but was able to make Webb Street a separate appointment in 1940, with a view to giving Ormond Burton an adequate sphere. Nelson South gained a Probationer. Oxford was made a circuit. South Canterbury employed no Home Missionaries when Mayfield was closed. In Otago union had left apparently insoluble problems. Year after year the Synod shuffled the pieces about, trying to conjure up workable units. Buildings There was not much money for new ventures, but on the other hand if Trustees could command a bit of cash, building was cheap. There were several places where it seemed good business to trade in the old horse paddock for a new parsonage. A few years later the folly was obvious. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 60

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We were still giving priority to Sunday School and Bible Class buildings. In ten years at a rough count the connexion added thirty-five new schools or substantial additions. During the same period we put up fifteen new churches, some of them substantial brick structures, and acquired about the same number of parsonages, most of them to replace older buildings. This was mostly the domestic housekeeping of the connexion, smallish stuff, but it represented faith, planning and generosity. A few special events merit attention. In Auckland the Mission finally sold the France Street Hall for £5,000. Two years later they built the first stage of the Campbell's Bay Children's Health Camp. It proved to be something of a false start, but Mr Orr was flexing his muscles. In any case it was a good investment. Takapuna decided to sell the Potter Rest Home if Mrs. Potter approved. Onehunga got into trouble for absorbing the result of land sales into current revenue. It was not a well-to-do community and one supposes the depression looked as if it was going on forever. Wanganui Trust By 1933 the Trustees of Trinity Church Wanganui, were in grave trouble. The Trust had borrowed money just a few years earlier to erect a block of shops. Almost immediately the town was hit by the depression, with the result that the shops did not earn enough to meet the interest on the mortgage. The Trustees had not been adequately advised when entering their heavy commitments, and found themselves personally liable. It was a very anxious time. The incident caused a great deal of concern, and should be remembered as a warning. Fortunately a combination of personal generosity by individual trustees, some connexional help, and the inspired leadership of the congregation by young Ray Dudley tided the situation over till better times returned. Otago Methodism had many problems, but it showed a lot of enterprise. Trinity Church parted with its Stuart Street Sunday School and spent over £2,000 modernising and adapting its main block. At the Mission Leslie Neale had begun his amazing career, beginning to develop Company Bay and buying the Stuart Street corner. Invercargill built its Central Church.

WELFARE OF THE CHURCH The reports give an insight into the mind of the Church forty years ago. It was still trying to save the situation through Sunday Schools, this time by indoctrinating the theological students. The Conference expressed concern that our people were becoming 'oncers'. It stressed the need for systematic giving, and adopted a long report from the Local Preachers' Association, which was active under a formidable but rather old-fashioned executive in Wellington.

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During this decade the return of Attendants at Public Worship continued to decline, but we were evidently cultivating the membership with success. Sunday School figures were stationary in 1930, representing about 90 of the census Methodist children, but they declined later. Bible Class returns reflected S.S. losses. The Maori returns were encouraging. Census Figures The 1931 census had been omitted as an economy measure, so the 1936 figures were all the more revealing. They showed that the total number of Methodists in the country had gone down by 200, and our proportion of the population had declined from 9 to just over 8. This was a shock for a people who had been accustomed to almost continuous growth for a century and a half. It was some consolation that we were certainly doing a better job with the membership, and the figures for communicants continued to rise. By 1939 Bible Class numbers were declining and church membership was static, but the number of communicants continued to grow. We had improved the ratio of ministers to home missionaries. There was a steady loss of Sunday School scholars. In a considered report at the end of the decade the Welfare of the Church Committee pleaded for a balance between religious experience and its expression in social service. Some people, they said, seemed to regard membership as an expression of piety, others as an avenue of service, with religious experience a long way behind. The two should be related. They noted that the Rev. D. O. Williams had established a psychological clinic in Dunedin to participate in the work of mental and spiritual healing. They warned against the inroads of the sects, and took steps to have pamphlets prepared to give positive teaching in areas of controversy. Lectionary It was a sign of concern for the ordered worship of the connexion when in '33 the committee prepared a lectionary for optional use. The majority of preachers opted out at the time, but over the years we have increasingly adapted ourselves to the Christian Year. Anniversaries have gone out of fashion. Men's Fellowship In 1933 the first report of the Fellowship appeared in the Minutes. It was started partly to provide a meeting place for the men of our congregations, but also in the hope of developing missionary support like that given by the M.W.M.U. For a time the Fellowships prospered where a vigorous executive could be assembled, but the coverage was never complete. The begetters of the scheme were Messrs H. Hislop in

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Christchurch and W. S. Mackay in Auckland. In 1935 the Conference decided that the second Sunday in April should be observed as 'Local Preachers' Sunday'. YOUTH DEPARTMENT In 1931 the Board was located permanently in Wellington, where the Taranaki Street Church provided office accommodation free of charge. The name of the Department was changed in '33, when a new constitution incorporated all the youth work of the church, at connexional, district or local level, into one system, with representation at all stages. The Bible Classes were very strong. In the thirties the movement favoured smaller Easter camps but of course more of them as part of the changed emphasis from the evangelistic to the educational. Another step forward associated especially with the name of W. E. Donnelly was the growth of Summer Schools and Winter Schools which did so much to lift the standard of leaders. Children at Church As part of the project of leading children to identify with the adult church great efforts were made to establish Young Worshippers' Leagues and similar organisations. The children came along, but dropped out in their early teens, and the next time we saw them was when they came to be married. There were long screeds about the problem in the Church paper but nobody suggested that the solution was first to catch your parent. The children might be used as a lever to this end. The writer testifies that the most fruitful evangelistic efforts of his ministry were the weary hours devoted to keeping in touch with the parents of Sunday School and Junior Bible Class members. If one could secure their interest one had the family. Morning Sunday School By the end of the decade morning schools were becoming common, and this proved to be the answer both to the future of the S.S. and the attendance of the children. District Youth Director Policy While they had coordinated their work, to date the Youth Director and the Bible Class Travelling Secretaries had served separate organisations, each on a Dominion basis. The Bible Classes were adequately covered, but much more oversight was needed among the Sunday Schools. The church was unable or unwilling to find the money to increase the number of visiting experts. In 1936 the Department brought a new suggestion to the Conference. The country was to be divided into five areas, each under an Area Council and each served by a Director. These might have their own specialty, but they would be responsible for the whole range of youth work in their district. This involved integrating the Bible Class Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 63

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Unions into the Department. After much discussion the proposal was accepted in a modified form which allowed for three directors only. It looked as if we were back to square one, but we were not. The Bible Class Unions had lost their autonomy. To some degree the whole question was involved with pacifism. By this time the connexion had become very sensitive to what it regarded as attempts to introduce pacifist teaching under an official umbrella. The Conference rejected a proposal to issue a pamphlet on peace education. In 1938 the modified policy was adopted, to come into action in 1939, when E. P. Blamires was due to retire. His place was taken by the Rev. Cliff Symons from South Australia. PUBLIC QUESTIONS The Pacifist Issue During the thirties the peace issue dominated the church's thinking on social issues. From 1935 it was on everybody's mind. This was the time of the 'diplomacy of guilt', the wretched hesitation and weakness that allowed Hitler to bring off gamble after gamble, and to build up his mana. As one servant of the League of Nations said in New Zealand at the time, "The great lesson of the League's history is that nations can only expect to get out of it by way of protection roughly what they are prepared to put into it for the protection of others." (J. V. Wilson in Methodist Times.) This was the period when responsible bodies all over the Empire were passing resolutions demanding both collective security and disarmament, in self-contradictory terms. Our Conference had been passing resolutions along these lines since before 1914. But a significant and growing body of opinion was now insisting that resort to war in any circumstances was wrong. Christians especially were urged to imitate Christ in refusing to resist evil. The whole subject was on our mind as Prohibition had been a generation earlier, and it was coming to dominate Bible Class thinking. But as the Fascist menace became obvious the majority in the Conference began to assert itself. From the time of the Italian invasion of Abyssinia the lines of battle were joined. We had some unhappy Conferences, when the debate threatened to disrupt the fellowship. The deadlock continued till the outbreak of war. The Depression One is rather surprised that the Conference could devote more debate to a matter largely beyond our control than it gave to the ever-present poverty and unemployment. It was a scandal that a country producing food, wool and timber in abundance should tolerate leaving a section of its citizens without adequate food, clothing or shelter. It seemed to make us numb. In retrospect one is amazed that there was not more rioting and general mayhem. The coincidence of a new Government having some Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 64

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 constructive ideas with an upturn in overseas prices led to a rapid recovery. It may be said that our Missions acted bravely and did wonders in organising assistance which most people were ready enough to tender their less fortunate neighbours. Bible in Schools It was in this decade that the country settled down to a general use of the facilities for voluntary Scripture teaching under the Nelson System. Many country ministers found that the system enabled them to make contact with the community through the schools. Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage In 1938 the Conference adopted a thoughtful report on these subjects. It gave a cautious consent to the remarriage of divorced people under certain circumstances, a lead appreciated by ministers, since they had long been without official guidance. Ministers and Civic Office The election of the Rev. E. T. Cox as Mayor of Dunedin during the Depression led the Conference to lay down conditions under which ministers might offer themselves to the electorate in this way. Minutes 1934 and 1936. Connexional Trusts With careful nursing the Probert Trust recovered sufficiently to pay just a little towards the College budget. But it was most unfortunate that we were forced to decline promising candidates for lack of the means to train them. It meant that we began the second world war already short of ministers. In 1935 the Supernumerary Fund Board was forced to make a cut in annuities. Some mortgages had fallen in, and compulsory reduction of interest rates hit the Board badly. By 1939 the effect of the new Social Security provisions on the operation of the Board was under discussion. There was a growing concern over the possible liability of Church Trustees in the case of injuries sustained by voluntary workers. In 1936 the Board reported that there was no liability where there was no contract, but that Trusts should be covered in the case of organists and caretakers. INSTITUTIONS Trinity College Dr. Laws retired in 1931. He was succeeded by Dr. Ranston, who reigned for ten years. His place as Resident Tutor was taken by the Rev. W. T. Blight, B.A., B.D. Dr. Laws was made the first Fellow of the College.

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I am sure the connexion has never realised the weight it placed upon the College staff at this stage, still less the burden on the Tutors' wives. The Tutors had a teaching programme covering an absurd range of subjects, in which they were expected to keep up to date. In addition the Principal was teaching Hebrew at the University College and carrying the burden of administration. Mr. and Mrs. Blight (the Tutor's wife was officially involved) were in charge of the day to day administration of the Hostel, without which we could not have carried on. In addition Mr Blight was responsible for the Collegiate Church and Sunday School. Only generous vacation periods made life possible at all, but both men broke down and had to be relieved, Mr Blight in 1939, Dr Ranston in 1941.

The College Chapel. The Holy Table, Communion Rail and sanctuary seats were made from timber sent as a gift from the Soloman Islands Church. The Collegiate Church still housed a number of loyal families, and the association of the students with the youth work and the standard of the morning services which they were required to attend did something for their education; but death and other removals so depleted the membership that by the time I joined the staff in 1939 the problem was not to revive the body but how decently to inter it. It must be said that the College has never turned out a more able or successful body of ministers than it did in the thirties. This was partly due to the teachers, and partly to the fact that we were able to accept less than half the number of candidates offering. Never before or since has the student body reached such a high average intelligence.

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Wesley College In 1936 the roll began to grow in response to the improvement in farm incomes, and by the end of the decade the sale of Three Kings sections and the Mt. Albert farm to the Housing Dept. freed the Trust from debt. Trinity College bought the old horse paddock at the centre of the Grafton block (now the site of the C.M.P. Hostel) on favourable terms. Thus the Trust emerged from a bad period shorn of the best part of its endowment. But the gift of the Mount Wellington property under the will of Mr. Maurice Harding, subject to certain life interests, eventually went a long way towards making up the losses elsewhere. Mr. Harding was a farmer from the Northern Wairoa who was a pioneer in Farmers' Union matters and interested in improved farming procedures. He expressed his interest by supporting Wesley College which at the time laid great stress on its farm school. MISSIONS Foreign Missions Mr. Goldie's Presidential year in New Zealand (1928) stimulated interest afresh, but the combination of low prices for copra abroad and depression at home was too much for us. By 1930 we were in bad trouble, and in 1932 after a severe crisis of conscience the Board reduced its budget. The Society was £20,000 in debt. In 1932 Mr. Sinclair retired. He was succeeded by A. H. Scrivin who had recently returned from Papua. He was a good example of the best we produced in the pre-1914 era. He was tough, stubborn, a bit old-fashioned and not ashamed of it, a good business man and as loyal as they are made. He was to serve 20 years in the office and on the road, making the acquaintance of every corner of the connexion. In his first year the Board recalled two missionaries and the second medical man (Dr. James). In 1934 Dr. Sayers was withdrawn. By 1935 the deficit was down to £11,000 and world conditions were improving. In 1936 the Board reported the first instalment of the German Fund for medical work. The total of this fund was eventually to reach over £15,000. Dr. Rutter was sent to the field in '38. In support of our missions the church showed itself at its best. All over the Dominion men and women were watching and working and giving under the constraint of a great commission. The Home Mission Department The work of the Department was desperately hard during the depression years. Mr Seamer's load would have broken a lesser man. In 1931 he was given G. I. Laurenson Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 67

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 as Asst. Superintendent. For a time Laurenson doubled with the parish ministry at St. John's Ponsonby, which enabled him to keep an eye on the office in Mr. Seamer's absence and to save one stipend. It was not difficult to recruit H.M's but the trouble was to pay them. But again as the decade wore on the position improved. The Maori Mission Conditions were at their worst in many of the settlements. A new feature was the employment of deaconesses to help the women and children. In 1931 the first trained Maori woman worker (Sister Atawhai Werakaka) was dedicated. The upgraded social security provisions were of immense help to the Maori people, ensuring a better diet and medical supervision. Mr. Seamer continued to keep in touch with the Ratana Movement, giving help and advice when asked and refusing to take up an attitude of rejection. The hospital at Te Kuiti was closed as no longer necessary, but the Kurahuna Girls' School was operating in Onehunga, under the M.W.M.U. CITY MISSIONS Auckland In 1930 E. T. Olds took over the Superintendency with a view to supporting the Strand Theatre services, but as a concession to the unemployed the City Council allowed other picture programmes which proved more popular than those larded with the Gospel. Olds was transferred to Napier to help pick up the pieces after the earthquake, and Sister Rita was added to the Mission staff. During this year Colin Scrimgeour was asked to undertake a daily devotional session on the 1ZB radio station. Here he found his metier, and at Conference of 1933 he resigned from the Mission. A young Dunedin Mission product, A. Everill Orr, a Probationer straight from college, was appointed to hold the fort. Orr proceeded to dig himself in and to fit the job so well that he spent the whole of his ministry in the one appointment. Orr was wise enough to start quietly and feel his way. He had good lay advisers and the necessary humility to listen to them. His first venture in the social service field was the children's Rest Home at Campbell's Bay. During 1937 some £3,000 was spent on the first part of a building scheme. This led to a Government grant and he was in business. The Campbell's Bay effort was really only a trial. Meanwhile the Mission had not forgotten its need for new accommodation. During 1938 it commissioned sketch plans for an auditorium seating 1,200 people but fortunately this project went no further. The British Central Halls, with a few exceptions, became difficult to fill at this date. Their policy now was to build halls to accommodate 800 and churches to seat not more than 350. Massed congregations would be rare in future. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 68

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Dunedin Central Mission Leslie Neale was appointed in 1931. Finding things rather depressed, he made an immediate impact, and was to spend the remaining 22 years of his ministry in the southern city. Like Walker he had been a chaplain, and he impressed by his manliness and directness. Unlike Walker he was a marked individualist. There was only one Leslie Neale. He infuriated his assistants and left his officials wondering where they were, but he accomplished wonders both in his own field and in the influence he had on Orr in Auckland. His heart was warm and his enthusiasm vast. To the Conference of '33 he reported the purchase of the old wooden building separating the Octagon Hall from Stuart Street, a key site. The debt was only £22,000. The following year he purchased 4i acres at Company Bay, and began a Children's Health Service. The next year again he reported a scheme for Eventide Homes, and acquired a share in the Radio Church of the Helping Hand. The last of the original debt on the Octagon Hall was now gone but the Mission had liabilities of £19,000 on fresh ventures, against assets valued at £30,000. At this stage Mr Neale was assisted by a Probationer and three deaconesses. He was of course drawing support from the city and province as well as from Government subsidies. It did not all come from the Methodists. In 1937 land was purchased and plans made for the Eventide Homes. He had at last found the major social problem of the affluent society, what to do with the old people. In eight years, said the report for 1940, the Mission gained assets worth £65,000 with the addition of only £16,000 to the mortgage. The genial but shrewd Superintendent had caught the imagination of the city. THE DEACONESS ORDER At this date there was little demand for deaconess service in European circuits, except at the centre of the cities. The Solomon Is. Mission now required teachers and nurses with professional qualifications which counted for Government subsidies. But numbers of young women, both Maori and Pakeha were required for the Maori Mission. One has the impression that the Order was unsure of its role for coming days. To serve contemporary European needs the young women needed better qualifications and training, which suggested better remuneration. But the Maori Mission could not afford this. In '35 Miss Elsie Sewell, recently a most successful Bible Class Travelling Secretary, was put in charge of Deaconess House. At this stage there were students but no openings for them. Accordingly the Conference appointed a Commission to consider the place of women in Christian service. The Commission presented a statesmanlike

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 report recommending the conversion of Deaconess House into a School for Christian Workers, which might prepare H.M's as well as Deaconesses and offer shorttime courses for laymen and women. As this required expenditure it was planned to allocate $6,000 from the Centenary Fund to be raised in 1940. But the war intervened and the scheme was never revived. This was a pity. It was a timely scheme. Such a school might well have been situated in Christchurch which has so much to offer. It would have been good for the city and good for the church. We may blame Hitler but the major fault was in ourselves. List of Lady Superintendents 1920-1940 Mrs. Bowie Sister Ruth Fawcett Mrs W. J. Williams Mrs A. Armitage (Supply) Miss Elsie Sewell Miss D. Fairweather Mrs. Bramwell Scott Mrs. L. Neale. CHILDREN'S HOMES By the mid-thirties the South Island Home was housing 80 children in a fine new building at Papanui The Auckland buildings, especially the Wesley Home, were old, and a considerable fire risk worried the Board members. A site was purchased at Mt. Roskill upon which to centralise under the best conditions, but the war intervened.

