TOC H. SYMBOLISM

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 63, 8 December 1930, Page 11

TOC H. SYMBOLISM

Impressive Ceremony WORLD ENCIRCLED Chain of Lighted Lamps GREAT LONDON MEETING By Tdegrajih—Press Association—Copyright (“Times” Cables) (Rec. December 7, 9 p.m.) London, December 6. The Toe H, world-chain of light commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the birthday of tlie movement was inaugurated at Talbot House at Poperinghe, where the chapel in tlie upper room is now restored to its wartime condition with the original Prie-dieu, at which 25,006 soldiers received the Communio-i and tlie shell-marked harmonium. Forty-five ex-soldiers who were among the originators of Toe H w&nt to Poperinghe yesterday morning and visited the Menin Gate, where tlie Padre, the Rev. P. T. Clayton, at nine last night lighted the symbolic lamp. Simultaneously a thanksgiving service was held at St. Paul’s, where, in silence, a lamp was lighted, after which the links travelled westward, and lamps were lighted at the same hours, until the circuit of the globe had been completed. A mass meeting will be held at the Albert Hall at nine to-night, when the Rev. Clayton’s message signalling the completion of the chain will be broadcast to the world.

Lord Stonehaven represented Aus-' tralia and German and American Ambassadors were present at a gathering of 7000 in the Albert Hall in celebration of the Toe H festival to mark the completion of the world-chain of lights started at Talbot House. Those who returned from the ceremony received a deafening welcome. The Rev. P. T. Clayton, padre of Toe H, read greetings from the Prince of Wales. He traced the trail blazed by light via Ireland, the West Indies, both the Americas, Australia, China, India and South Africa,

Afterward fifty unlit lamps, headed by the Prince’s perpetually burning light, were borne in a procession and lit from the Prince’s lamp. Then all other illumination was quenched, leaving fifty lamps burning in the centre of the hall amid the surrounding darkness while the whole gathering echoed the Rev, Clayton’s quotation of Bunyon’s lines ending: “We will remember them.” ' Then a silence was observed. Similar gatherings were held at Nottingham, Gloucester, Newcastle. Cardiff and Belfast. CEREMONY IN WELLINGTON His Excellency the Governor-General visited the Toe H rooms in Wakefield Chambers on Saturday evening for the purpose of lighting the lamp of the branch and the rushlight of the group at the anniversary of the birth of Toe H in Poperinghe in 1915. Toe H, Australia, by a bold touch of the imagination, made use of the ceremony of Light at its birthday festival in May, 1929, and invited Toe H in rotation, country by country, continent by continent, to pick up the flame and pass it on, until’(as an observer high above the earth might see it) the light girdled the globe and returned, twenty-four hours later, to Western Australia, whence it had started. This year the birthday committee in England invited branches and groups to co-operate in similar fashion at the anniversary services in December. On this occasion the lamp was first lighted in the restored upper room of Talbot House, Poperinghe, by the founder, Padre (“Tubby”) Clayton at 9 p.m. on Friday, and at the same hour all units in England, Belgium, West Africa. Canada, United States of America, and South America lighted their lamps and rushlights’, those of the London branches and groups beneath the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral. On Saturday all units east of Greenwich, including those in New Zealand, Australia, Malay States, India, East and South Africa, Rhodesia, Egypt, Malta, and Germany, did the same.

It was this ceremony in Wellington which Lord Bledisloe attended on Saturday night. There was a full muster of members and probationers, who listened to an address by his Excellency. After the lighting of the lamp and rushlight a very jolly evening was spent, the proceedings being enlivened by many Toe H songs and choruses.