PULPIT VOICES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 110, 12 May 1930, Page 3

PULPIT VOICES.

TOC H. CEREMONY. LAMP OF REMEMBRANCE. HELPING OP DISTRESSED MEN. A special service was held at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Devonport, yesterday, to commemorate the founding of the Auckland group of Toe H. The act of lighting the Lamp of Remembrance was performed with impressive ceremony. The Rev. H. K. Vickery, of the Anglican Flying Angel Mission to Seamen, and the Rev. W. Lawson Marsh conducted the service. The church building was crowded, a number of the Auckland group of Toe H. being present. Mr. Vickery spoke of the aims and objects of Toe if., symbolically represented by the lamp, tracing the history of the movement from the time of its foundation at Poperinghe, Flanders, as a memorial to the son of the late Bishop Talbot, of Winchester. The lesson was read by Major-Genera-1 Sir George Richardson. When the lamp of remembrance was lit all the other lights in the building were cut-off and everyone stood one minute in silence. Mr. Marsh touched upon the question of unemployment. 'We have learnt today that there is no radical cure for unemployment," he said. "In fact, a certain amount is the inevitable result of modern industrial conditions. All the more need then that the Christian Churches and organisations such as Toe H. should cooperate in awakening the public conscience to what is one of our most serious social reproaches. Unemployment is not due to lack of personal character or to inefficiency, but is often unavoidable." Mr. Marsh added that a band of business and professional men connected with the Toe H. group in Auckland met weekly and reported on cases of distress amongst returned men, and arranged for ti ir relief. For months, and in some instances for years, many cases had been under personal observation, and some of them were of a really heart breaking character.