METHODIST TIMES AND LITERATURE New Hymn Book In 1935 the Hymn Book published in England to mark the consummation of Methodist Union in Britain was produced in the Australasian edition. It was given a ready welcome. The inclusion of a number of Sankey type hymns was perhaps a mistake, since they were in an idiom already out of date for that kind of song; but the book as a whole was much more robust and objective than the 1904 effort. A New Editor In 1934 Dr. Laws took over the paper. It was a little more proper and certainly more literary in tone than in Mr. Paris's time, and the circulation went up for a year or so, but it was difficult to hold at a satisfactory level. The paper needed another thousand subscribers to break even. In fact we did well to hold it through the depression. But in 1937 Laws was obliged to resign suddenly for health reasons and the Rev. H. Bellhouse succeeded. He did a workmanlike job for several years, to the general

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 satisfaction of our people, at a time when the church was fighting over the pacifist issue and tempers were often frayed. The Second World War So we arrived at September 1939, and found ourselves at war for a second time in one generation.

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VI War and Rehabilitation Once More 1939 -1950 "Never are we allowed to choose between good and bad, only between better and worse." Newspaper comment. It is not difficult to recall the mood of sick apprehension with which we entered the second world war. I clearly remember wondering what on earth to preach about on the first Sunday morning after a state of war was declared. In a very troubled spirit I settled on the words 'thy son' and 'thy brother', in the dialogue between father and elder brother in Luke 15 vss. 30 and 32; and the burden of the address was that we cannot have God for our Father unless we are willing to have all his children for our brothers. In some way we had to cling to that basic truth through all the hard times that lay ahead. Many preachers must have been in trouble that morning. What could we say in the name of the Gospel? We had outgrown all the jingoistic clap-trap of 1914. But while it was bad enough, the second war was not a repetition of the first. The Kaiser's war was a power struggle under a lot of camouflage. Hitler's war was a struggle for the survival of democracy, which was threatened by thugs. In consequence it left less trauma in the minds of those who fought. Today the nations shelter under the monstrous shadow of a mushroom cloud. "Peace has become the sturdy child of terror" said Churchill. Hardly a position to rest in, though it is better than nothing. The great powers carry on their bickering behind the facade presented by Cuba or Korea, behind Viet Nam or the Arab-Israel conflict. While they sit on their stock-piled weapons they are careful not to allow local squabbles to get out of hand. If they had shown as much circumspection in 1914 the world would have been saved a lot of tribulation. In the nineteen thirties we were told that another world war would mean the end of civilisation. We would be the victims of poison gas and germ warfare and other unpleasant things. The prophets were wrong as it turned out. (Have you noticed that most prophets are wrong?) The race possesses an uncanny sense of self-preservation. But for the first time in history the common man is aware that the end of war has become a sheer necessity. Our hope must lie in a supranational authority with some teeth, loyally supported by the mass of mankind. Methodists and War Few of our people have ever belonged to the 'death or glory' brigade. That was a luxury we could not afford. There were many soldiers among Wesley's people, but the Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 72

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 records indicate that they joined the army either because they could not get a crust any other way, or because they were working a rebellious streak out of their system. (In the days of Wellington and Waterloo a family connection of my own got drunk and woke up to find that he had taken the King's shilling. There must have been plenty like him). They got religion afterwards when they had discovered their folly. The Generation Gap Angus McBean, the President of the Conference in 1939, remarked that nearly all the pacifists were under thirty-five. There was a group of older men who gave strong leadership, but most of their converts were among the younger ministry and the Bible Class people from whom they were recruited. For these the war raised acute personal problems. As one such said to Mr McBean, "I am going to the war. I think it is my duty. But I cannot go as a Christian." Young men solved their problem in various ways. Some swallowed their scruples and took up arms, especially when the war took a very ominous turn. Others accepted non-combatant service. Others again were persuaded to do alternative service in New Zealand. Yet again there were those from every denomination or none who spent the war in goal or in detention camp. Though the proportion of these was small it was large enough to be significant. It all seems rather unreal today, but at the time it presented an agonising choice. Propaganda Pacifism is protest. Nobody imagines the pacifists running the country. But by carrying their protests to the point of hardship they demonstrate their sincerity and force the issue upon the public mind. It is a legitimate method of forcing people to think again. But in a time of dire national peril pacifists are seen by others as a dangerous nuisance and they are liable to be hurt. In 1939 most of our dissidents were careful to avoid offence, but there were exceptions, and it did seem that the Methodists received more than their share of publicity, so that we were becoming identified in the public mind with the pacifist cause. This infuriated the majority, who felt that they were being misrepresented by a handful of noisy propagandists. The Manifesto on Peace and War During the first few months of the war tension was so high that the Conference of 1940 thought it wise to set up a very strong and representative committee which drew up a manifesto which was accepted unanimously by the Conference. After traversing the matters at issue and declaring its support for freedom of conscience, the Manifesto went on to declare that our pulpits and organisations should not be used as recruiting agencies, nor for propaganda encouraging our young men to refuse war service. (Minutes 1940 p.85.)

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The overwhelming majority was relieved to keep to the terms of the Manifesto, but there were a few incidents, so the Conference of the following year thought it necessary to reaffirm the statement. A Presidential Ruling to the effect that the Manifesto was a part of the Discipline of the Church which required obedience was questioned in one way or another at succeeding Conferences, and led directly to the challenge by the Rev. 0. E. Burton, who argued that the resolution was ultra vires, and that the Conference had no right to dismiss a minister except for heresy or for gross immorality. Thus challenged the President had no option but to dismiss him. Ormond Burton I have always felt that neither Mr. Walker, the President who had to deal with the crisis, nor Mr. Burton quite understood the other, in spite of interviews and correspondence. Walker was steeped in Methodist tradition, which stresses the 'connexion'. We guarantee our ministers employment by the Conference, which for that reason must ensure that they are employable. But Mr. Burton, though of Methodist extraction, had spent most of his formative years in Presbyterian circles, and his point was valid there. The Church in Scotland like the Church in England preserved the parson's freehold, which defended the incumbent from the tyranny of the lord of the manor. This went back to medieval times. The Methodist position was a consequence of the itinerancy, and might be held to illustrate some of the points made in Chapter III. I wrote to Mr. Burton to get his comment on the issue, but he was on his death-bed as I wrote. Mr. Walker was technically right, and acted properly; but Mr. Burton made his point. He left an irritant in our conscience. Ormond Burton was a gallant soul, widely respected for his personal qualities and his record in World War I. If anybody has a right to be a pacifist it is the returned soldier. Between his trips to gaol his pastoral responsibilities at Webb Street were carried out with full acceptance. But in war the non-cooperator is as awkward as a sore thumb. It is sometimes said that persecution is good for the church. A little might be, but if long continued and relentless it either destroys the church or perverts it. Many of the early Christian Martyrs were psychopaths, not saints. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church" said Tertullian. He was a brilliant phrase-maker but he was also a crank and a heretic. Coronation Street fans will remember Minnie Caldwell's zaney comment on Ena Sharpies who was having a row with the Council about her flat. "I think she would rather be persecuted. It's more religious." The Riverside Community Before leaving those unhappy days we must mention a forward-looking and constructive experiment which emerged and which deserves to be better known. The Riverside Community began in 1941 when Hubert and Marion Holdaway gave their orchard and home in Lower Moutere, Nelson as nucleus of a 'Christian community

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 centred on the worship of God, economic equality and the service of others.' The Community was reformed in 1946 when all its assets were brought under a Trust incorporated under the Religious Charitable and Educational Trusts Act. "It is best described as an attempt by Christian pacifists to build a better, more Christian, brotherly, nonviolent world in however embryonic a form. They repudiate not only war but private ownership and private profit which they regard as important ingredients of a war-making world. They practice limitation and equality of income, equal responsibility, and aim at caring and sharing. No individual may gain or accumulate wealth or property in Riverside." (Notes supplied by Mr. A. C. Barrington, Vice-Pres. of Conference 1974.) The community was interdenominational in intention, but the originators were all Methodists and a church, hall etc. incorporated in the village are under a Methodist Trust, but available for joint use by the Churches and as a contribution to the amenities of the neighbourhood. Unlike most communes each family is housed and domestically independent, but communal meals are held twice a week and on special occasions. Recently a hostel was built for the use of schools and retreats.

The Riverside Community Lunch Together The population of the community usually numbers between 60 and 70 men women and children, about half of whom will be adult members or probationary members. There are two second generation members and four others living and working in the Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 75

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 community. It also gives hospitality to sick and problem people who may drift in or be sent by friends, clergy, chaplains or others. For a time the community was poor and the families had to struggle, but now from 24 acres the property has grown to 541 acres, with extensive orchards, dairy farm, buildings, machinery, engineering workshop, factory etc worth in the neighbourhood of half a million dollars. After quite modest living allowances, the surplus is given away. It may not be your 'thing' at all; but most people will agree that as an attempt to live out a Christian ideal it has earned a deep respect from every serious-minded person. It was flourishing long before the O.H.U. or New Zealand style kibbutz was thought of. Its success is no doubt due to very strong and very able leadership and one must add, to the care taken to preserve the family unit.

CHURCH LIFE IN TIME OF WAR In spite of the crisis of conscience which led to the withdrawal of good people on both sides of the controversy, the connexion maintained itself with vigour and self- confidence. Our proportion of the population by census remained constant between 1935 and 1951, although we were slowly losing ground in domestic returns. We continued to close small churches, more slowly perhaps than was wise. Improved communications had made most of them redundant, and it became clear that only the stronger congregations could provide adequately for the young. With teenagers nothing succeeds like success. A further consequence was that we needed fewer lay preachers, and their numbers declined. Sunday School returns were discouraging, but this was due partly to a falling birth rate. A drop in Bible Class figures was disastrous, since they represented the group from which we directly recruited the adult church. We lost nearly 30 between 1939 and 1945. Staff Troubles Declining Sunday School and Bible Class figures were largely due to lack of leadership. The war soon took its toll of the energetic youth of the church. In one respect we were wiser than in 1914. While a few young ministers felt it their duty to join the ranks, for the most part they channelled their enthusiasm into chaplaincy service. For units overseas, those in training and for Home Defence we provided about fifteen men at a time. In return we were allowed to hold our young ministers. But of course the supply of candidates for the ministry and of suitable Home Missionaries dropped away swiftly. Instead of selecting the strongest men offering, we were almost reduced to the halt, the lame and the blind. We accepted a one-eyed candidate who proved a very efficient minister, and a man with flat feet who was nimble enough to scale the roof of the Collegiate Church in the moonlight and affix an Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 76

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 effigy of a nurse to the pinnacle of the temple. That of course was when the nurses took over the main building. Our war-time trainees did very well. Miraculously it seemed we kept the institution in being, though in 1941 it seemed as if we must close at the end of the session. Dr. Ranston retired for health reasons at the beginning of 1941. He continued to help with teaching, while the Tutor was made Acting Principal. Later in the same year the Auckland Hospital Board took over the main buildings for additional nurses' accommodation, leaving us the two staff houses, the Collegiate Church and Sunday School and the library. The Hostel was emptied and between the staff houses and the auxiliary rooms at the church we managed to keep the institution in being. The students were most helpful in the crisis. I wonder how many remember digging slit trenches below Richmond House and down by the mulberry tree and the tennis courts? James Tyler, city engineer and prominent in civil defence, assured me that the College, being in line between the Naval Base and the Colonial Ammunition Factory, was a possible target for bombers, and he directed me to evacuate the most precious of our historical records and provide trenches for safety. Frank Sutherland offered a few precious feet of storage in the Auckland Savings Bank vault, and the most valuable books went to the Cambridge parsonage. Though we thought it a bit far-fetched at the time, a Japanese reconnaissance plane did fly over Auckland. Closing the Hostel was a blessing in disguise. The rent received enabled the Council to pay off the debt incurred in purchasing the site, to buy additional land for recreational purposes, and to build up a reserve towards much needed repairs to the main building. Hostel Old Boys A year or so later it was possible to compile a list of the men who had been in residence since the opening of the hostel, with their addresses. We traced all but two or three, and circulated the list in a special issue of the College Magazine. Some of the letters returned were among the most significant in my ministry. One fairly tough Air Force character wrote that the College stood to him for sanity in a mad world. By eliminating unnecessary examinations and shortening the college year, and by making students available for Sunday duty far and wide we managed to convince the connexion that it was better to keep the doors open. This enabled us to expand the I moment the war ended, when we took in some men almost before they were out of khaki.

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The New Principal There was a feeling abroad that an effort should be made to import a man of some standing to take over after the war. The Council put out feelers in England, in Canada and the U.S.A. and in Australia. The Americans thought our stipends derisory, and said so. The Australians wanted all their bright young men. True to form, the British named a man whom they would not on any account have employed themselves, but who, they thought, might do for the colonies. We soon realised that we were unable to compete. The best we could do was to encourage the ablest of our own men to go overseas for further training. This policy has justified itself. In 1945 the Acting Principal was confirmed in his position. Shortage of Agents Inevitably by the middle of the war we were in difficulties over supply. Some smaller circuits and H.M. Stations were vacant. Almost every issue of the Times carried an appeal for Lay Preachers to volunteer for the duration. An expedient that served us well was the appointment of suitable young men to student pastorates in and around Auckland city, where they might pursue a modified course. The Missionary Situation For the first year or so of the war the Solomon Islands Mission was busy coping with shortages and hindrances, and on the home front the officials were putting our finances in order. Money was plentiful in New Zealand but supplies were difficult to obtain. Dr. Rutter reopened the medical work. The entry of Japan into the war and her rapid move into East Asia and then into Indonesia brought our mission into the firing line. Most of the European agents were evacuated, but Don Alley was determined to see it out in Teop, and fell into enemy hands. He subsequently lost his life when the Japanese ship carrying prisoners of war was sunk by a submarine. We honour him along with John Whiteley. They are our missionary martyrs. Sister Merle Farland, A. W. E. Silvester and J. R. Metcalfe were left in the islands in a most precarious position. We were very proud of the Solomon Islanders who hid our people and also the European coast watchers. They saved Guadalcanal and shortened the war in the South Pacific.

