MINISTER INDUCTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 114, 15 May 1924, Page 13

MINISTER INDUCTED.

BEBESFOBD STREET CHURCH.

REV. LIONEL B. FLETCHER.

The induction of the Rev. L. B. Fletcher as pastor of the Beresford Street Conjrre"ational Church took place last eveniugr The service was conducted by the Moderator, the Rev. Harry Johnson, Mount Eden.

Mr. F. W. Matthews, senior deacon of the church, made a statement regarding the call, saying that a commission had been despatched to the Colonial Missionary Society, London, to place in the hands of some outstanding minister the call to their church. He said that the Congregational church throughout the Dominion, was suffering from a spirit of depression and they wanted someone who would lift up into a strong enthusiasm all the churches of the denomination throughout the Dominion. "I believe that the coming of Mr. Fletcher will be such an influence," he added.

In reply, the Rev. Lionel B. Fletcher said that nineteen years ago next week he was inducted into his first charge, hut he had never had any thought of coming across the sea to New Zealand. He had interviewed man after man in an endeavour to meet the call, and at last the secretary of the society had suggested to him to accept the call himself. Three times the suggestion was made to him, and three times he refused. He was on an American tour when a fourth request was cabled to him from the ministers: "Will you not reconsider and go to New Zealand ?"— j "No, I will not go," he replied by cable; but that call haunted him throughout his American tour. He and his wife one night prayed for guidance, the path seemed opened, and he decided to come. "I am a son of the Dominion," he said, "and,, next to God, the love of the Empire to which I belong is the greatest passion of all my life. If God has called mc for the building of a new nation in this mighty Pacific, I have done my best to follow the Light. The call has come. I believe God has put his hand upon mc and I am here tonight; and I pray that my coming may be for the blessing of this church and for my blessing." The other ministers taking part in the service were the Rev. George Jackson (Devonport Congregational), the Rev. George Heighway, the Rev. Harold Ralph (Greenlane), the Rev. Frank de Lisle, the Rev. E. H. Taylor (Western Springs), and the Rev. Frank Tucker)