JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 235, 2 October 1916, Page 9

JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS.

! I .PITT STREET METHODIST CHURCH i I j Large co~~ eg3_.-o__. attended th» I jabilee ceiegratior* of the Pit; Street, j as-semr-ling who have in the intervening nan century associated the__se_ves w:tn other caases. Tie P*ev. C. H. La_- . preacnei at the morning servit-e from ! i 1 he appropriate text starting "Remember tne days of old. consider the years .of many generations: ask thy father jand he will show tnee. tame elders and ■ they will tell thee." The J r=iaj.her me.-- ---: tioned that tbe first Methodist sermon i-_as preached in Aui__land by tbe Rev. ... .Sam-el Leigh, from the text. "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." ,Mr Laws paid eloquent testimony to the ! . faithful renderei the Church by the pioneers of Method___a in this city. 1 In the afternoon there wa_. a larsr* j .T-the-rin-g o: Sunday school attendants, ivjich -aa.s addressed by the Rev. P. P_ ' Pans. The Rev. W. Morioy. D_D.. preached at the evening -fm . to a r«g I ! ing of Methodists and old fnends. Dr. [ j Morley _ia_s c-ome over fmn Melbourne j for the purpose of attending the juhle* iof tne cnurch. he having 3_eisted at toe j opening, half a century ago. Preaehng I from tne text "Hitherto hath the Lord j helped as." Dr. Moriey gave some in- | terest ing data regarding the growth of Methodism. He said that 50 years ago. when the Pitt Street Church wa__ j opened, there were in Auckland 12 1 Methodist churches and four preaching : places, with 529 scholars on the Sunday _- 200} roll, and the churches had -567 | members, with a total of 1550 worship- j j pers. To-day there were 7 circuits, with j 116 ministers. 15 supernumerary minisI ters. an.. 55 local preachers- The Sunday : school scholars Ettmbered 4300. and the j ! members of the respective churches | 4000. In all there were "over 10.000 wor- I i shippers at the Methodist churches in ; i Auckland. Thirty years ago. throughout | f The Common-ealth of Australia and in I ! Ne - * Zealand, there had been 709 I ; churches: there were now 3000. Three | : decades aro the ministers numbered 195. j j whi__st at the present time they totalied I fiOU. In 1556 there were 24.000 members lof the Methodist Church, and now there j 1 124.000. The worshippers num-1 I bered 500.0ij0. or one-twelfth of the | . topuiation of the "two countries. The oS'ertories yesterday totalled i £340. To-morrow evening there will _c a Ijuiil-ee demonstratiom at which Mr -J. I H Gunson .Mayor! is to preside, and t Br. Moriey. as wel] as Principal Garland. will -peak. i ====== 1