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND Welfare of the Church Committee The committee was putting the emphasis on more enlightened pastoral oversight and more theological teaching from the pulpit. Nearly a generation had passed since union, Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 78

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 and the years had shown up the ephemeral nature of much past evangelistic work. The times called for a proper nurture of young Christians and a reappraisal of priorities. The committee was also concerned that the churches' public image as presented on the radio was very inadequate, and suggested that as a denomination we might save on departmental expenditure and spend more on the new media. The Conference did not agree. In 1945 there was a movement for closer relations with Australia, which lingered for years but never really got off the ground. The Committee also got round to suggesting that dancing might be included in social programmes on church premises, providing local courts approved. Decision was deferred, but the young folk had already made their decision and there was no stopping them. Both the Local Preachers' Assn and the Men's Fellowship were active, the latter concerning itself with special needs for equipment in the Solomons. Circuit Developments Little could be done during the war since the ministerial supply was so restricted, though there was movement on the outskirts of the cities and towns where we could have used numbers of probationers had they been available. We were developing inner belt congregations which presented problems. St John's in Ponsonby and Sydenham in Christchurch were examples. There was a proposal to appoint Separated Chairmen to lead the connexion in forward moves, but of course we had neither the men nor the money for experiments like that. Home Missions Mr. Laurenson took over the Department at a most difficult moment. With 47 peacetime H.M. appointments to fill, and a constant drain upon the abler agents for circuit supply, the officers were frustrated on every hand. The leaders which now included Rev. H. J. Odell as Assistant Superintendent aimed at stimulating evangelistic effort wherever possible, and sustaining the faith of supporters in more isolated places. The Department took the initiative in asking for Student Pastorates for Home Missionaries who were candidates for the ministry. Instead of capitalising all legacy money, unless otherwise specified one half was devoted to special current objects. The Fund shared in Mr. German's generosity. The Department was closely involved in the Campaign for Christian Order initiated by the National Council of Churches. Efforts were made to secure cooperation with sister churches in manning country places, but without much success. Shortages of benzine and tyres were hindering country ministries. The Maori Mission

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It was a disappointment that Maharaia Winiata did not proceed to the ministry after a successful theological course, but he may have served his people better by taking on a wider role. He worked as probationer, as a teacher and as a Maori H.M. in this country, and took his Doctorate in Edinburgh. His early death was a sad loss. The Mission organised strong opposition to the introduction of liquor outlets in the King Country. The pakeha can hardly be proud of the way he lured the Maori into the bar in order to make money out of him, and then abused him because he got drunk. Maori membership which had been largely taken for granted as a community affair was now a concern of the workers. It continued to grow. Additional Maori Home Missionaries were appointed. We tried to increase cooperation between Maori and European congregations, but had little success. Reciprocal membership was arranged with the Presbyterian Maori Mission. This was desirable since the Maori people were moving about more in search of employment. The Rangiatea Maori College Trust Board was set up ready for action after the war. The Department officers prepared the first of a series of forecasts of future staff needs, which indicated that we should have to double the number of ordinands as soon as suitable candidates could be found. M.W.M.U. The missionary women were doing very well indeed. They had a membership of over 4,000 in upwards of eighty branches. At a time when prayer meetings were becoming rare in the congregation, the women were sustaining a steady prayer life. THE YOUTH DEPARTMENT The Department was busy working out the new "Decentralisation" policy, with a view to integrating all activities from Cradle Roll to Senior Bible Classes. They began experimenting with mixed camps for older members. Owing to the new arrangement the Young Men gave up direct responsibility for a minister in the Islands, though the Young Women continued to keep two teachers in the Solomons and a Deaconess with the Maori. The Bible Classes made great efforts to keep in touch with members in the Forces. A committee was set up to consider the perennial question of baptism and its relation to church membership and the most appropriate way of grading membership, a subject that seemed on our mind at that date. It was a phase of the 'escalator' period and what Maltby described as the 'gradual' Christian. A Very Expensive Mistake With the new decade the Department brought out its proposals for the Christian Youth Movement (Methodist) and had its new constitution approved. From the administrative angle the scheme had much to commend it. It was designed to provide closer oversight to our Sunday Schools which were the weak link in the chain. But it Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 80

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 deprived the Bible Class Unions of their autonomy and their responsibility. The war helped to cover up the mistake until it was too late. There was no upsurge of young life in the late forties comparable to that we had experienced in the early twenties. It was no longer their business to act, youth for youth. The C.Y.M.M. was anaemic beside the B.C. Unions. The bureaucrats had smothered democracy. Both the Young Women and the Young Men showed that leadership declined as responsibility declined. C. T. Symons who succeeded Blamires was competent and well-liked and commended himself to the connexion, but not having our Bible Class background he was in no position to comment. Our schools certainly became more efficient. It was about this time that the movement to acquire permanent camp sites got under way. In 1944 another attempt to gain five Directors in place of three was made, but Conference refused to find the money. Some very successful youth conferences followed the war. P. R. Paris died in 1943. He had a special place in the affection of our young men and women. The Order of St. Stephen It was in 1950 that this order was established. It was designed to challenge those who were able to give a year of voluntary service in some form without salary, it might be offering some technical skill overseas, or serving in an orphanage or teaching. In 1951 Miss Thea Jones was admitted as the foundation member. Others followed. PUBLIC QUESTIONS It was now too late to argue in public about the ethics of war. The Committee discussed Bible in Schools work, and especially the shortage of competent teachers, which opened the door to a large theologically conservative element, thus endangering the whole scheme. There was some stress on the reformatory aspect of prison life, and a demand for a large increase in the birth rate, no less. We do muddle along, don't we? So confident that we know what is best, so often in error. Inter-Church Council on Public Affairs It was a notable step forward when the Council was formed, not least because it included the Roman Catholics. During 1945 united demands were made for generous rehabilitation grants, to include theological students. About the time the war ended the churches persuaded the Government to allow appeals in the case of conscientious objectors. They also declared themselves apprehensive about the atom bomb. CITY MISSIONS It was during the war years that the Auckland Mission was able to begin its work for housing elderly women, consequent upon the gift of his Mt. Albert property by Mr.

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William Astley. This was a modest beginning to what has since developed into a village. By the end of the decade with the aid of Government subsidies major extensions had been completed, and a property in Mt. Eden Road purchased for a hospital site. In Dunedin by a series of bold moves and with a large measure of public support Mr Neale had acquired £150,000 worth of property, the town centre being free of debt. The health camp had been adapted to serve elderly patients and largely extended. Dunedin Methodism has had its difficulties, but the Mission had become a part of the city. The Deaconess Order Deaconesses were still in demand, but the supply of trainees was drying up. Two students offered in 1940, none in '41. The project for establishing a School for Christian Workers was deferred. In 1942 Sister Ruth Fawcett was put in charge, and two students offered, and two more in '43. These were mainly offering for Maori service. In 1945 the number dropped once more, but rose in 1946. The Hostel continued to give useful service, but the connexion was beginning to question the wisdom of maintaining so small an institution. Wesley College Paerata Released from debt by the sale of much of its suburban land, the College looked forward to better days, but the war intervened. The school was requisitioned by the military in 1941, briefly released, then occupied again. The main school had to be closed. In the meantime the junior school was transferred to Mt. Wellington, with a view to preserving some continuity and assisting rehabilitation in better times. When conditions improved in the Pacific the College was reopened with Mr. E. M. Marshall as Principal. Mr. Clarke chose to stay at Mt. Wellington and to manage the farm from there. Church Property Considerable activity was reported in 1940, a reflection no doubt of improved financial conditions in the country at large. The biggest single effort was the erection of the Bi-Centenary Hall in Pitt St. Auckland. A number of smaller churches and schoolrooms were put up, and the process of replacing inadequate parsonages went on. But as the war continued only the most modest schemes were possible. We sold out in Birkdale, Auckland, a sad mistake. Webb St. Wellington, the old Primitive Methodist headquarters, was disposed of in 1945.

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CONNEXIONAL TRUSTS Probert Trust When the theological college was requisitioned the rent enabled the Council to relieve the Probert Trust, which used the breathing space to effect repairs and put its house in order. During 1944 we reduced the mortgage by £800 after giving £300 to the College. The worst was over. Prince Albert College Trust As the head lease was due to fall in twelve years later and the property was crying out for redevelopment the Trust was given authority to negotiate for the acquisition of the lease. Grants to Trinity and to Wesley ceased. Thomas Eve Ashburton Trust. (Fiebig op.cit.) This trust was set up to handle a bequest, the income to be used for the extension of Methodist work in the Ashburton County. The Conference of 1944 also recorded the establishment of the Robert Gilmour Trust (Fiebig op.cit.) for the benefit of orphan boys in Taranaki. The following year the Conference recommended that the trustees of the North Island Rest House and the Martin Brothers Memorial Rest Home should seek a way of mutually fulfilling the terms of their trust. (They were later given permission to sell the properties and devote the proceeds to the Astley House complex. Inflation tended to make nonsense of small endowments.) The Fire Insurance Fund was now well established and able to make considerable grants to connexional objects. Supernumerary Fund The position of the Fund in relation to the Social Security benefits was not clear at first. Some ministers wanted to abolish our Fund and rely solely upon the State. Meantime the actuarial report showed a deficiency, and benefits were reduced again in 1940, although the amount was already quite unworthy. Interest rates had been low for a decade. Ultimately in conjunction with other churches a system of computation was worked out which enabled beneficiaries to draw a lump sum towards the purchase of a home in lieu of the bulk of the annuity. Winstone Trust In 1943 the General Purposes Trust Board reported the gift of a Trust to be administered by the Board, set up by the children of the late George and Mary Winstone. The object was to benefit the Ministers, Probationers and Home Missionaries of the connexion whose stipends fell below the standard minimum set by the Conference. Over the years this Trust has proved a blessing to many homes.

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Children's Homes Little development was possible during the war years. Masterton and Christchurch were well housed in modern conditions, but the Auckland Homes were scattered and Wesley House especially was a bad fire risk. The Board was ready to build on its Mt. Roskill property, but could not obtain permission. Methodist Times and Literature The church paper was edited throughout the war by the Rev. G. T. Bellhouse. It aroused criticism among the pacifist brethren some of whom bombarded the editor with letters and complained when he rationed contributors to one letter per issue from either side of the controversy. Most readers were heartily sick of the subject and only wanted to get on with the business. Nobody was converted. The paper was stodgy by the standards of the 1970's, certainly. The format had not changed since 1910. On the front page were Notes and Comments by the editor, who also wrote perhaps half the leaders. The remainder were addresses culled from exchanges, or articles contributed by ministers on request. There was a couple of columns of Personal Notes generally relating to overseas notables; a page each contributed by the Home Missions, Foreign Missions, Youth Dept. and L.Y.M.S. respectively; a Question and Answer column for which C. B. Jordan was responsible and the Home Circle by Rita Snowden. (This last is the only part of the paper still worth reading for its own sake.) Then there was Correspondence and fairly frequent reports from the M.W.M.U., the Men's Fellowship and the Lay Preachers. But it gave the news of the connexion. Mr Bellhouse was not as scholarly as Dr. Laws, perhaps, or as bright as Percy Paris, but he succeeded where they had failed in pushing up the circulation. It went up by 37% during his years in the chair. He was solid and dependable and tried to keep the middle of the road and generally spoke for the people. He served us well. But a section of the younger laity were becoming restless. The format was out of date. One could hardly imagine a teenager picking it up for entertainment. In 1946 the suggestion for an Editor-Manager policy emerged in the Board of Publications. Centenary Thanksgiving Fund Appeal It might have been expected that the war would have ruined the appeal, but it went very well. It may have been that the organisation was in the hands of younger men, or that money was easier to come by than it had been in 1922; but certainly the cash came in better, and ultimately the affair was an outstanding success. This was largely due to A. J. Johnston and George Goodman. The object of the Fund was to provide small sums for the Otakou Memorial Church, the Deaconess Retiring Fund and the capital fund of the Deaconess Institution, plus Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 84

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£20,000 for the Taranaki Maori Girls' School and £25,000 for the General Fund, to be used for the reduction of the Foreign Mission Board debt and the reduction of local trust debts. Donors were allowed to allocate up to 50 of their gifts to local or other necessitous Trusts. The Appeal went so well that a year later the objective was raised to £120,000 and it was kept open till March 1943. The total finally reached £93,000. Circuit Transport On the initiative of the Mahurangi circuit, in 1940 a Conference Committee began to consider the matter of car allowances. It set out a scale of running costs. The matter rested there till after the war. Ecumenical The Conference of 1940 took the initiative in suggesting that Presbyterians and Congregationalists be invited to discussions with a view to initiating a move towards union. After several joint meetings a proposed basis was outlined and sent down to Synods and Quarterly Meetings in 1941. The issues to be voted on were 1. Approval of the scheme. 2. Approval with amendments. 3. Rejection. We had been talking about union for forty years, but confronted with a scheme we didn't like it. About 10 voted for the scheme. The rest were equally divided between those who approved with amendments and those who rejected it outright. An amended basis was sent to the Synods in 1945. They returned a goodly number of criticisms, which showed that our people were not yet ready to accept any scheme that would satisfy the Presbyterians. The committee remained in being and the matter was not allowed to die. Campaign For Christian Order Probably of greater significance in the long run was the Campaign for Christian Order promoted by the National Council of Churches in 1941. This was designed to awaken the church people of New Zealand to their responsibility at large. The early part of 1942 was devoted to preparation of clergy and people, and the campaign was taken to the public in the spring. The appeal varied in its effects from area to area, but as a united effort it aroused public interest and was of lasting significance in that it marked the first time anything of the sort had been carried through by the Anglican Church in collaboration with the non-episcopal churches. We had moved a long way since Lambeth 1920. The thaw had set in. The Campaign owed a great deal to Archbishop West Watson.

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Publications Committee This body which later developed into the Board of Publications was set up in 1940 with the object of encouraging and coordinating the issue of booklets and publicity material. It was responsible for issuing Symons' membership preparation manual, Our Fathers' Faith and Ours, which was reprinted and served us admirably for ten or fifteen years. Statement of Faith The Statement took three years to prepare, and was well received. It was issued in pamphlet form in 1939, and went through several printings. The committee was required to arrange for its exposition to the church, and secured the cooperation of the Times and several contributors to that end. Radio Committee The Wellington committee kept in touch with the Broadcasting authorities and gave the connexion advice on how best to use its privileges, but it never had the money or the facilities to do anything creative. Wesley Historical Society It was during the war (1942) when several issues of the British Proceedings went to the bottom of the sea, that our N.Z. Society decided to issue its own publications. Baptism and Church Membership The question of grades of church membership had been under discussion for years. It was basically heretical. If we had talked about spheres of pastoral oversight well and good. Finally, we dropped the Infant and Junior grades, and decided that each congregation should maintain Baptismal Roll, Cradle Roll, Sunday School Roll and Bible Class Roll, all young people so listed being regarded as 'under the care of the Church'. Ladies' Guild Fellowship For many years the women of the connexion had borne much of the burden of money- raising, and taken special responsibility for parsonage furnishings. The Guilds were now encouraged to become affiliated and have representation at Synod. As a result the Fellowship produced a scheme whereby the more portable items of parsonage furniture became the personal property of the ministerial family. It was Mrs W. T. Blight who carried this through the Conference. District Executives These had been optional since 1920, but were operating in only three Districts. The Conference now required their appointment and set out their duties in detail. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 86

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Peace at Last The church was showing commendable energy and enterprise, but was of course hampered by war conditions. The Conference of 1944 was reduced to an emergency committee to transact essential business. The Germans surrendered unconditionally on May 7th 1945, and the Japanese war ended on August 14th of the same year. This meant that the bulk of our soldiers were demobilised by 1946. AFTER THE WAR One afternoon in Queen Street Auckland I saw a crowd round the Herald notice board. I went across to pick up the news, and learned that an atom bomb had been exploded over a town in Japan. Turning up Wyndham Street, I met a former hostel student in uniform. "Man", I said, "go and look at the Herald notice board. You will be out of uniform in no time." He scuttled off down the road, and I went up to the Farmers' store. How little we understood. We were standing in the need of prayer. Shortages As everybody over forty will remember, this was the era of rationing and fixed prices. During the war petrol was rationed, and bread and tea and sugar and butter and clothing. There was no hardship in New Zealand, which was really prosperous, but after the war the restrictions were much more annoying. People were expected to pass a few hundreds privately beyond the stated price to secure a house, and a new car was almost unobtainable by the common man. Much of the public dislike of controls goes back to this era, when the normally honest New Zealander revealed himself as a bit of a spiv on occasion. Staff Resources Taught by experience we handled our ministerial manpower problem better than in 1919, and with the end in sight we took immediate steps. The Conference rather unwillingly agreed to some temporary modifications of the regulations whereby the Board of Studies was allowed to cut a few corners and to facilitate the speedy reception and training of suitable candidates as they were demobilised. Some were nominated by padres in Italy, bypassing the Quarterly Meeting. The Government was persuaded to extend rehabilitation grants to theological students, which was an immense help to young married men. Another expedient was to appoint suitable married men to student pastorates around Auckland city, where they could pursue a modified course. The result was that we numbered 8 students in 1944 11 in 1945, 15 in '46 and 19 in '47.

