ST. JOHN SERVICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 149, 26 June 1934, Page 10

ST. JOHN SERVICE.

ANNUAL CHURCH PARADE.

ADDRESS BY ARCHBISHOP.

The annual church service of the •Venerable Order of St. John, and of the St. John Ambulance Association and Brigade in Auckland, was held at St. Mary's Cathedral, Parnell, on Sunday afternoon. Mustering at Newmarket, under the command of District Officer C. W. Gooderham, the ambulance and cadet divisions marched to the cathedral, headed by the Waterside Workers' Band. At the Domain Drive the parade was joined by the nursing divisions and nursing cadets, under Lady Corps Superintendent Mrs. E. Cammell. The parade strength was 271, ambulance divisions numbering 96, nursing divisions 61, ambulance cadets 45, nursing cadets 57, and officers 12. The service was conducted by Canon W. Fancourt, and the preacher was Archbishop Averill, as sub-prelate of the order. The lesson was read by District Commissioner C. J. Tunks. Taking his text from Isaiah xiv., 2, "Enlarge the place of thy tent, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes," the archbishop said that one of the reasons for the success of the Order of St. John in Auckland in the past 42 years was that ite leaders had followed that advice, as was exemplified in the recent enlargement of the Ambulance Association's headquarters. The Christian spirit of unselfish service in w;hich the ancient Order of St. John and its modern counterpart had carried on the work of relieving the sick, the wounded and the suffering was the mark of true greatness. Such social service provided an outlet for the same qualities that in wartime compelled men and women to offer themselves for a cause that they believed to be .right and just, but it was nobler in that it sought to save life, not to destroy ifc. The offertory wae' devoted to the ophthalmic hospital of the order in Jerusalem.