CORONATION SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 189, 7 May 1937, Page 10

CORONATION SERVICES

Observance in Churches Although special Coronation Day services are to be held on Wednesday next by various denominations in selected churches, services are also to be held on Sunday in the majority of Wellington places of worship. -This is in accordance with a suggestion made by the Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, before his departure to England, he having received .advice as to the practice to be followed by churches in Great Britain. Appropriate pr i-eorouation services will be held in A.iglican and Presbyterian churches, also in Methodist churches, the services to include prayers which have been approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the leaders of the Free Churches in England. Tjjere will be special anthems, and Elgar’s “Land of Hope and Glory” will he sung. The main Baptist Coronation celebration will be a citizens’ service to be held in the Vivian Street Baptist Church on Sunday evening. Special Coronation Day and night services will be announced early next week. In Rom.an Catholic churches the day of celebration will be Sunday, May 16. Archbishop O’Shea, metropolitan, has addressed the following circular to the clergy and laity;— “It is right and proper that the Catholic people of the Dominion should join with their fellow-citizens in celebrating the Coronation of His Majesty King George VI by taking part in the public festivities and by religious services in order to offer our allegiance and fealty to our lawful Sovereign. There is another reason for our participation in these functions, and it is to ask God, from Whom all power is derived, to bless the new reign, that it may be long, happy, peaceful, and prosperous in every true sense. “Accordingly, on Pentecost Sunday, one of the days suggested by the Government of New Zealand, we enjoin that the last Mass in all the churches of the archdiocese should be offered up for the intention that God may enligbten and guide His Majesty and enable him to discharge with credit to himself and benefit to his subjects the onerous duties of his exalted position. “Let us pray also for Her Majesty the Queen and the members of the Royal Family that every blessing and happiness may be theirs and that they may always be an example to all the people of those Christian virtues which alone bring true peace and prosperity to the nation.”

Mr. W. McLay, ono of the early members of the executive of the "Wellington Employers’ Association, who is to make a tour abroad, received a presentation from members of the executive at a meeting on Tuesday night, Mr. A. J. Curtis, vice-president, wished Mr, McLay a pleasant trip and a safe return, and referred to the good service he had rendered the association over a long period.