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The Hospital Board tenancy ended in March 1946, and Dr. D. O. Williams joined the staff in March 1947, bringing with him great teaching gifts and an important new emphasis in training for the pastorate. It must be said that the response of the young men at this stage was both intelligent and whole-hearted. In 1948 Dr. Ranston finally retired from regular duty as visiting lecturer, and the Rev. J. J. Lewis took his place. At first he visited twice weekly to assist with Biblical languages. Changes in Training Outlook In two respects we had escaped the rigid pattern of 1919. First, the old theory was that men did not study after they were married. Presumably they were so busy washing up or rocking the baby that they could not keep their minds on their books. This proved to be plain nonsense as soon as it was tested. For one hundred years the Conference had been shutting the door on married students as candidates for college. The real reason was economic, not academic, and when the economic hurdle was cleared the rest was plain. The second change was related to the first. We discovered that as a pioneering agent the cheap single minister was not as efficient as our fathers imagined. In a situation of challenge it paid to take the plunge and employ a married man as soon as a house could be found. People rallied around the parsonage, whereas they would not take the curate seriously. An Historical Anomaly Originally aspirants to the Methodist ministry were placed on Probation, a sort of curacy, during which they were required to pass a reading course. When the Theological Institution was first proposed in Britain a suspicious Conference was persuaded to accept it when it was pointed out that the College would provide a convenient pool from which to supply vacancies during the year. At first a full year in college counted for a year off probation, but when this merciful provision was lost the connexion settled down for a hundred years or so requiring a seven year period of celebacy of its young servants. It was inhuman, and it took two world wars to break it. The attitude of the old boys seemed to be, "We had to do it, and we don't see why they shouldn't". A Curious Story This may be the appropriate place to introduce an odd story. In the autumn of 1917 while waiting to go into khaki I spent a few days with relatives at Russell, Bay of Islands. While I was there T. G. Hammond, the veteran Missionary to the Maori people, came as missionary deputation, and after the evening meeting I was introduced to him as a prospective candidate for the ministry. He suggested that we

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 stroll together along the waterfront, so in the dark we paced silently from one end of the beach to the other. He then turned to me, placed his hands on my shoulders, and said very solemnly, "Young man, young man, don't fall in love." I repressed my giggles and we paced back as solemnly and as silently as we had come. These eight words are the only conversation I ever had with T. G. Hammond. I wasn't in love with anybody but myself at the time, but have since wondered what personal stress lay behind the old man's advice to a budding parson. The Deaconess Order We were less successful with the Deaconesses. There was an improvement inmmediately after the war, but by 1950 we were in difficulties. At the time the church was employing 8 deaconesses in European work, 17 among the Maori people and 13 overseas. The church did something to improve conditions of service and tenure of employment. But with the passage of time and growing affluence in the community the Order was ceasing to attract many young women of a type to exercise leadership in the pakeha church, whereas the demand was growing for women to enter the ministry of word and sacrament. The Maori Mission could still use as many women as the budget allowed. We were caught in a changing situation and were not at all clear where we were going. After spending more than half my working life on the College staff I am convinced that we should have been more imaginative and experimental in our approach to ministerial and deaconess training. We were obsessed with the pattern evolved overseas in a different age. But being understaffed we could do little but push men through a standard course which was not challenging enough for the bright ones but too academic for others. We should have been engaged in opening doors which the men could enter for themselves to suit their individual gifts. The Examination Committee of Conference did not allow nearly enough autonomy to the Board of Studies. Compulsory Greek was a waste of time. As someone said recently, "The church is dominated by people who have been warped by a literary education!" Statistics The census figures showed the proportion of Methodists as virtually stationary between 1936 and 1951. In the late forties the connexion reported increases in membership most years, but we were not really meeting the situation as it appeared to the statistician. The population was more mobile, with a pronounced drift to the towns. This made church support harder in little country centres. Large housing estates were filling up around the cities, requiring the services of the church but unwilling or unable to pay for them. Thus in common with other denominations we had a missionary problem on our hands. In the past the connexion had met these conditions by placing a small building on the fringe of a neighbouring circuit and

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 allowing the new cause to provide its own facilities as the population grew. But the rapid development of the housing estate made this leisurely method absurd. The Peace Thanksgiving Fund launched in 1947 enabled the church to make grants of a lump sum to a number of places which were overwhelmed by the scale of the problem. Church Life After the War By the year 1950 there were three ministers serving who were accepted prior to 1914, and fifty-three brought in since 1945. We had a very young team. We had almost forgotten the older type of preacher, the formal and sometimes pompous figure who expected a degree of deference and relied upon status. He was generally a very helpful brother when one got to know him, but he had his dignity. Most men now dressed casually except in the pulpit. First names were commonly used between ministers and laymen, a familiarity unheard of in 1914. One hazards a guess that Quarterly Meetings were less dominated by prominent laymen, either because we were more democratic or because the prominent laymen had died and not been replaced. One way and another a large number of leading families had disappeared from Methodism. The Sunday evening service, once the main one in Methodist circles, was in decay. Almost all societies showed a steady morning attendance, but falling numbers at night. Central city churches presented a problem. E. T. Olds held a crowd at Pitt Street for many years, but the pattern changed at once under his successor, when the morning built up in a responsible way while the evening declined. The fact that most families now possessed a car reprieved the city churches, though the crowds had gone for good. In general our stronger suburban congregations and the main provincial centres were prosperous. Many country towns were doing very well. But older suburbs in big cities were depressed. Harris Whitfield made a brave attempt to set up a Community Centre in Ponsonby, but had neither the full range of qualities in himself nor sufficient backing to ensure success. At the end of the decade under review Christchurch Methodists took over Gardner Millar's Mission and amalgamated it with the Cambridge Terrace Church, where W. E. Falkinghom did for Christchurch what Orr did for Auckland. CONGREGATIONAL LIFE Much of the older pattern had vanished by this date. One seldom heard of an anniversary. The church had ceased to be a purveyor of entertainment to the sober citizen and his family, though the Bible Classes did a great deal to fill out the life of the teenager. It was now taken for granted that Bible Class socials would include dancing. Sunday Schools were held in the morning and the afternoon service in small country centres had faded out. By compensation the farmer could reach the centre in Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 90

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 his car. Cars and radio and telephone had ended the isolation of all but a very tiny minority. At this time few of our people had heard of a Watch Night service, and many had never attended a Covenant service. Characteristic Methodist observances had little appeal for the young. They did not understand them, or share the experience that lay behind them. Prayer meetings were becoming rarer, though the intercessory element in worship was better managed. Quite spontaneously the use of the communion rail revived. The older sense of urgency had departed from our worship. Young people were carefully prepared for confirmation, and the rolls were better kept. The Leaders' Meeting was restored to its place. We had a smaller constituency but a better regulated one. Which is what one might have expected. Evangelism The Spiritual Advance Committee made constant efforts to stimulate evangelistic zeal, with a degree of success; but it rather resembled climbing a slippery slope, where one advanced one step and slid back two. Here and there men showed the old 'passion for souls' as it was called, but in general we had lost the urge to evangelise in the older manner. We saw few obvious trophies of grace. A smattering of psychological theory had undermined our confidence in religious 'experience'. Crusade for Christ and His Kingdom In line with the new pastoral evangelism the Home Mission Dept. sponsored a crusade to revitalise the life of the connexion from within. Launched in 1948, the first year was given to the education of ministers and workers, the second to the inner preparation of the congregations. The next three years were to see a sustained campaign of visitation evangelism designed to draw people within our reach into a vital discipleship. We hoped to add 2,000 members in this way. The Maori Church The Mission was on the move, as the Maori people were on the move. The trek to the cities had begun, complicating everything. At the same time Maori membership advanced from 3230 to 7596 in thirty years. A very important step was taken when Edward Te Tuhi, Senior Maori Superintendent, was received into full connexion. A group of bright young Maori men received for training were put through the full course and advanced to full status as a matter of course, with the intention that when required they should take pakeha circuit appointments.

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THE CONNEXION Church Council The Council established itself at once as a necessary part of our connexional machinery, though it did not fulfil quite the role for which it was designed. It was intended to make broad surveys of the life and objectives of the church, but turned itself into another piece of machinery, a sort of preview of Conference business. The Council predigested a mass of matter due to come before Conference, anticipating the mind of the connexion and smoothing out procedure. If the Council reached a common mind the Conference was almost certain to follow. Date of Conference From early times the Conference had been held in February, following Synods held in November of the previous year. Ministers shifting were required to take up their new appointments by the second Sunday in April. These dates came under increasing criticism. It seemed foolish to wait until April to attack the year's work, and from the educational angle parsonage families were greatly disadvantaged by changing school part way through the first term. A decisive vote was taken in 1946 and detailed arrangements worked out the following year. In February 1949 an Executive Committee was held in Wellington to deal with matters calling for immediate attention, such as Candidates, Superannuitants and Stationing. Then after the new pattern Synods were held in August, and a regular Conference in November 1949. The President and Secretary of Conference for 1948 held office for 21 months. The change-over was smooth and in many ways the new system approved itself to the church. It does seem however that it has led to a weaker representation. Men who were willing to give up part of their holiday to attend a February Conference find it impossible to get away from business in November.

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VII A Time of Innocence 1950-1965 The routine of worship, friendship and service which makes up nine-tenths of the Church's Hie and usefulness. The impetus of the post-war years carried us on into the fifties. The connexion was busy and not without encouragement. We felt considerable confidence in our Gospel and our ability to apply it usefully to the life around us. Our immediate needs were for capable men to man the circuits and for money to finance the openings we could discern. We did not notice the forces that were building up towards the explosion of the sixties, or if we noticed we looked the other way. It was a time of challenge, and we were braced to meet it. Town and Country Though our economy was still dependent on the farmer, the balance of power was shifting to the urban proletariat. A genera-tion earlier a young minister would expect as a matter of course to spend one or two terms at least in country circuits. We had some appreciation of what pioneering life must have been like, though we drove a Ford where our fathers had ridden a horse. But now a bright lad fresh from college might spend his probation in a new suburb, and go on to city appointments without a break. In some ways this was a loss. On the other hand with enterprise and a little luck the same young fellow might manage a trip abroad before he was too old to derive the maximum of benefit from the experience. The young were entering into their kingdom. CHURCH EXTENSION Centres serving the farmers were in good heart. It was no longer a question of staffing Opunake or Motueka with a Home Missionary. Such centres could carry their burdens. This was a relief to the H.M. Fund which concentrated much of its attention on the housing estates. The older pattern of growth had allowed the church to expand mainly through the efforts of the new arrivals themselves. The H.M. Fund encouraged and supplemented while the new cause built itself up around a nucleus of committed people. The new demand was for a roomy hall plus parsonage and minister all within five years or less. Every denomination had difficulty in meeting these conditions. A community of independent home-owners would take responsibility for the church in its midst, but in the modern housing estate it was difficult to gather an adequate number of people to carry the load. It was this explosion of new estates which forced the churches to get together and share the burden. It placed an almost intolerable strain on the limited resources of the Methodists.

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Connexional Responsibility Under such circumstances the neighbouring circuit could not be expected to carry the whole burden, or even the major part of it. Nor were they the best judges of policy. Some were struggling themselves and had no strength for adventures. Others prudently turned their eyes the other way. For them the time was never opportune. Others again rushed in with a loud blast of trumpets and did entirely the wrong thing. By 1956 or thereabouts we had worked out a compromise that shared the responsibility. Since 1942 the Conference had been applying what amounted to a limited budget scheme to connexional levies. In order to avoid constant and competing appeals for special purposes the Confer-ence requested the Central Finance Committee to arrange these in order of urgency and place them on the central fund, where a sum was allocated each year for church extension. This in turn was divided between the capital of the Church Building and Loan Fund and substantial grants to new work. The Home Mission Board had a large voice in the allocation of grants, but the local circuit was responsible for initiating and carrying forward the scheme. Thus the Circuit, the District, the Home Mission Board and the connexion were all involved. Northland District It was in 1957 that with a little hesitation the Conference agreed to constitute an additional District comprising the area from Port Albert northwards. Although it had been the cradle of Government and the seat of our earliest missionary efforts the North had soon been left behind. For a century population was tiny and communications difficult. The area was under the oversight of the Auckland Chairman who could seldom give it much attention. But better roads and the application of lime and fertiliser had changed the face of the land. Whangarei was growing rapidly. Kaitaia was a busy town. Northern Wairoa Methodism had a spirit all its own. It was right for these people to take responsibility for their own problems. STAFF At no time in this century have we been able to put into the field as many properly qualified ministers as we could use with advantage. New Zealand was a land of scattered townships, too thinly spread to permit a small denomination to maintain a proper coverage. We filled the gap with Home Missionaries some of whom were most devoted servants of the Gospel. But on Wesleyan standards at least we were sacrificing principle to expediency. Distance and poor communication made proper oversight impossible, and in time we came to accept a situation where it was taken for granted that, with authorisation, a quite junior man might administer the sacraments of the church, though not ordained. If we wished to retain the respect of other Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 94

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 communions we should have ordained the tried and reliable senior Home Missionaries and confined the novices to exhortation. Whatever our dectrme of the sacraments, if we wished to belong to the club we should keep the rules. An alternative would have been to ordain certain lay preachers. But once we found ourselves in serious dialogue with older Communions it was obvious we must mend our ways. In 1958 the Conference decided to ordain all but a few of the senior Home Missionaries and to phase out the Order. Two years later we employed 228 ministers in active work, but only 16 Home Missionaries, and by the end of the decade the position was regularised. Stipends Before the union of 1913 among the Wesleyans at least the position of ministers was tolerable by the general standards of the day. The retiring allowance was inadequate but growing. But the effect of two wars and a major depression was never adequately compensated for. Many of our laity of course gave most generously, but others clung to the habits of long ago and gave derisory amounts. Men with wives and children cannot be indifferent to money. In general our ministers carried their burden without complaint during the depression of the 'thirties. A committee on stipends reporting in 1945 and thereafter was able to assure increases in proportion to rises in the cost of living, but did not take account of a general rise in standards so that in effect we were slipping back in relation to the mass of the population. Ministers will submit to poverty for the sake of the Gospel when it cannot be helped, but poverty amidst affluence is an insult. Inflation The apparently permanent and inescapable tendency for money to lose its value has made many problems in church life. Regular giving tends always to lag behind. No sooner have congregations rallied their members to a new standard when it is all to do again. This means endless talk about money. All departments present rising budgets. Endowments lose their value. Under the old system of investment for Trust Funds, the Superannuation Fund annuities became less and less adequate, and prudent provision for a home in old age proved quite inadequate when required. In time inflation forced budgeting upon the church at all levels. In general the prosperity of the average New Zealand citizen has made possible many refinements in church life that used to be beyond us; but it has also contributed to the drift away from regular observance of religious duties, and restricted the number of those willing to be fully involved.

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Transport Trust Board Circuits would do their utmost to meet the Conference minimum stipend but some were curiously reluctant to meet full travelling charges for their ministers. Circuit cars were generally out of favour, but when the minister provided his own vehicle officials might be blind to the need to pay depreciation. Young men straight from college might be unable to find the cash to purchase a car. For some years after the war it was hard to buy a new car at all. To meet these conditions the Transport Trust Board was set up in 1950. Conditions eased but the Board continued to function most usefully, first by setting out fair mileage tables year by year, and especially by making loans at reasonable rates to ministers needing to buy a car. Statistics The Methodist proportion of the population remained stationary at 8 from 1936 to 1951, after which it began to decline again. But this loss was not reflected in the membership. We were losing unattached families through isolation or marriage or long neglect, but holding our committed people and their children. That was the broad picture. Throughout the 'fifties we showed increases in membership, sometimes substantial ones. Figures for youth work were encouraging in the main. We were looking after our own; but the Bible Classes showed little of the vitality and elan of earlier years. We missed the old creative leadership. Women and the Ordained Ministry There was no future in a kind of Home Mission Order for women, at a time when the church was phasing out the Order for men. Whatever we called them, there seemed no justification for closing to women any form of service open to the other sex. It appeared that not only did we have a tradition of women preachers in Methodism, but there was no bar in our regulations to the reception of a woman for training and ordination. It only needed one to come forward and test the situation. In 1954 Phyllis Guthardt was accepted for training, in 1956, Thea Jones, in 1964 Enid Slaney. These women all went on to ordination. If the average male candidate came within hailing distance of the competence of his sisters the connexion would be happy indeed. (It is significant that the British Conference is now accepting numbers of women candidates). Campaign For Christ and His Kingdom The inspiration came from the U.S.A. where the idea originated, and from its successful adoption in Australia. Summing up the reports one feels that the campaign was one of the most significant concerted efforts our people have made. Much of the Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 96

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 original impulse came from Tom Olds in his presidential year, but as field representative carrying the message into every circuit G. I. Laurenson made what may well have been the finest impact of his career in the Department. The detail involved was described in the previous chapter (p. 109) but most o the action belonged to the early fifties, and it coloured much of our effort throughout the period now reviewed. It was certainly reflected in the church membership figures.

