JOINT LENT ACTIVITIES

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30363, 12 February 1964, Page 14

JOINT LENT ACTIVITIES

Six Riccarton Churches A Procession of Witness by Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Methodists at Church Corner on Good Friday will conclude programmes of united services, exchanges of pulpits, and other combined activities in the Upper and Lower Riccarton areas during Lent. The minister of the Clarence Road Methodist Church (the Rev. J. D. Grocott) said that united services had been held during Lent for more than eight years, but the programme had never been as full as it would be this year. In Upper Riccarton the first united service will be held at St. Peter's Anglican Church tomorrow, Adi Wednesday. The service will be conducted by the minister of the church (the Rev. J. F. B. Keith) and the preacher will be the Rev. M. Leadbetter, minister of St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church Combined services with exchanges of preachers will be held according to a roster each Wednesday in Lent, except during Holy Week, in St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church, the Upper Riccarton Methodist Church, and St. Peter’s Anglican Church. Each church will hold its own services during Holy Week, the last week of Lent. The Procession of Witness will be held at 4 pin. on Good Friday following a three-hour service in St. Peters to which the members of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches have been invited. A similar exchange will be made by the Clarence Road Methodist Church, St. Janie's Anglican Church, and St. Ninian’s Presbyterian Churches in the Lower Riccarton area, with the exception that the preacher at the first service on Ash Wednesday at St. James will be the Rev. R.. A. Lowe, director of religious education in the diocese of Christchurch. The [services will be held on Sundays and Wednesdays, and a series of sermons based on the theme of the World Council of Churches Commission on World Evangelism, held in Mexico City last December, will be followed. The preachers will use sermon outlines prepared by Dr. Phillip Potter, a Jamacian minister who visited New Zealand a few years ago, and Dr. H. Berkhof. During the last week of Lent several other united functions will be held in Lower Riccarton. They will include- a united service at St. James’s Anglican Church on the Tuesday when the preacher will be the Rev. D. S. Glennie, of St. Stephen s Presbyterian Church. Bryndwr; the singing of the Cantata, “Olivet To Calvary," by the choirs of St. Ninian’s and the Knox Church, Waimate, assisted by members of the Methodist and Anglican choirs, on the Wednesday; and readings on the Passion story by a drama club in the Methodist Church. All members of churches taking part in the united Lenten programme will be invited to the three-hour service to begin at St. James’s Church at noon on Good Friday.