GREENDALE CHURCH CENTENARY

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33063, 2 November 1972, Page 17

GREENDALE CHURCH CENTENARY

More than 250 persons from Auckland to Dunedin are expected at the centennial celebrations of the Greendale Baptist Church on Sunday. -The Sunday festivities will launch a year of anniversary celebrations, including musical evenings, social functions and youth services. - On Sunday a communion service will be held at 10.15 a.m. A Baptist minister from Dunedin (the Rev. L. S. Armstrong) will speak at a service of thanksgiving and

commemoration. Later in the morning a buffet luncheon will be held in the church grounds, and in the afternoon a former minister at the church, the Rev. J. J. Burt, will join with a past secretary at the church, Mr M. C. Howe, and a former minister’s wife in speaking about the early history of the church.

The first service in the church was held on December 1, 1872. In October, 1873, a chapel was added. In 1890, Mr Harry Holland, late M.P. for Christchurch North and Mayor of Christchurch, shifted the chapel to its present site with his traction engine.

In 1898, a new church was built of kauri in the shape of a compact cross. In recent years a new hall and manse have been built.

Closely associated with the early history of the Church, was Mr T. W. Adams, who imported a large number of exotic trees and planted them in the area. Before his death in 1919, he bequeathed $4OOO and 100 acres containing his planta- ■ tions to the Canterbury School of Forestry.