DEVONPORT METHODISTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 120, 23 May 1928, Page 5

DEVONPORT METHODISTS.

GOLDEN JUBILEE.

Special services will be held jit t Sui day to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Methodist Church at Devon port, and on the following Wednesday there will be a tea and social gathering. The Rev. W. J. Elliott, president of the New Zealand Methodist Conference, will preach next Sunday morning, and the Rev. J. F. Martin in the evening. A memorial window will also be unveiled next Sunday to the late Mr. E. R. Jones, who was a prominent worker in connection with the Church for forty years. About seventy years ago, a Maori student from Three Kings College was in charge of the services t the Norti Shore. Several boat builders had made a home at Devonport in the early days, and as some of them were Weslevans, it was decided to provide a junior minister for the new settlement. 1 The front portion of the present church building was erected in 1877 at a cost of £450, but periodic services had been held at the Shore since 1855, when Whangaroa, Shoal Bay and North Head were placed upon the plan of the Auckland circuit. The head centre was in High Street, where the Deeds Office now occupies part of the old building. The junior minister selected for the new circuit v.-as first rower across the harbour one Saturday in 1865, and returned the following Monday. That was the first occasion when a whole Sunday was spent by a minister on the North Shore. Regular services were not held until some time later, in a building that was also used as a school. Shortly afterwards a member of the then small congregation donated a site for a church on part of the area now occupied by the State School. A church was bnilt at a cost of £200. A few years later the discovery of gold at Thames caused such an exodus of the residents that the property and building were sold. For a number of years the services were abandoned at ihe Shore and cottage meetings wwi organised.

Some time later regular services were israin started at the "North Shore by the Methodists in the old Assemblv Hall, and a piece of land adjacent was secured on which was erected the front portion of this church. The parsonage was built some three years later, and a schoolroom in 1894. This building has since been enlarged twice, and recently a fine concrete block was added containing an up-to-date primary department and Bible class rooms. A fine pipe organ was installed in the church 12 vears ago through the generosity of the late Mr. •John Edson.

The Rev. G. W. J. Spence was the first resident minister of the Church at Devonport. who was president of the conference which commissioned the present minister, the Rev. J. F. Martin. Since the foundation of the church the following ministers have occupied the The Revs. W. O. Parsonson. H. R. Dewsbnry. John Dukes. Josiah WaTtl, Lewis Hudson, John Crump. C. v - TWcroft. J. O. Chapman. S. Oriffitl'. R. T;,vlor. W. R IWk. C. H. Mann. 'W. • T Elliott, E. P. Blamires and J. E. Parsons.