LINK WITH ITALY

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32702, 3 September 1971, Page 23

LINK WITH ITALY

Holy Trinity Church in Christchurch has accepted a prayer link with a church in Italy reported to be situated on the birthplace of St Francis of Assisi.

The vicar of Holy Trinity Church (the Ven. W. M. Davies) said that the Roman Catholic Bishop of Assisi had chosen the church as a diocesan focal point for the promotion of church union, and ecumenical relations with 11 denominations throughout the world.

Holy Trinity was the only church in New Zealand with which the diocese wanted the spiritual link, said Archdeacon Davies. “I don’t know why they chose us.” Sermons and messages will be exchanged by the two churches and delivered to both congregations on one Sunday of every year, and Archdeacon Davies will visit the church next April on a lecture tour in commemoration of the centenary of the death of Frederick T. Maurice, a British theologian, founder of the Christian Socialist Movement in Britain, and champion of higher education for women in Britain.

The tour will take him to Rome, Cambridge, London and the United States.

The 115-year-o’ld bell which was dismantled when the old wooden belfry was replaced will be rehung and operating electrically before the end of the month in the new belfry tower. The bell was made for Holy Trinity Church in a London foundry in 1856. The church was built in 1855.