DAY OF PRAYER

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 212, 8 September 1941, Page 2

DAY OF PRAYER

CITIZENS REMEMBER

ANNIVERSARY OF WAR

Special services were held in the Auckland churches of all denominations yesterday, in accordance with the wish of the King that the people of the British Commonwealth should have a day of prayer on the Sunday after the second anniversary of the declaration of war.

The morning service at St. Mary's Cathedral Church was attended "by the Mayor and Mayoress, Mr. and Mrs. J. A. C. Allum, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. S. G. Holland, foreign consuls, representatives of the Armed Forces and members of local authorities. Detachments of the Women's War Service Auxiliary, St. John Ambulance Brigade Nurses and Red Cross V.A.D.'s paraded in uniform, and aolours carried by Boy Scouts and Girl Guides were placed in the sanctuary during the service.

Canse Of Right In a sermon the Bishop of Auckland, the Right Rev. W. J. Simkin, said that the Allies were fighting for a more noble cause than any for which a nation had unsheathed the sword. It was the cause of right against might, of freedom against tyranny, and of liberty against bondage.

At the morning service at St. Matthew's Church there was a parade of the King's Empire Veterans, the Red Cross Transport Corps and Women's National Service Corps. The Auckland District Highland Pipe Band headed the veterans' parade and the Air Force Band that of the Red Cross. The service was conducted by Canon R. G. Coats. Preaching at the evening service Archbishop A. W. Averill said that only by the maintenance of the spiritual pressure behind the fighting forces would the outcome of the war be a victory for God and peace. Tttfe only solution of the problem was a Christian one. so that a world, which had been made into a neighbourhood could be made into a brotherhood. He said that if the spiritual powerhouse at the base failed, and if their motives ceased to be pure and ideals mgh. they would deprive the men at j spiritual weapons and the consciousness of motive power which was sustaining them and urging them on.

"Evil Cannot Triumph" • T£ e £ eature of the day of praycr in the Roman Catholic churches was the large number of people who attended early Masses and received Holy Communion at 11 a.m., a Solemn High Mass was suns in' St Patrick s Cathedral and was attended by a detachment of the Women's Auxiliary Service Corps. The need of prayer and Christian Jiving as a pre-requisite for a real peace based on justice and charity lor aU men, was pointed out by the mi. Father A. Curran in his sermon. The preacher at the evening service was the Rev. L. T. Buxton, who dealt with the Pope's recent allocution on Divine providence in human events. Only God," the Pope said sees from the heights, and only God sees the whole complex convergence of responsibilities. The triumph of evil here below can last onlv for a limited period, and no longer " Dr. Buxton said that the Pope had defined evil as all the physical mishaps of the earth in a faithless age Presbyterian, Methodist. Baptist and all other denominations called their congregations to special intercessory services.