CHURCH LIFE AND WORK A New Pattern The structure and much of the worship pattern which had established itself among Methodists in the 19th century and been transplanted to the colonies was fast eroding under the influence of changed habits of thought and new social conditions. Also we had a young ministry which favoured change. Effective leadership was falling now to men trained after 1919, with early Trinity men following on. Men like Thornley, W. Greenslade, Fetch and Dudley were filling big pulpits. The pace was too hot for older men, nor were they quite in touch with the modern mood. Morning Sunday Schools were the rule. Bible Classes were a little difficult to fit in, but tended to meet in the Sunday evening. Evening services continued to decline. It was more difficult to hold a choir together. It was becoming general for ministers to wear gowns in the pulpit, and some choirs were gowned. After 20 years the 'new' hymn book seemed out of date. The bolder songs of praise and the more objective hymns were favoured. Pulpit prayers were carefully written or selected, seldom extempore. The Dept. of Christian Education sponsored an experimental Family Worship in 1958. It was well planned but the original matter was uninspired. The College had led the way with Tunbridge's little effort, which was successful only when quoting the Bible or the Book of Common Prayer. Most Free Church efforts at liturgy were wordy and didactic instead of simple and euphonious so as to linger in the memory. Congregations for the most part welcomed a service sheet for special occasions, but resented forms which they knew by heart. They felt cheated when confronted by words they could say without thinking, whereas a familiar liturgy does its work in the unconscious. It was Victor Murray, a Primitive Methodist, who said that one of the vices of the Free Churches was that they insisted on knowing what was going on all the time. One has the impression that private devotions were on the decline, but that the prayers of the congregation were becoming more real and more important to the worshipper. It was now general to use the full Service of Holy Communion rather than a shortened form tacked on to the end of a preaching service. But a few individuals did the most fantastic things to the service, mangling it and turning it upside down and inside out Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 97

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 with a complete disregard of the interrelatedness of the parts. They may have thought they were inviting the Holy Ghost but it was only a private demon of their own taking charge. It was clear that we needed a new Book of Offices. The 1930 book did everything it should not and was out of date when it appeared. So the Faith and Order Committee was directed to take up the task of revision. Polynesian Immigrants It was in the fifties that the number of Samoans entering New Zealand became significant, and a section of these were Methodists. In Auckland at first they settled mainly in Pitt Street and under advice from European missionaries we adopted the policy of integrating them at once into our regular services, since it was feared that they might fail to make contact. In the event they settled in rapidly and soon formed a significant element in some inner-city congregations. The first generation have been delightfully loyal, and we have learned to value them. To see a Samoan mother unselfconsciously feeding her baby in the back seat of Pitt St. church where once the straitest of strait Wesleyans had sat with Bible, hymn book and kneelers was a lesson in things catholic. Spiritual Healing This was another of the perennial topics that bothered the Welfare of the Church Committee. A succession of studies and reports helped people to get the matter into focus, and assisted the hale and hearty to understand the anxieties that underlay many of the questions. The psychologists can carry us a long way, but beyond that it seems that the Spirit bloweth where it listeth, and we cannot be dogmatic. It calls for the utmost in patience sensitivity, tolerance and love. Department of Christian Education After Mr. Symons returned to Australia we had several appointments, both ministerial and lay, to the staff of the Department, which was not so much breaking new ground as seeking to reorient itself. There was useful work done in Sunday School organisation and teacher training by the field directors, and a period of stocktaking at headquarters which led to a new concept of their task. The Dept. was to promote group study at all age levels. The proposal was put before the Conference of 1956, accepted a year later, and embodied in a new constitution in 1960. From the point of view of the young people the most exciting thing that happened was the provision of permanent camp sites. This happened from Northland to Southland within a few years. Over a comparatively short period the connexion acquired 14 properties at a cost of £7,600 and made improvements costing over £64,000, with projected developments planned to cost a further £40,000. These facilities were used

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 by 7,500 people annually. Increased affluence has somewhat reduced the demand for these camps, but they are still in use and available. Older men and women who were conscious of a debt to the B.C. Movement put an impressive amount of generosity and personal service into the provision of camp sites.

Gunn’s Bush Camp near Waimate, South Canterbury, belongs to Methodism

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MISSIONS OVERSEAS The Solomon Islands The Mission held its Golden Jubilee in May 1952, with the Rev. J. F. Goldie attending. He died a year or so later. The income was now rising rapidly but costs were growing faster. By 1954 the income from the field was larger than the contribution from New Zealand. The war had hastened the inevitable, and whatever risks might attend the church realised that it must advance as rapidly as possible towards the goal of an autonomous church in the Islands. The Rev. G. S. Andrews took over the office of General Secretary in 1951. In 1959 the Rev. G. G. Carter became Chairman of the Mission District in succession to the Rev. J. R. Metcalfe. With a young European staff and a forward look independence was in sight, though New Zealand was giving £39,000 p.a. in support. The name of the Mission was changed to 'Overseas' since 'Foreign' was hardly suitable to a sister church, and we wished to avoid all paternalistic attitudes. New Guinea Highlands The establishment of a separate field for N.Z. missionary service may have been a mistake, but the chance to reverse the decision to go it alone came in 1953, when we entered into partnership with the Australasian Society in a pioneering venture in the New Guinea Highlands, among a primitive people dragged into notice by the war. The Rev. C. J. Keightley and Mrs Keightley had the honour of representing us in the new field from the beginning. Among early lay pioneers were Gordon Dey, Sister Edith James and Miss Joyce Rosser. Criticism It is fashionable nowadays to deprecate the work of the nineteenth century evangelicals and the whole enterprise of taking the Gospel to the 'heathen'. Our fathers were men of their own day and they were not perfect as we are not perfect; but in their own time they represented the best in the contact between native peoples and the invading European. Much of the ablest as well as the most devoted and unselfish outgoing love of the N.Z. Methodist people was lavished on the people of the Solomons, and we have a roll of men and women whose names should not be forgotten. (A Family Affair, by G. G. Carter, W.H.S., 1973.) Ministerial Invitations The question of the pastorate, its tenure and security came before the connexion at this time. There was discussion in the Times and quite a bit of feeling. Tenure was subject

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 to the judgment of Conference because involved with the itinerancy, and men realised this and accepted it, but they did object to the annual invitation. It was out of date and at times it seemed humiliating. By this date the average length of pastorate in Methodist circuits compared quite favourably with Anglican and Presbyterian practice, and most Quarterly Meetings were well aware that ministers were a rather precious commodity, in short supply and to be cherished. If a change of pastorate was necessary there were ways of bringing it about without too much fuss. But old-established customs are hard to change, and a tactless circuit steward could give offence. It took some years of argument to establish that the appointment should be for three years before the matter of a change was raised. We kept on tinkering with the regulations and will probably do so till our peculiar ways are swallowed up in union. Overloaded Conference The annual Conference has two functions in Methodism. It is the legislative body and the head of administration in a very centralised community. It also acts as a convention of leaders from all over the country who delight to meet and to find strength in fellowship. We are not numerous enough as a people to meet this need at District level, and gregarious as we are we cannot do without it. But in this confused and cluttered age the Conference is hopelessly overworked and liable to do silly things in the dying hours. The obvious answer would seem to be to give more power to the Synods, but there are limits, since the itinerancy requires central control. Overall we are still governed by the Stationing Committee as we have been from the beginning. One might hazard a guess that if we were more prosperous there would be only half the talk. We are top- heavy with committees and the paper-work is absurd. Public Questions The committee was casting its net wider and taking in subjects of public concern which would hardly have been discussed openly a generation earlier. Emphasis had shifted from old problems like liquor and gambling to Birth Control and Marriage Guidance. Some of the reports which gained the approval of Conference were printed by the Board of Publications and made available to the congregations in pamphlet form. International Affairs These became the concern of a separate committee in 1957, as had been done earlier with Temperance matters.

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Publicity The Methodist Times continued to satisfy the majority of the middle aged, though a section of our leaders were growing restive under the conviction that the paper might be made a more effective propaganda instrument. Did we require a house organ, warming the fellowship at domestic fires, or did we need a challenging new voice to shatter our complacency? The Board of Publications pressed its editor-manager policy, but on examination it did not seem practicable. But would the paper be more widely read if it was professionally edited? The Rev. W. T. Blight continued to serve as editor till 1961, a record term of 14 years. He was trusted by the church and the paper maintained its circulation, no small feat when costs were continually on the increase. He was followed by Mr. H. W. Beaumont, ex-Vice President, who served with general satisfaction through a period of increasing financial difficulty till May 1966, when a new policy came into effect. The Board of Publications had a somewhat frustrating career. It possessed an impressive title but quite inadequate resources, which was perhaps just as well, because publishing is reputed to be one of the quickest ways of losing money. Some useful work was done in putting out the Lenten and Advent leaflets, and the Prayer Manual. These returned a small profit. But there was almost nothing for more ambitious efforts. Faith and Order The workload of the committee continued to grow, reflecting the increased interest in our basic theology, especially as this related to ecumenical matters and to the liturgical revival. First established in 1949, the committee was made independent of the Board of Studies in 1952. In the same year it put out a statement on ordination which the Conference had requested, laid down principles about the use of pulpit gowns which were becoming fashionable about this time, discussed membership, made a statement on the ministry, and began a series of experimental services which after criticism by the March synods were authorised for general use. The early issues of the series were ready for further revision before the series was complete, which showed how rapidly standards were shifting. Those serving on the committee found its sessions a continuing theological refresher course. INSTITUTIONS Trinity College During the fifties the college was full of vigorous life. Hostel costs were a problem and domestic help a constant worry until Mr Crothall took over the provision of staff

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 on most generous terms. There is no doubt that at this stage the hostel served a useful purpose. As money became available through the Central Finance Committee and from special gifts the Council was able to undertake long-overdue maintenance and to install some heating. In 1956 we realised a dream with the erection of the chapel. It cost £11,000 exclusive of the architect's fees, which were a gift from a member of the Council, and the organ, which was paid for by the fund established by John Edson for the purpose a couple of generations earlier. The teaching standard was strengthened by the addition of J. J. Lewis to the resident staff in 1952. Dr Williams spent the 1953-54 session in the U.S.A. on a Fullbright Scholarship, and in 1956 Lewis went to London for a two-year course preparatory to taking his doctorate. In 1961 the College was able to add a fourth member to the staff when John Ziesler took over the New Testament work from Dr. Lewis. All this development was possible because of increased grants from the Probert Trust and more generous allocations from the Central Finance Committee. It was in 1962 that the Misses Buttle, granddaughters of a pioneer missionary, made over their house in Grafton to the College. School for Christian Workers The Christchurch proposal having lapsed, five years later the Theological Institution took it up, partly because it was written into its charter, and partly to assist promising applicants to meet a decent standard before offering as candidates for the ministry. The School did useful work for some years, but never realised our hopes. It needed a warden who could give it undivided attention and do something to make the school known throughout the connexion. There is an unrealised potential in numbers of our young members. Wesley College This was a time of expansion, although the Preparatory School was closed, and the buildings leased to the Education Dept. for a special school. The Mount Wellington property was bringing in a useful income from royalties on the sale of scoria and from rents. In 1948 77 acres of land useless except for metal crushing was sold for £120 per acre. During the fifteen years under review the Board was able to carry through a programme of development which included an assembly hall and reception rooms, new class rooms and dormitories, additions to the dining room and the erection of a number of staff houses. Also it laid down a large sports field.

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The fees rose of course, but they were not exorbitant as such fees go, and as much beneficiary work was done as funds allowed, with an eye especially to the Maori pupils. The emphasis on the farm school was declining as it became evident that the demand lay elsewhere. The farm became (hopefully) a source of revenue. To offer a reasonable choice of subjects and adequate teaching staff a larger roll was necessary so the objective was set at 250 boys. The Old Boys were taking an intelligent interest in the school. Rangiatea The Trust had intended to build and operate a school for Maori girls but inflated costs put that objective beyond them. In 1951 it was decided as an interim measure to establish a small hostel on the old mission property at New Plymouth, the pupils to attend the state school. In 1959 the Trust opened a new hostel costing upwards of £50,000 which looks after a large group of Maori girls. CHURCH PROPERTY The connexion was now busy with building projects some of which had been delayed by postwar controls. The report for 1952 listed 9 sites purchased for £5,000 odd, 9 new churches costing altogether approximately £43,000, 11 Sunday Schools and Youth Centres at £24,000, 4 parsonages at approx £11,000, also an Eventide Home, a Hostel and a large Youth Centre. The Maori Mission was providing hostels for lads and girls away from home, and various forms of homes for the aged were going up in the main districts. We have already spoken of Youth Camps. During the decade a number of churches were built to creditable standards. Examples are Invercargill (St. Peter's) £10,000; Takapuna £25,000; Feilding £30,000; Karori £14,000; Tauranga £11,000; Pukekohe £13,000; Somerfield St. (Christchurch) £13,000; Bluff £7,500; Addington £10,000; Gisborne £12,000; Mission Bay £11,000; Wanganui (Trinity) £50,000. These are examples only. Pakuranga in the Auckland East Circuit made a significant experiment. Instead of putting down two or three buildings in a rapidly expanding area the trustees decided to build one centre and rely on transport to bring people to church. They purchased five acres of land well in advance, put up a bold church building and secured a student pastor. We had a strong centre almost at once, but the scheme is not an unqualified success.

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The Whiteley Memorial Church (opened 1963), New Plymouth, the most striking of our modern buildings. CONNEXIONAL FUNDS AND TRUSTS Supernumerary Fund We were learning to live with inflation. The Fund benefitted by higher interest rates and an improved return from Epworth Chambers. Contributions were lifted as stipends rose. When the Fund was declared actuarially sound the benefits were raised. In 1962 they were further increased by 20. Two years later the Board was allowed to widen its investment policy to include industrial equities, and in '65 there was a further increase in benefits. With the introduction of the connexionial budget the necessity of maintaining a fully funded scheme was brought under review. Connexional Secretary

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In 1921 a hearer said of a student, "The young man has a personality. He can even laugh at himself in the pulpit." The young man was Bert Fiebig, and his laugh we will never forget. In a rare way he combined inflexible standards with great humanity. As a fellow-student said at his funeral recently, he expressed our conscience as a body. Mr. Fiebig retired in 1964. He was succeeded by W. R. Laws, one who like Mr. Fiebig seemed made for the position. W. F. Walters Trust In 1962 under the will of Mr. Walters a property was put into the hands of the Investment Trust Board, the income to be used for 1. A bursary for a married student at Trinity College. 2. Ministers' travelling expenses in Northland. 3. The Otorohanga Church Trust. Probert Trust In 1959 the freehold of the Queen Street property was sold to the Mission. This enabled the Mission to plan its proposed office building with a main street frontage, and at the same time enabled the Probert Trust to pay off its long-standing debt on the unsatisfactory Probert Chambers. Some of the Trustees were unhappy about parting with a piece of Queen Street frontage, but the sale enabled them to lift the subsidy to Trinity College immediately. Prince Albert College Trust By 1960 the Trust had paid off all its liabilities, but was faced with a gigantic task in developing its potential. Upper Queen Street Auckland had never been popular commercially, but with the growth of the city the compact 3½ acre site was attracting attention. In 1964 the Trust was able to open a new building on the Turner Street frontage at a cost of about £90,000, the principal tenant being the I.B.M. Corporation. SOCIAL SERVICE ASSOCIATION Children's Homes The climate was changing. The emphasis of the Child Welfare Dept. was now upon adoption, or arrangements for the accommodation of the child in a family environment. The larger Home was outdated. In Auckland the Board had felt obliged to go on with its plans as soon as conditions permitted, but the concept was out of date. We should have erected smaller units. There is a place for our Children's Homes still, but the pressure has shifted somewhat as the provision made by the State has improved.

