Wait for mission meals

Press, 26 December 1987, Page 1

Wait for mission meals

By

DEBORAH McPHERSON

Electrical problems disrupted Christmas dinners at two Christchurch church missions yesterday, keeping hundreds of people waiting for their meals. Several blown fuses upset cooking preparations at both the Anglican City Mission and the Methodist City Mission in two unrelated incidents.

More than’ 350 people at the Anglican dinner being held at St John’s Church, had waited 20 minutes for their vegetables after power switches on two stoves overloaded, said the City Missioner, the Rev. David Morrell.

The guests remained “in good humour,” while the steaming vegetables were rushed down the road to the mission’s night shelter to finish cooking, before being brought back to the church, said Mr Morrell. Up to 130 people at the Methodist City Mission’s Aldersgate dinner waited more than an hour before they were able to begin their meal, after similar electrical problems, said the mission’s superintendent, the Rev. John Roberts.

“Everyone was remarkably patient.”

An electrician had to be called in from North New

Brighton to try to find the fault, as staff had “nowhere else to go and cook the meal,” said Mr Roberts. Recent renovations at the building had probably caused some “teething problems.” Eventually, both meals got under way. Guests at the Anglican Mission’s dinner ate their way through 70kg of potatoes, 40kg of peas, eight turkeys, 25 chickens, 30 lettuces and 30kg of tomatoes, before washing it all down with 35 trifles, 20kg of fruit and 12 cartons of soft drink. Staff had received a donation of 20kg of raspberries

at the start of the meal, said Mr Morrell. Later, up to 80 volunteers, including a retired archdeacon, rolled up their sleeves and washed up, while the guests were treated to a performance by a Christchurch entertainer, “Mr Moon.”

An unexpectedly sweet finish to the Methodist Mission’s meal arrived in a basket load of plum puddings given by a Christchurch bakery. “Normally we serve jelly and ice-cream because it’s easier but today we sent everyone home with a pudding as well,” said Mr Roberts.