DAY OF PRAYER

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 101, 1 May 1945, Page 6

DAY OF PRAYER

END OF HOSTILITIES

CHURCHES TO BE KEPT OPEN

P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, this day. The heads of seven churches in New Zealand have issued the following statement in view of the fact that the end of the war in Europe is imminent:— "We wish to call all our people in New Zealand to mark the cessation of hostilities first of all, and above all, by thanksgiving to God for relief from the long tragedy and horror which has brought such sorrow and desolation to millions of men, women and children. We shall wish to thank God with all our hearts for deliverance from the material and spiritual dangers which threatened to engulf our Christian civilisation. But the prospect of the longer continuance of the war in the Pacific, and the overwhelming problems of reconstruction and rehabilitation, press upon us. It will be no time for irresponsible exuberance, especially on the part of those who have been so mercifully preserved from actual sufferings and privations. Rather, it will be a time to thank God and take courage and to welcome the fact that we are so far set free to prepare ourselves for the tasks which lie before us. We therefore ask that on the day when the cessation of hostilities in the West is announced, all churches should be kept open for private prayer, and that our people should gather together in their own churches at 7.30 p.m. on the evening of that day for services of devotion and thanksgiving. "We cordially support the request of the Government that the Sunday following the announcement be set aside as a day of prayer and thanksgiving, and that special services be held in our churches throughout New Zealand on that day."

The statement Is signed by the Archbishop of New Zealand, Archbishop West Watson, Mr. T. C. Brash, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Rev. A. H. Scrivin, president of the Methodist Church, Mr. Ernest Nees, president of the Baptist Union, Mr. P. T. Wright, president of the Associated Churches of Christ, Mr. C. R. Lankshear, chairman of the Congregational Union, and Commissioner J. Evan Smith, Commissioner of the Salvation Army.