DEACONESS’S ORDINATION

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28805, 28 January 1959, Page 2

DEACONESS’S ORDINATION

Service At Knox Church

Miss Nancy Burgess, formerly of Hamilton, will be ordained parish deaconess at Knox Church by the Presbytery of Christchurch tomorrow evening. Miss Burgess succeeds Sister Helen Hercus, who left the parish in 1956 to become principal of the Presbyterian Deaconess College, Dunedin, where Miss Burgess trained. Both Sister Hercus and Sister Agnes McMillan, who was Knox Church parish deaconess tor more than 30 years until her retirement in 1952, will attend Miss Burgess’s ordination service. Born and educated in Hamilton. Miss Burgess qualified from the Auckland Teachers’ Training Col-

lege and then made a tour of Britain, Scotland and Europe. For a time she taught in a primary school in Middlesex, England, before returning to New Zealand. After . a teaching appointment at the Hamilton Technical College, she entered Deaconess College, Dunedin..

Her decision to train as a deaconess arose from many years’ interest in Bible class and Sunday School work as a leader and teacher in Hamilton and Auckland. As deaconess of Knox Church parish, Miss Burgess will visit parishioners, with particular attention to the sick and aged. She will also assist the minister (the Rev. M. W. Wilson) with youth work and general pastoral work.