ANOTHER 1927 CENTENARY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3383, 18 July 1927, Page 7

ANOTHER 1927 CENTENARY.

EDWARD IRVING’S CHURCH

The year 1927 is remarkable for the number of centenaries which mark it and to-day the anniversary of the opening of the National Scottish Church in Regent street is being commemorated The fact in itself would bring a thjill to many Scots, but it has a nearer interest to the Dominion in that the pulpit of this historic edifice is filled to-day by a distinguished New Zealander, the Rev. G. T. Bellhouse, himself the son of a leading New Zealand clergyman, the Rev. H. E. Bellhouse.

Wednesday. May 11, was the exact anniversary of the opening a hundred years ago of the church in Eegent Square, Bloomsbury, which was built for the famous ministry of Edward Irving. The Master of Balliol and a distinguished gathering of Presbyterian leaders, including Dr Fyffe, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of England, attended the celebration of the centenary. There was an exhibition of many interesting souvenirs of the hundred years, including the Communion service and a noble portrait of Irving, who was an impressive looking man over six feet high, with a fine face and jet black hair falling over his shoulders.

The memory of Edward Irving is still cherished nt his old church, although after he founded the Catholic Apostolic Church, Regent Square, became entirely associated with Presbyterianism, and is now the scene of the General Assembly when it meets in London. When the Regent Square Church was opened Irving was at the height of Ids fame, and eminent people used to flock to hear him. Mr Gladstone recalls in a page of reminiscence his sitting as a child with his father in the gallery and enjoying the sight of the crowd struggling below for places. Before long Irving’s fortunes began to decline, he was deserted by the fashionable crowd, and in time, as everyone knows, he developed a strange form of mysticism with the seeing of visions and the hearing of “tongues.” Five years after the opening of the Regent Square Church he was driven out, and died a broken man at the age of forty-two.