Christchurch Vicar To Be Chaplain In Singapore

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30953, 8 January 1966, Page 12

Christchurch Vicar To Be Chaplain In Singapore

Chaplain to a school with more than 2500 pupils will be one of the jobs of the Rev. T. A. McKenzie, vicar of St. James’s Church, Riccarton. who will leave on January 30 to take charge of the Parish of the Ascension, Singapore. Mr McKenzie, who will be accompanied by his wife and four children, will be on "loan” from the Diocese of Christchurch for three years, and expects to return after that period. He will serve also as chaplain of St. Andrew’s School, a primary and secondary establishment with a staff of

50 and about 1400 primary and 1250 secondary pupils. “The school day starts at 7.30 a.m., and there are two distinct sessions in both departments, morning and afternoon, so that all the pupils can be accommodated,” said ' Mr McKenzie yesterday. He had noted with inter est a warning in the school calendar: “It may be well for vou to note this: Irrespective of whether you are in secondary 1 or pre-university 1. the pupil who shows that he or she does not want to work must leave at the end of the year.” Mr McKenzie said he believed that with school accommodation at its limit, the authorities had decided that it would be unfair to allow dilatory students to continue while others wanted to come to St. Andrew’s. The school was founded by the Church of England in 1862. Its roll has 80 per cent Chinese children, with the rest Indians and Malays. The two McKenzie bovs of school age will attend St. Andrew’s, and their sister will go to a similar girls’ college. The centre of Mr McKenzie’s parish is the Church of the Ascension, dedicated in 1962. It is used also as the school’s place of worship.