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M.S.S.A. The Social Service Assn. came into being mainly to coordinate the efforts of the various city missions, to establish territorial limits and so on. A special case was the emergence of the Youth Opportunity Hostel started by Harris Whitfield. Mr. Whitfield had a gift for getting alongside people which many social workers might envy. But he was not very practical, and the Hostel he set up in Te Atatu was underfinanced and doomed from the beginning. The venture illustrated the need for concerted action rather than a series of unrelated schemes. In Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin the City Missions were putting most of their social zeal into serving the aged. Wellington got into line with the Social Service Trust fostered by Wesley Church. At this stage the Auckland Board also purchased a property on the Cambridge-Hamilton road which was later to serve the Waikato. Everywhere in N.Z. Methodism the emphasis was shifting from evangelistic effort to social service, which was something obviously useful, whereas mission preaching of the old type was out of fashion. In Dunedin Ray Dudley succeeded Leslie Neale, who in 22 years had raised some quarter of a million pounds and completely transformed the prospects of the Institution. The changing pattern referred to above was reflected in the union of the Mission with Trinity Church which took place in 1953. In retirement Neale joined Orr in canvassing for funds to develop the valuable Auckland Mission site. They made a formidable team, persuading men of property to give to the Mission instead of allowing the Government to appropriate their hard- earned cash in death duties. The plea went down well. The new mission church together with the eleven storey office block was opened in November 1964 at a cost of £800,000, debt nearly £500,000. ECUMENICAL The first meeting of the World Council of Churches Amsterdam 1948 set in motion forces not to be denied. Already the Church of South India had been formed, the first instance of union between episcopal and non-episcopal churches. There was a new spirit abroad and although progress has seemed very slow, inter-confessional relations have changed dramatically in the past thirty years. World Methodism Largely under American inspiration and with the help of American money a great deal was done to extend and make real the links between the various branches of Methodism throughout the world. A number of our N.Z. leaders have attended world conferences and gained considerably in confidence thereby. We are a small people in

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 this little land, but world Methodism is a mighty force and can exert considerable pressure. At times one suspected that our American brethren especially were engaged in empire building for its own sake. Big things appeal to the Americans. But there is no necessary conflict between confessional loyalties and the wider Christian vision, any more than there is between local church affairs and the best interests of the connexion. There are different strands in our loyalties. It must be agreed that contacts with world Methodism showed that we in New Zealand had travelled a long way towards the lowest common denominator of evangelical churchmanship. We were coming to stand for nothing in particular. We had lost our 'tang'. This was the penalty of isolation. Union Churches The nature of the work confronting us and the weakness of our resources was forcing us towards combined activity both in some country areas and in new housing estates. By 1953 there were five union parishes, namely Raglan, Taita Union, Wainui-o-mata, Marchwiel and Corstorphine, and the number continued to grow. Joint regional committees were set up in an attempt (rather unsuccessful) to avoid competitive building, and arrangements were made for reciprocal membership. In 1955 a report on relations with other members of the N.C.C. led to an official decision that the assemblies of the four bodies engaged in discussions should meet simultaneously in Auckland in 1956, for a united act of worship, a meeting of wit-ness and joint services of Holy Communion. The intention was that a decisive vote should be taken in 1957. This vote showed that 75 of the Presbyterians were in favour of negotiating for organic union, and some 92 of the Methodists. The Conference following voted by an overwhelming majority to enter into formal negotiations. It would be idle to pretend that this decision was the fruit of any passionate love affair, seeing that the courting had been going on for sixty years. It was more a matter of housekeeping, a conviction that two could live more cheaply than one. Presbyterians and Methodists had been living at fairly close quarters for too long to have many illusions about each other. It is somewhat ironic that the Church of Scotland, which out-numbers the little Methodist community there by over one thousand to one, is today showing much more generous appreciation of what our people have to offer in union than their brethren in New Zealand who outnumbered us by only three to one. But in the smaller parishes and especially in the country union made a tolerable existence possible for both parties; and where they went into a developing situation together they had an opportunity to grow into a real unity. As a help to denominational budgets the scheme received heavy support from the Departments.

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The Moon Memorial Church at Te Uku near Raglan But the Anglicans who had been held back by their constitution and the need to consult the General Synod intervened with a request to be taken into consideration. This introduced a new and exciting element. It seems clear today that Protestants and Catholics need each other. We should be complementary and not opposed forces. Protestants need the deep sense of the Body, the sense of continuity and order, and the sense of grace however given and received, which is the possession of the historic churches of the episcopal order. In turn we may venture to claim that the catholic will always need the criticism of the Protestant, his protest against superstition, his insistence on theology and an educated laity involved in decision at all levels. A truly national church in this country would be able to speak with power to the community. So we came to the sixties with an enlarged vision. Whatever the outcome of these discussions we would none of us be the same again.

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VIII Honest to God and All That 1965-1972 Only should the shattermyth have to be a crumplehope and a dampenglee? James Thurber But John A.T. Robinson, he Sez they didn't know everythin' down in Judee. (Apologies to James Russell Lowell.) A few years ago an issue of The New Yorker carried a cartoon showing a young man leaning against a bollard on a decrepit wharf and gazing soulfully out to sea. An old salt nearby warns him that it's no use looking out there for his ship to come in. "They don't use this wharf anymore." A Time to Change Quite a number of institutions give the impression that they have been standing too long on the old ground, while the world has changed direction. In Victoria's day Britain really did rule the waves, maintaining an Empire on a gigantic bluff which deceived even herself, until other nations first caught up with her and then left her behind. Similarly in a great burst of concentrated energy the nineteenth century Church carried the Gospel into almost every comer of the world, so that John R. Mott could speak of 'the evangelisation of the world in this generation." Methodism erupted on the ecclesiastical scene, to enjoy great prosperity for a century and a half. But all this changed in the 20th century. Large areas have been virtually closed to the Gospel, and the church is on the defensive. She is not sure of her role in the new world. A New Renaissance. It seems as if mankind has come to one of those hinges in history when the race shoots off in a new direction, but this time it happens very swiftly, and is worldwide, borne by commerce and the new means of communication. It has brought new ambition and new opportunities to the common people of every continent. If men can travel to the moon surely in principle nothing is impossible to us. There is no need to be resigned to a malign fate. Old tyrannies and old bonds are falling away. Men are seizing freedom, and seizing it violently. We are free to run the rat race till we get a coronary, free to throw over the age-old moral restraints that have held the family together; free to make a moral chaos which turns out to be a new slavery; free to believe we need no religion and end a prey to neurosis. Rousseau, Darwin, Marx and Freud Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 110

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Rousseau taught that primitive man led an innocent and idyllic life which was corrupted by society. (He knew nothing about primitive man). Darwin established our relationship with the animal creation. Marx pointed to economic pressures as the determining factor. Freud indicated that we are governed by forces in ourselves of which we are unaware. We cannot govern ourselves because we do not understand ourselves. All these theories have some validity, and they have the effect of weakening personal responsibility. I failed because I could not help it. But we ignore the doctrine of original sin. One hundred years or so ago, Lord Acton wrote concerning poverty, "The remedy does not lie in the material resources of the rich but in the moral resources of the poor". It is an unpalatable doctrine and one would not wish to let the rich off the hook; but the Methodists in their day went far towards proving that Lord Acton was right. We must recognise that in the last resort neither the philanthropist nor the politician nor the psychologist can do much for the man who does not want to help himself. Being a young and somewhat immature body, as churches go, the Methodists have been especially exposed to the winds of change. But Christianity has to reshape itself to speak to a new age. We owe an enormous debt to the Scriptures and to our fathers in God. We cannot go beyond them. But there is a task of reinterpretation and readjustment for which we are hardly yet ready. THE YOUTHQUAKE It was in the sixties that young people, and particularly the privileged youth of the universities, went on revolt against authority, against the image of the good life accepted by their elders. This happened from San Francisco to Amsterdam as well as from London to Berlin, from New York to Tokyo. Significantly these protests generally had a moral issue as their excuse if not their reason. In America they were linked with draft-dodging and protests against the war in Viet Nam, or with the civil rights movement in defence of the negro. In England the protests were directed against the bomb. They seem to have settled down now, but things will never be the same again. The young are economically independent, they are mobile, and about many things they are better informed than their parents, better adjusted to the new world which is the only world they know. Today's teenagers find the world of 1914 about as remote as the world of Elizabeth the First. We Were Warned In 1882 F. J. A. Hort the Anglican scholar wrote of 'the alienation of the silent multitude of Englishmen from the Church.' It was apparent to keen eyes in those days, and it has been growing ever since. The mainline churches have been losing steadily for three generations. We can see it now and admit it. We have been humiliated and to

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 a degree chastened by defeats and defections and cannot be sure that we have yet reached bottom. Even Rome, eternal Rome, is crumbling round the edges. Of course it has happened before, and the Christian God is used to dying and rising again as Chesterton said; but we do not yet see the way forward. We are the pilgrim church once more, but we seem to lack the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. It is against some such background that we view the last few years. Honest to God It was about the middle sixties that the English churches really woke up, and it was Robinson's little book (Honest to God. S.C.M. 1963) that sounded the alarm. The signs had been there for a long time, in the theology of Paul Tillich and some of the bright young men in the U.S.A., in the revival of Kierkegaard and the existentialists, in Bultmann's radical treatment of the Gospel tradition; in Bonhoeffer's 'religionless Christianity' and so on. The British on the whole are more conservative, and none the worse for that considering the issues at stake. But it was evident in the sixties that the churches could hardly continue to stand on the old ground. Depressing Statistics Since the mid-sixties the figures presented by our Statistical Secretary have been dismal and alarming. The overall picture is of losses in every department, in membership and in confirmations, in the number of families under pastoral care, in youth work and in recruits for the ministry. A number of young ministers have resigned. The resulting shortage of agents is all the more serious because the churches have found openings in chaplaincy service in hospitals and prisons, and in industry, which did not exist until a few years ago. Society is glad to accept certain practical offerings although it is deaf to the deeper words of the Gospel. The hypothetical average man approves of social work though he sees no reason to listen to the Gospel which quickened charity in the hearts of men. The connexion has been able to maintain its ministry only because of the rapid increase in the number of union churches. In 1971 a special committee reported that while in some form the statistical data supplied were necessary for official purposes on the other hand many were yearning for a 'positive picture' where the statistics showed a 'negative' one. No doubt there are and always have been many things in the life of the church which cannot be statistically recorded, but it seems to the writer that if the church loses contact year by year with growing numbers c& its people it must soon disappear off the map. To seek to minimise the seriousness of the situation is to take refuge in cloud-cuckoo land. It is possible to say that we are doing more significant work with a smaller number of people, but that does not absolve us. The frequent shuffling of age groups and categories by our Education Dept. prevents accurate comparisons, but it is clear that Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 112

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 statistically we are losing ground all along the line. That the same thing is happening to other churches all over the world may help to mitigate our personal sense of failure, but it only makes things so much worse. Of course the basic failure is theological. To talk about theology and the Christian Church without God is fatuous nonsense. For one hundred years the sense of God has been fading. Christ looked to God, lived by God, died and was resurrected by God. We cannot hope to inherit the Christian virtues and the Christian power unless we are willing and able to let God be God. That day waits upon God Himself, in the profoundest sense. Welfare of the Church Of recent years a number of the most significant annual and special reports came through the Welfare Committee. To browse through them is to get the feel of the connexion at any given period. They reveal the curious mixture of the profound and the trivial that seems to beset all church life. In Methodism it takes the form of setting up a committee to consider the evil of having too many committees. Surely no people have ever been so bedevilled by committees. The size of Conference comes up for discussion frequently. There is a case for a smaller Conference, but it is growing smaller anyway. Another question never settled is the matter of ministerial invitations, and how to provide for a change of pastorate without being unfair to the minister or the congregation. Recently the church has been able to do better for its ministers. They have better stipends, better holidays, long service leave, better superannuation, their own furniture. Rapid inflation has made it difficult for many to secure a home for their retirement, but that is under review. Membership The church has taken a little while to accustom itself to the new definition of membership introduced by the Faith and Order Committee m 1966. Nothing we have done as a Christian body over the past sixty years has been so basic as this redefinition of our membership. Our older definition was appropriate to a religious society, in which there was no contradiction between a person being both a confirmed member of the Church of England and a Methodist in full standing with the chapel. The society was a voluntary body which an individual could join or leave as he would The new provisions whereby our membership was clearly based on baptism and confirmation set the matter into a sacramental pattern and articulated a new awareness. Board of Evangelism The Spiritual Advance Committee graduated into the Board of Evangelism, itself an organ of the Development Division. One hesitates to criticise a policy which is quite

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 evidently right, namely that evangelism requires 'the response of the whole life of the church' but what exactly does it boil down to in practice? The Shalom programme caught the imagination of some congregations. But it does seem that to be really effective we must be able to simplify our message to the world. We are confused. Our fathers had the better of it there. In the days of my youth the church was full of men and women who could cite a Damascus Road experience. Nobody could shake them. But if one came to us today and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" we might feed him with psychological jargon. It is awkward being caught between two worlds. As a small body we tend to an either . . or attitude to difficult questions, instead of accepting that there are many roads into the Kingdom and many mansions therein. We are no better than our fathers, only different. To tidy up two loose items about this time the Spiritual Healing Committee developed into a Society for Medical and Pastoral psychology; and the Men's Fellowship presided gracefully over its own obsequies. The Church Council During the late sixties the Council initiated certain far-reaching changes. 1. We provided a Lay Treasurer to share the burden of the Connexional office. Mr Fiebig had worn himself out in service. In 1967 Mr. C. R. Hasseldine took over as General Treasurer. At the same time the Connexional Secretary became also the Secretary of Conference. The two moves made for an economical streamlining of procedure. 2. Church Courts. To enable younger men to attend and advise on District affairs the annual representative Synod was directed to meet at least four times in the year, in the evenings or at weekends. Also the constitution and agenda of Leaders' and Quarterly Meetings was revised and modernised. The Stationing Committee was appointed early so that it could hold a preliminary meeting prior to Conference. (The British Conference has recently adopted some drastic changes in circuit and congregational life, to reduce the number of official meetings and simplify procedure.) 3. Departmental Structure. Facing the fact that the church is 'very sick' and in an effort to transform a somewhat inward-looking posture the Council proposed a new structure, a Council of Mission, a group of officers at the head of five departments who should lead us out of the wilderness and into the promised land. This move may well be right psychologically. We need a new impulse to mobilise the reservoir of goodwill in the congregations and enlist our youth, a positive response to a new age. But unfortunately the proposals were set out in such a cloud of generalities

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Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 that one still does not know what these people intend to do. But they may find out as they go along. After all that is what we have been doing since 1738. Losses as well as Gains The contemporary working church must be free to make the adjustments it feels necessary. One has no quarrel with that. But one may be permitted to point out that recent changes have not been all gain. For instance the connexional budget has left a sad gap in our missionary education. Nobody wishes to go back. But we are losing out in the matter of local education. We must retain a lively and informed interest in Home and Overseas Missions, but in some congregations they are seldom or never mentioned in sermon or in intercession. In the place of the old missionary deputations we must have a much more imaginative presentation of what happens to the money we give. We are weakening our sense of immediate responsibility in favour of world sentiments which must be remote. These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Another loss is in the sense of connexional fellowship. The main reason why the Conference refuses to slim is that the members value the get-together once a year. It recharges their batteries. The more leisurely two or three-day Synod was most helpful in building up District fellowship. One knew more people those days. Methodism cannot exist without the family feeling, 'the routine of worship, friendship and service' we noted earlier. We are quite right to turn the mind of the church outwards to its duty in the world, but we are utterly feckless if we imagine that we can do without the support of the stuffy old middle-aged folk in the congregation. They put up with a lot in the hope that somehow, some day it will work out for the benefit of their grandchildren. Finally, one is somewhat apprehensive lest the church comes to be ruled by a group of five or six men. It could happen. Fifty years ago the Conference used to keep the platform in its place. It was a lively debating arena, and official policy was sometimes rejected because Henry Ryan or some doughty layman like L. M. Isitt got on his feet and let fly. This was very healthy. A quarter of a century or so ago we introduced the Church Council. If the Council is agreed on any policy it is difficult to reverse their decision. In effect the District Chairmen and the leading laymen can steer the Conference in the way they think it ought to go, and they do so. One can see a council of five Directors steering the connexion in the same way. They will have more power than bishops, because there are no effective checks yet devised. One would certainly prefer a blundering Conference to an efficient quintuplet. But it may never happen. Church Union will break it up.

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THE CONNEXIONAL BUDGET In a time of shrinking congregations and rapid inflation the church had no option but to impose a connexional budget, which in turn required budgeting from Districts, circuits and individual members. The Districts have accepted their burdens with less upheaval than might have been expected, and though the church has been compelled to restrict some of its activities, we have managed, to the great credit of our people as well as to their leadership in this field. The Committee on stipends has succeeded in lifting the remuneration of our ministers to a better level both absolutely and relatively, mainly through the formation of union parishes, which has relieved the Home Mission Fund. Students also have been treated more generously than used to be possible. The ministers showed during the depression that they were prepared to endure hardship for the sake of the Gospel, but it is another thing to be held at a depressed level in times of general prosperity, which would seem to indicate that the ministry is held in low esteem. If that is so, it seems hardly worth the sacrifice. The Vice-President of Conference This may be the place to insert a note on the development of the office of the Vice- president. At the time of union the office was introduced as a concession to the Primitive Methodists, and in practice it was merely an honour to a senior leader of the church. The Vice-president had a place on the platform and might be called on to preside over an unimportant session; but nobody would have noticed if he disappeared altogether. But of recent years a succession of strong and comparatively young Vice Presidents has lifted the office in a remarkable way. He is now encouraged to move round the country and undertake important tasks and represent the church at prominent functions. The office will not again be allowed to become a mere sinecure. EDUCATION DEPARTMENT The Dept. continued to stress adult groups and the provision of suitable teaching guides for all ages. It fostered the use of the Christian Life Curriculum and had its greatest success in helping to introduce group methods as an alternative to the sermon, though of course it is no substitute for worship. In many places the group is providing an alternative to the evening preaching service which is in difficulties. The directors have fostered leadership training for all age groups. The Department continued a fruitful association with other denominations, both with regard to congregational activities, joint activities, and also concerning religious instruction in State schools. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 116

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In 1968 the Rev. W. F. Ford returned to circuit work after twelve years in the Department. He had set the church on a new course, and he held the trust of his brethren. He was succeeded by the Rev. John Grundy. It was in 1970 that "Sing a New Song", the modern addition to the Hymn Book was published. It was a joint venture with the Australasian Church, and in New Zealand the Spiritual Advance Committee and the Education Department collaborated in its preparation. Latterly the Department has tried to transfer the initiative in stimulating C.Y.M.M. activities to the Synods. Local initiatives are welcome. PUBLIC QUESTIONS During the past decade the Committee has produced some careful reports on a wide variety of subjects. Aware of 'an extensive debate on fundamental issues of Christian theology and morality' it sought to be present where the argument was hot. We had certainly left behind the old 'wowser' image. We had reports on Freedom of Speech, Policing the Law, Responsibility for Unemployment, Treatment of Psychological Patients, the Social Security Service, Age of Responsibility, the Position of Maoris in Society, Human Sexuality, Censorship, Shortage of Doctors, Use and Abuse of Drugs, Pollution, Abortion Reform etc. The need for Temperance Education was revived by the Temperance Committee with contemporary problems in mind. Inter-Church Committee on Public Affairs The Government of the day does listen to the Churches when they speak with one voice. Representations were made on N.Z. participation in the Viet Nam war, the entry of China to the United Nations, Rhodesia, the W.C.C. Resolutions on Human Need, Corso, and Volunteer Service Abroad. CHURCH PROPERTY In spite of sharp rises in the cost of building there was a good deal of activity, and we carried through a dozen or so of major projects between 1966 and 1972. The historic Thorndon property was sold, part of the proceeds was devoted to united work on the Cathedral property and with the local Presbyterians, part invested. What was probably the last major new venture that the Methodists will carry out on a denominational basis was the $150,000 Mangere project. Of necessity the joint use building has come to stay.

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New Church complex at Mangere, Auckland. With a large block of land it cost approximately $150,000 A feature of recent years is the adaptation of older buildings to modern requirements. An outstanding example is Taranaki Street. Neither our architecture nor our type of worship can tolerate emptiness. We are gregarious. The reduction of the worship centre presents great problems.

The modernised interior of St. Paul’s, Palmerston North

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CONNEXIONAL TRUSTS Probert Trust By the end of our period the Trust was in a position to remit debts amounting to $12,000 owing by the College, and to raise its annual subsidy to $13,000. The Trust has also accumulated a reserve with a view to the redevelopment of its main block in Newton as soon as the completion of the motorway clarifies the position. The Trust guaranteed the stipends of four Tutors as part of the Methodist contribution to the joint venture at St. John's College. Prince Albert College The Trustees enlarged the I.B.M. building at the request of the Corporation, and began to plan the redevelopment of the Queen Street frontage. They plan also to replace the Rembrandt Hotel with modern accommodation as soon as possible, and are interested in individuals or Trusts that have money to lend for short or longer terms. Kurahuna After a useful life of forty years the Onehunga hostel owned and administered by the M.W.M.U. was sold and the assets devoted to scholarships for selected Maori girls. Commission on Church Property In 1971 a group of specially qualified laymen visited connexional properties in a manner analogous to the Circuit visitation teams. In Auckland they recommended closer cooperation between the four large property-holding Trusts, namely the Mission, Wesley College, Probert and P.A.C. This was made possible owing to the relaxation of the rules about Trust investments, and has already borne fruit. All these Trusts want money for development, but with joint planning they can assist each other. In 1972 the Conference agreed to give slightly wider powers to Synods in property matters. Grey Institute Trust The reader will have grasped that with the growth of the country and the spread of population some endowments were increasing rapidly in value. A case in point was the Grey Institute which held mission property on the outskirts of New Plymouth. Between 1968 and 1971 there was a lot of discussion about the disposal of increased rents. These had been applied solely to the needs of the Maori Mission. After much argument the Conference agreed that the income should be devoted to Maori purposes for the present.

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Robert Gibson Trust After protracted negotiations the Trust was formally registered. It provided, after setting aside a reserve, for the erection and equipment of a youth hall in Manaia, grants for Children's Homes or the care of dependent children, the provision of university bursaries, and the promotion of work by the Methodist Church among children and young people with preference to Taranaki. By 1967 the hall had been built and grants made totalling $11,424. Fire Insurance Fund There was a change in the basis of operation when the contract with the Atlas Insurance Co. was renewed in 1964. Under the new contract the church reinsured all the risks it accepted, so that its income was derived solely from commissions and investments, but the income continued to grow partly from increased commissions, partly from higher profits on investments. In 1965 a Group Public Liability cover was arranged for $200,000 for any one accident in Churches, Halls, Preaching Places and Parsonages. From 1970 onwards this cover was provided free from the profits of the Fund. Under Conference direction the Board contributed to the establishment of the N.Z. Methodist, and has agreed to make a sum of $50,000 available to Departments at a low rate of interest. It allows a discount to certain Trusts holding commercial property and to Social Service Trusts. The fund has certainly fulfilled the hopes of its founders. INSTITUTIONS Trinity College During this period the Presbyterian-Methodist-Congregationalist Foundation was set up, and the Hostel for University students built on land provided by our church. A great deal of money was spent on the Trinity property, some provided by the church budget and some by the Probert Trust. The Council was able to erect a block of modern class-rooms, which blended very successfully with the main building. More money was spent repairing the original building than it had cost in the first place. For the first time the institution was adequately staffed for the work it was required to do. The School for Christian Workers continued its somewhat amorphous existence. The position was reasonable while the institution catered for not less than thirty divinity students, but as numbers fell off we were in danger of employing more generals than private soldiers. Another factor was that with domestic staff difficulties and a new tendency for hostel students to be uncooperative and generally obstreperous the hostel was almost unmanageable. This was aggravated by the trend towards Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 120

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 married divinity students. Hitherto a cohesive body of resident 'divs' had dominated the hostel, but this was so no longer. The teaching staff were reaching a point where they were prepared to recommend that the hostel be closed.

Trinity College, Grafton, Auckland Dr. Williams Retires Dr. D. O. Williams retired in 1971. He brought many gifts to the Institution, but above all he was the symbol and largely the agent of a most significant shift of emphasis from the pulpit to the pastorate. He strove by every means in his power to enable his students to understand people as a prerequisite to healing them in body and in soul. Without any question Dr. Lewis succeeded him as Principal and Ian Ramage followed him as Tutor. A New Prospect The Warden of St. John's College, the historic Anglican institution, and J. J. Lewis were both Old Testament men and came to appreciate and trust each other. This led to occasional visiting lectures, which were then extended to other members of staff, and finally with the consent of governing bodies on both sides a scheme was worked out providing for a combined institution at St. John's to which we would contribute four teachers. There have been teething troubles of course, but it must be said at once that the scheme has been a success from the beginning, and there is not much likelihood Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 121

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 that it will be abandoned. It is union in action in a place where this is immediately possible. Old Trinity men will be proud that in a couple of generations the College as we know it has been able through its own sons to raise itself to a level where its teachers are sought by sister institutions. Our students benefit from a wider range of teaching and tutorial contact as well as from association with men of a different tradition. The Trinity block has been leased to the Government through the Education Dept. for a period of three years with a right of renewal for a further three. The rent has enabled us to meet all obligations to St. John's including greatly increased marriage allowances, excepting rent of accommodation for married students. The Anglican Trust has been very generous, but we have felt obliged to meet additional costs incurred by them on our behalf pending union of the churches. If a complete merger takes place it is intended that the Trinity buildings, or the value they represent, shall be devoted to an ecumenical institution for inservice training for ministers, for lay training courses and for training social workers. We do not propose to lose identity, but to share in a new and allied service for the future. The Deaconess Order. The provision of adequate training for our deaconesses in Christchurch was not practicable. A proposal to transfer our girls to the Presbyterian institution in Dunedin fell through because of differing entrance standards, so in 1968 we began training the young women in Auckland. A couple of years later the wardenship was transferred also. It is a great pity that some institution of the sort could not have been retained in Christchurch, which has so much to contribute. But rising standards and costs combined with falling numbers made the venture uneconomic. At the time it was intended to retain Morley House as a hostel, but it seems likely that the property will be sold or redeveloped commercially. Wesley College Mr. C. A. Neate took over from Mr. Marshall in 1966. Though he was Principal for three years only, he made a considerable impact, and the academic status of the school improved. This was partly due to the larger roll and larger teaching staff which followed the further dormitory, classroom and dining facilities the Board was able to provide. Mr. Neate was followed by Mr. E. Te R. Tauroa, our first Maori head, son of an honoured Maori minister. Under his driving enthusiasm the school made marked progress, capturing a university scholarship two years in succession. But rising costs Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 122

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 make life difficult. It is not in our charter that we provide a school for the wealthy, and we must maintain a worthy Maori and Polynesian roll. Scholarship funds do something to help but the future is not clear. Rangiatea and Kurahuna The Rangiatea Hostel continues to serve a body of some forty girls. After forty years service the Kurahuna Hostel was sold. It had served its purpose. Proceeds of the sale go in grants for the education of Maori girls. THE SUPERNUMERARY FUND The Fund has been ably administered through a difficult period. Inflation makes fools of us all. With permission to widen the range of its investments and by tying contributions to the fund to a fixed percentage of stipends the Board has been able to raise the retirement benefits by some 60 in twelve years. The Conference has followed the Australasian Fund by modifying the actuarial basis so that a part of the benefit comes from the living church. Recently the rules of the Winstone Trust have been modified so that, after all shortfall in stipends has been met, the surplus may be allocated to especially needy superannuitants. MISSIONS Overseas Missions In 1965 the first United Synod of Melanesia was held in Rabaul, and steps taken towards union with the Papua Ekalesia, mainly an L.M.S. body. In 1968 E. C. Leadley returned to the Solomons for a further term as Chairman, replacing G. C. Carter who came to New Zealand to be General Secretary. In '68 the Island Church became independent, and the following year Leslie Boseto became our first bishop in the united church. What a proud day! In this country we continue to assist with men and women and with money, as we are able; but we are no longer masters, nor do we exercise a paternal supervision. Once we proudly displayed the sons of head-hunters as trophies of the Gospel. Today we hand over to the grandsons of headhunters as our brethren in Christ. Laus Deo! They still need our help. The Board Report for 1972 remarked that Mr. Scrivin's recent death marked the end of an era. For fifty years we had been closely involved in the affairs of the Solomons, but now we were resuming a closer involvement with Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, our near neighbours in the Pacific, if only because New Zealand was offering a home to so many of these people. The field widens before our eyes. Our parish is the world. The task continues.

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Home Missions Mr. Chrystall returned to the Department as General Superintendent in 1964. Mr Seamer's term marked the end of the pioneering era in Home Missions. Mr. Laurenson's long service was given to strengthening small causes and meeting the challenge of new housing estates following the second world war. He tried hard to keep alive the evangelistic spirit. Mr. Chrystall's second term in the Dept. was devoted largely, outside routine duty, to steering the church wisely in her accommodation to the new ecumenical temper. His keen administrative sense backed by pastoral concern made him an ideal negotiator, but at the same time he was firm and held all areas of work in a just balance. By 1972 we shared 45 union parishes. " 'New Zealand for Christ' is our slogan. But when it was first formulated little regard was paid to the plans and policies of other churches. To be effective today we must cooperate and use combined resources." Chrystall's report on "Strategy, Outreach and Pastoral Efficiency" was masterly. To anticipate a little, he retired in February 1973. His closing report (Minutes 1972) gave a survey of the Department since it was established in 1875. Epworth Bookroom The closing years of our period were exceedingly difficult for the Auckland bookroom, chiefly because we had to pay a Queen Street rent. The committee explored all avenues in the effort to maintain a footing in a suitable location. The Mission authorities were persuaded to allow a substantial rebate in rent. We tried hard to enter a cooperative venture, but the Presbyterians were not interested, although they closed their own shop about this time. The Anglicans received the suggestion but took time to clarify issues within their own organisation. Finally they merged their interests with ours in a very generous way, and the Epworth Bookroom serves both bodies as a going concern. We have reason to be grateful to a loyal staff who hung on in a depressing situation. The Wellington Bookroom owes its existence to the Christian Education Department which has a captive market in material for study purposes. It is strongly placed for mail order business and operates to the advantage of the whole church. The Maori Mission For a hundred years the Conference acted on the assumption that sooner or later the Maori would assimilate to pakeha ways. The Maori church would be incorporated into European circuits, and all that remained would be a darker face here and there to remind us that once there were Maoris in New Zealand.

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We did not reckon with the Maori. They are both a proud and an able people, on the up grade and with no intention of being integrated except on their own terms. It has always been far beyond the resources of the New Zealand Methodists to deal adequately with the huge problem presented by the tribes which were traditionally in our care. It was absurd as Buddle saw in 1855 (Out of The Common Way, p. 57.) for New Zealand to be expected to carry responsibility for what was still a missionary situation and at the same time be equally involved with Australia in Pacific ventures. The Australians never grasped the magnitude of the problem. The tribes most affected by the Maori wars were those who looked to the Wesleyans for Christian guidance, in the Waikato, the King Country and Taranaki. The pakeha pioneers had no resources with which to meet such a challenge. They did what they could. With just a little more in the way of support we might have maintained Maori education so as to produce an indigenous leadership much earlier than we did. As it was we were forever trying to make a shilling do the work of a pound, and of course we failed. Winiata's early death was a grievous loss, but the younger men who have been coming on since the early fifties are serving the Gospel effectively. It seems that the Maori will work out his own salvation, under God; and good luck to him. For one thing the Maori offers a wonderful ground for the worker-priest, and an integration of life and worship such as the pakeha might well envy. They may yet send missionaries to the heathen pakeha. Over the years the work of the Maori Policy Committee helped to prepare the ground for the Maori Division set up under the new Tumuaki, the Rev. Rua Rakena, on the occasion of the 150th Anniversary Conference. The pakeha church should not only give them sympathetic support. We ought to watch and be prepared to learn. Samoan Policy Committee Though we have only a small number of Polynesian immigrants compared with those from L.M.S. territories, the first generation of those coming from Samoa have proved most loyal, and indeed their church connection has been of the greatest value to these attractive people as they adapted to an unfamiliar way of life. With New Zealand industry clamouring for labour we may yet see great numbers of Fijians and Tongans who are traditionally our people invading our city churches. We have been slow to get indigenous leadership in positions of real responsibility, but the formation of a Samoan Policy Committee is a step in the right direction.

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METHODIST SOCIAL SERVICE ASSOCIATION Although the population generally does not wish the Gospel preached to it, it is ready for the remainder of Our Lord's programme. This is the frontier open to the ministrations of the church, and we have tried to go where we were wanted. The amount of social service property erected or acquired since 1945 must compare with that provided for the worship and teaching of the church. Our work in caring for the aged has extended from the main centres to provincial areas and in some cases crossed denominational borders, and it has attracted huge Government subsidies.

Wesley House, Picton. A Home for the Aged under Christchurch Central Mission. Always a view. Our record in Dunedin has been hesitant in recent years, but the Mission has continued to grow, acquiring the impressive block on the Stuart St. corner and a refurbished sanctuary in Trinity Church. The income from the Newbold Trust has been devoted to the salary of a social worker. In a comparatively short period the Christchurch Mission has established a network of agencies, mainly for the help of the aged and infirm. Wellington is extending its work for the senior citizens.

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Architect’s sketch of Wesley Geriatric Hospital, Wellington to open early 1975, cost approximately $525,000 Palmerston North has engineered an original approach in its Manawatu Social Centre, which holds no services of its own but acts as the outreach of the local congregations. Waikato has the Tamahere Home. Ecumenical ventures have been developed in Northland, in Tauranga, in Timaru, some with the Anglicans some with the Presbyterians. Our Auckland Mission has recently combined its social programme with that of the Anglican Church.

The members of the Wellington Inner City Ministry Team at their office, Wesley Church, Taranaki Street. From left Rev. W. F. Ford (Wesley), Rev. Dr. G. R. Ferguson (Kent Tce. Presbyterian) , Rev. G. E. Wilson (St. Peter's Anglican) , Ms. T. Hall (Community Worker) , Rev. Robt. Scott (Director), Rev. J. A. Penman (Wesley). The team is responsible to the Inner City Ministry Parish Council which oversees the work of the three congregations as well as promotes projects in the city. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 127

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It was about fifty years ago when a Methodist Mayor (Sir James Gunson) closed the Auckland Town Hall to the Roman Catholic Bishop, James Listen, because of his utterances on the Irish troubles. Recently Auckland Methodists have joined with others in supporting the James Listen Hostel, a home for horneless men. Until recently we have found it easier to 'love' people in Hong Kong, whom we have not seen, than Roman Catholics in Auckland, whom we have seen.

The Dunedin Central Mission Building in the Octagon Dependent Child Care Committees What used to be known as orphanage work has largely dropped out of sight, partly because the glamour has gone out of it. It is mostly dealing with the children of broken homes, and calls for skill and patience. Smaller units of work are required family homes rather than institutions. Though Government agencies take most of the burden today, the witness of the church is still required in this sensitive area of child care. The former Boards are now committees under the M.S.S.A. Hospital Chaplaincies A few years ago the Government of the day began a system of subsidies to Hospital Chaplains, which is imporfant boTm itself and because is recognises the spiritual factor in healing.

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Armed Forces Chaplaincies Any man who has served in the Forces knows what a strength the Chaplain can be to the young Christian trainee, or any trainee for that matter, who is trying to keep his feet in a critical environment As a denomination we have reason to be proud of our chaplains. THE CHURCH PAPER The Church is the family of God’S people. It steadies men and women by its sameness in a changing world. It conserves values and carries them from generation to generation. It finds a niche in God’s economy for the lonely and the dispossessed. The Methodists especially were clannish from the beginning. They had to be to exist. But it may also be so turned in on itself as to be self-satisfied, not affected by the major currents of life. As our fathers might have said, we could be too much at ease in Zion. Something of this clash of values was behind the change in our church paper from a house organ, a purveyor of denominational news, to a paper that sought to reach a wider audience with comment on issues of general interest. One could hardly imagine the public picking up the Methodist Times in the barber's shop or in the dentist's waiting room. But the New Citizen might find occasional readers there. For a number of years the Board of Publications had recruited members experienced in printing and publishing matters, and had advocated an editor-manager policy. This proved unworkable, but in 1966 the Times ceased publication, and the N.Z. Methodist made its appearance. The new paper was distributed free, though some supported it by a 'partners in print' policy. It depended on $12,000 p.a. of budgetary support and had a circulation of upwards of 50,000 copies fortnightly. It was a pity that the change involved shifting the paper to Auckland which was already overloaded with such responsibilities, but the advocacy of change came from the North and a number of experienced people were prepared to give their services free. The paper has had its difficulties, in spite of able professional editing. In the early stages it was mostly disliked by the middle-aged members who put up with it out of loyalty. It certainly finds God in the earthquake, wind and fire rather than in the still small voice, but then He may so choose to reveal Himself. Stillness is out of fashion, and He we know goes where the action is. They seem to have adopted the favourite text of the youthful L. M. Isitt: "I think it meet to stir you up." 2 Pet 1/13.

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On the whole one must say that the experiment has justified itself, though it would be preferable to have a lively provocative ecumenical journal shared by the churches, which would carry more weight, together with a smaller domestic organ which gave the gossip of the church. To a connexion like ours the gossipy Times was almost indispensable. Holy Gossip One confesses to quailing at the prospect of scanning old church papers for a sixty years period, but it proved unexpectedly rewarding. One got the feel of times past. It was like putting on an old coat. How else would one learn so painlessly that John R Mott travelled on the business of the Kingdom a distance equal to 70 times round the world, and that he crossed the Atlantic 100 times and was sea sick every time. How many remember today that T. G. Brooke was baptised by Samuel Leigh? The fact is of some importance. It is interesting to note how men in England were influenced by district representation. Samuel Leigh did not do much as a missionary in New Zealand, but he was a magnificent missionary advocate both before and after his brief sojourn in this land. Whiteley came from Newark, which is not far from Lincoln, where Leigh had a successful term as District Chairman. J. B. Richardson entered the ministry from Lincoln. There were three men, one beginning in the thirties, another in the sixties, another in the seventies all doing a staunch day's work in pioneering days, all called in the afterglow of Leigh's ministry. It would be fascinating to trace the ramifications of missionary influence that brought men round the globe to preach the Gospel in the Antipodes. Or think of Joan Cochrane's comment on the Methodists "It is a bad thing that we sing so well. It takes our mind off action." In 1919 the League of Nations was described as 'the greatest or all Christian triumphs'. Alas for the vanity of human wishes' King George and Queen Mary attended a Nonconformist Thanksgiving Service at the Albert Hall, and Archbishop Julius had to defend their action. Later in the year the 'early collapse of Bolshevism was predicted. Then somebody tactlessly said "The Vice President. What is he for?" A Congregationalist minister in Blackpool went on strike because his people would not come to church on Sunday morning. H. L. Richards attacked the use of the little service book in the collegiate church. Somebody suggested printing the Maori Mission reports in the Maori language Sir Robert Stout said that the Methodists had the smallest percentage of their members as prisoners in our gaols. With regard to the Centenary Thanksgiving Fund: "The tide is rising don't nip it in the bud, but pat it on the back."

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Church Union In 1965 the Report of the Joint Commission on the Union of the Churches provided for consultation and cooperative action, and for an Act of Commitment, which took place in Wellington in 1967. Joint use of buildings, Union Parishes and Reciprocal Church Membership became possible at once. In 1969 the Plan for Union was presented. The contracting churches were given 1970 in which to study the plan, after which amendments were received for study. In 1971 the vote was taken on the plan as finally amended, and 86 of our members were in favour. As we know the Anglican vote was delayed till the General Synod in March 1974, when it just failed to secure the required support. Synod asked for further time. Whatever the outcome two years hence we realise that what is done cannot be undone, and that as with the Anglican-Methodist proposals in England, the process of amalgamation is bound to go on. It will impose strains and heartburning at times, but it is now inevitable. We Methodists have enough experience of union to know that it is not all gain. It may mean loss for a time, both to the limbo outside of church life, and to the more conservative Christian bodies. But it is right. Ecumenical Committee In 1970 the death of D. T. Niles was reported. A wise man from the East, a product of early Wesleyan mission activity, by the grace of God. The connexion was represented at the East Asian Conference and at the Pacific Conference of Churches, 1971. Our representatives at the World Methodist Council were concerned at the proposal to float a world evangelistic campaign on a denominational basis. The sheer size and exuberance of our American church sometimes leads to a suspicion of empire building. It was slightly in evidence in 1951, but not dominant. In 1972 the Executive of the World Council of Churches met in Auckland. It was a pleasure to note that the young Philip Potter whom we found so impressive at Oxford in 1951 was to become the General Secretary. Expanding Horizons. The desire to do as much as possible together is growing. A university chaplain writes: "Among university students today there is a significant section who are seeking to expand their horizons, and they are moving into an area which could be termed the spiritual dimension." Whatever their virtues or their shortcomings they can be counted on to take the ecumenical view. The elders do not always realise how well informed the young are. Naturally they may be superficial but they range the world in their ideas and are correspondingly impatient of parish pump affairs. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 131

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Radio and Television The arrival of television intensified the problems which radio had already raised. It gave another blow to evening services. On the production side the demand was for selected and trained experts to present the appeal of the church over the air and on the screen. All we can do is keep in touch, since we lack the financial resources to do anything worthwhile on our own account. It is a field for united action. Faith and Order The writer admits to a certain prejudice, but he believes that the work of this committee has helped the rethinking of the church as much as anything else we have done in a distracted period. It is a pity we could not afford time and facilities for a similar committee in every District. It dealt only with matters remitted by the Conference, which fell into two main areas. 1. It studied and pronounced upon certain topics upon which the Conference itself asked advice, such as the status of Probationers, which had always been anomalous, the ordination of Deaconesses, the propriety of gowning preachers, the theology of the ordained ministry, the doctrinal standards to which our preachers were required to subscribe, the proprietary of having a Lay President of Conference, and a statement on membership. 2. The major part of our time was devoted to a second revision of the Book of Offices. It is typical of the age that the series issued only twelve years earlier was now in need of further revision. In this latter exercise the committee owed very much to Bryan Walker, who put an immense amount of toil and sensitive skill into the task. We got away at last from the old welter of words, which seemed to assume either that the Almighty was rather slow in the uptake, or that we were really speaking to the congregation, not to God.

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Above: Old Riccarton Village Church. Below Rebuilt to Modern Requirements, New Style.

WESLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Under the driving force of the secretary, who never relaxes, the Society grew strong enough to publish a stream of booklets and to promote some valuable Conference lectures. The membership continued to grow. It was in 1969 that it occurred to both the Northland Synod and the Society that the 150th Anniversary of Methodism in New Zealand would fall in 1972. The Conference agreed to meet in Whangarei that year, to allow for a Conference Lecture by some competent authority, and to give time to a worthy celebration of the occasion. A Northland sub-committee planned the local celebration, including a bus tour of historic sites and a contribution by the Maori people. The Auckland section Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #28(1&2) Page 133

Coming of Age by E.W.Hames 1973 collaborated with the Society in the production of a series of volumes to cover respectively the history of the Maori Mission, the Colonial period of the Pakeha Church, the Church from 1913 to 1972, and our Mission Outreach to the Pacific. The Waikato section planned a financial objective to mark the occasion, which took the form of an appeal for bursaries to be available to Maoris, Pacific Islanders and members of the United Church of Papua, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the fund to be fully spent over a limited number of years. The proposals met with apathy and even some hostility at first as if giving thanks for one's fathers in God was in some way disloyal to the ecumenical ideal. But things warmed up as time went on, and the 1972 Conference was the most inspiring for many years. No one who took part in it will ever forget the Communion Breakfast when the late Bernard Chrystall was farewelled, or the bus trip which took the whole Conference to the historic Otiria Marae for a reception of unforgettable warmth by the Maori people. Perhaps never before had a Methodist Conference spent such a relaxed and happy day. (At least not since the champagne luncheon in 1874). The Conference lecture given by Prof J. M. R. Owens, Reader in History at Massey University, was worthy of the occasion. Entitled "The Unexpected Impact", it made a constructive evaluation of missionary influence in early New Zealand. It was the more refreshing because so many professional historians tend to react negatively to the subject. Most imaginative of all was the National Relay Run organised by the 1971 Vice- President, Mr. N. P. Alcorn of Christchurch. Methodist harriers assisted by local groups carried a Maori carved baton all the way from Stewart Island to Northland, many hundreds taking part altogether. The relay reached its climax in the Anglican Church grounds at Whangarei on Conference Sunday afternoon, when the baton was carried for the final stage and handed to the President by a charming young girl from Omanaia, 17-year-old Murry Cassidy, whose ancestry can be traced directly to early Hokianga chiefs who welcomed the first missionaries. In a moving final worship session, President Selwyn Dawson invited the Conference, during the singing of a hymn, to move out into the world in a symbolic act of sharing with everyone the warmth and challenge of the rich fellowship we had enjoyed. The spirit of the Conference finds expression in a song written by Colin Gibson which attracted notice on T.V. It is quoted here with the author's permission.

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He Came Singing Love He came singing love, and he lived singing love, He died singing love. He arose in silence. If the love's to go on, we must make it our song: You and I be the singers. He came singing faith, and he lived singing faith, He died singing faith. He arose in silence. If the faith's to go on, we must make it our song: You and I be the singers. He came singing hope, and he lived singing hope, He died singing hope. He arose in silence. If the hope's to go on, we must make it our song. You and I be the singers. He came singing joy, and he lived singing joy, He died singing joy. He arose in silence. If the joy's to go on, we must make it our song: You and I be the singers. He came singing peace, and he lived singing peace, He died singing peace. He arose in silence. For the peace to go on, we must make it our song: You and I be the singers.

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IX Where Do We Go from Here? That those things which cannot be shaken may remain Hebrews 12 vs 27

God's plan made a hopeful beginning But man spoiled his chances by sinning. We trust that the story May end to God's glory . But to date the other side's winning! In default of more precise information we presume that the limerick was thrown off by some frustrated parson on a bad Monday morning. Most things are bearable if one can laugh at them. But here it is used to bring us face to face with the contemporary crisis for religion. Is The Other Side Winning? Institutional Christianity seems to be on the decline almost everywhere. Church attendances fall away and religious vocations become fewer and fewer. A generation or two ago the secularists were attacking the Church vigorously, but today it seems they don't think it worth the trouble. They believe we are disintegrating anyway. Denominational statistics are discouraging to say the least. Not so many years ago a Roman Catholic brother said that 'the protestant sects are huddling together to get a little warmth.' The remark was true enough to hurt. Most serious of all is the defection of youth. Denominations that have invested a great deal in the training of their young people have discovered that the generation that followed the second world war has largely turned down all institutionalised, paternalistic faith. "Youth is not quick to respond to adult-initiated programmes." Young people who are often extremely idealistic will not accept authoritarian guidance. They prefer to make their own mistakes. There are important things to say in mitigation of this gloomy picture. ~ 1. It has happened before. Not so swiftly, but it has happened Christendom has had its ups and downs, and its changes of pattern more perhaps than we realise. There have been ages of faith and ages of doubt. Pope Gregory the Great described the Church as an old and worm-eaten ship afloat on the deep, breaking up as in a shipwreck', but he still had faith enough to send Augustine to attempt the conversion of our rude forefathers.

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2. The past two generations have witnessed world-shaking events, but they have seen triumphs of the spirit as well as technological miracles. The writer confesses that he approached the end of this story with some apprehension. It is hard to end with an anticlimax. But the effort to trace the movement of the denomination during the past sixty years has left him with an increased respect for our people. They have kept a sense of mission and they have fought back intelligently and bravely against odds. There is a quite lively spring of enterprise in many centres We attract a smaller proportion of the public, but those we have and hold are wider in their sympathies and more positive and more catholic in their ideas. The young often seem cranky and difficult to fathom, but the mistakes and follies of youth are frank at least. They spring from inexperience or from passion, from frustration or impatience whereas as Dr. Johnson said long ago we generally grow worse as we grow older, and learn how to conceal our shortcomings even from ourselves. The candour of the young and their ready response to social ideals compensate for many mistakes. The permissive age has left a mess on our door-step but none of it is really new. Some of our priorities were due for an overhaul. So there is no need to hang up our harps upon the willows. The Bible is honest enough to confront us with Job and with Ecclesiastes. Perhaps our children's children will say, "I have heard of Thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee.” 3. What is it to 'win' in this context? We do not know We are a pilgrim people, seeking a country, learning as we go along Now we see not all things put under Him. But we see Jesus . . . We keep forgetting that we are to walk by faith and not by sight. And faith would not be faith if it did not have a bit of doubt lurking in the background. It is more important to be alert than to be certain. 4. The world is tending to ignore the Church but it has not forgotten Jesus of Nazareth, even if its ideas about Him are hazy. Some recent manifestations seem to us to be freakish and immature, snatching at one aspect of His appeal and ignoring all the rest; but the fact that they turn to Him at all and not to us ought to set the Church on its mettle. He was a friend of publicans and sinners, that is, of spivs and the disreputable, not sinners after the grand manner like Herod ('that fox') but petty crooks and dropouts, weak rather than wicked, the lost and the strayed. 5. The new ecumenical outlook is full of promise. The divided Church could not truly or adequately represent her Lord, but since Pope John and the Second Vatican Council she is preparing to face some quite radical adjustments, bringing all her varied gifts to the task.

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THE CHURCH OF TOMORROW At Worship Assuming a large measure of unity there must be a diversity which allows for differences of tradition, temperament and maturity. One would hope that within a minimum requirement of essentials a congregation might be allowed to do its own thing. Protestantism has lived by the sermon, which was a principal means of education for generations. What parson said was taken for Gospel. Nowadays the pulpit has no monopoly of informed opinion about religious or ethical questions. We hope there might be strong preaching here and there where we could command it, and occasional charismatic voices to quicken emotion and imagination, but the major teaching of the church would be carried out in groups and seminars and closely related to life. Methodists have always been good at getting together in huddles and squeezing the last drop of juice out of fellowship. More than most we need to relearn the virtues of silence and quiet. Jeans defined religion as what a man did with his solitariness. Isaiah found the Lord in the temple, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. When our Lord needed to recharge His batteries He went apart into a desert place and there sought His Heavenly Father, while His disciples squabbled in company. Surely there is a place somewhere for the High Altar and the space and the silence. Theology It was Bishop F. R. Barry who said somewhere that we seem to need not only a new vocabulary but also a new grammar of theological discourse. The ancient creeds are expressed in terms of a philosophy that has been out of date for centuries. At the height of the crisis we were glad to rally round the words of Herbert Butterfield: "Hold to Christ, and for the rest be totally uncommitted," but we cannot stay there forever. One of the first tasks of a united Christendom must be a Statement of Faith for modern man. Ethics In a world that is littered with discarded conventions and bristling with moral challenges we must accept that ethical norms are relative to time and place. It is difficult to maintain any absolutes beyond the words of Jesus about the love of God and the love of our neighbour. It seems that the Christian is concerned more with motivation than with rules. Rules we must have, but they are not immutable.

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A Theology of Grace What we can never escape is the sense of grace. "He loved me and gave Himself for me." "One for whom Christ died." Christianity is a religion of grace, a revelation of the given a Voice from the Cloud. It is that or it is only a dream. We may change our vocabulary and our grammar, we may even revise our behaviour patterns, but we cannot forget the Subject, the God Who is at our beginnings and our endings, the God of the Bible. Revelation, Grace, Redemption, an Open Door into the future, a King- dom ... these are at the core of the faith, and round these things we rally.

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