THE CATHEDRAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 117, 20 May 1939, Page 10

THE CATHEDRAL

FOUNDATION-STONE

MAY BE LAID BY DUKE OF KENT

NOVEMBER, 1940

It is hoped'that the foundationstone of the new Anglican Cathedral will be laid by his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent during the third week in November, 1940. This announcement was made in an interview with a "Post" reporter by the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt, Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland. His Lordship added that he had been in communication by letter with the Prime Minister with a view to his Royal Highness performing the ceremony on his visit to New Zealand with the Duchess of Kent, and-Mr. Savage had replied that his request would be submitted to his Royal Highness with a recommendation that the laying of the foundation-stone of the cathedral be one of the functions he perform during his stay in New Zealand.

Bishop Holland, who, acting on medical advice, is leaving next week on a health-recruiting trip to England, referred briefly to the response to date to the cathedral fund appeal, and emphasised that it was the spiritual and not the material value of such an edifice on which his attention and interest were focused. He was not concerned, his Lordship said, with adding to the amenities of Wellington; his desire was to do something to recall the people to a true loyalty to the faith of their forefathers which had been brought out from the Homeland and had been exemplified by the sacrificial efforts and lives of men like Marsden, Williams, and Selwyn. • NOT JUST TO FILL A GAP. "The scheme isn't just a question of filling up something that is lacking and adding to Wellington what it should have in the shape of a great house of God," said his Lordship. "As I said to the Citizens' Appeal Committee the other night, very much graver issues are at stake. The swing of the pendulum obviously is coming in regard to religion. You have got today the younger generation all through the British Empire recognising that a return to God is the only hope of escape from the present impasse into " which the world has got. "I quoted those two extrordinarily interesting Oxford and Cambridge debates and the debate here at Victoria College, also an article in 'The Spectator' from Professor Joad, of London University,* who has always been a rather keen agnostic, but who said the other day that in the course of lectures he was arranging for the students of London University those dealing with matters like Marxism. Fascism, and birth control were well attended; the only one that was absolutely crowded out was the one >n the,need for religion. t "That seems to be a complete change from the attitude of the younger generation of five years ago, to whom religion was a discredited relic of the past very largely. I cannot help feeling that it is a tremendous challenge to the Church1 to show that it is prepared to take the lead in bringing back the Christian nations, especially those in the British Empire, to a full realisation of what loyalty to the Christian faith means in the individual and corporate life of men and women. GOD IN HIS RIGHTFUL PLACE. "To me the cathedral is part and parcel of the Church's responsibility .to that challenge, because it is going to be the symbol of the fact that the people of New Zealand are putting God in His rightful place at the heart of their life, and that the Church has got the vitality and the courage to do something really big and arresting in its summons to the nation to become Christian in fact as well as in name." The time surely had come] said his Lordship, when we had to prove whether God was only of secondary interest in the life of the country, or whether He was of primary interest. It was. he felt, a question of appreciating the right scale of values in New Zealand. As he had pointed out in his first Synod address, visitors to Wellington saw fine permanent^ buildings expressive of the position occupied in the community by politics, and by commercial and business life generally. There was nothing of this kind to express the majesty nd permanence of God. PEOUD OF THE DIOCESE. Reviewing the response to the cathedral fund appeal, Bishop Holland said he was proud of the diocese; a wonderful effort had been made. The total available assets were £87,364, and the fighting fund being established for general diocesan purposes stood at £14,087. The response was very encouraging. There was, however, still a long way to go to achieve their goal. Bishop Holland, accompanied by Mrs. Holland and Miss K. B. Robson, will leave Wellington on Tuesday night by the Limited express for Auckland, where he will connect with the Akaroa, sailing from Auckland, next Thursday. While he is in England he intends taking steps to further the cathedral appeal. A committee has been set up in London for this purpose, the committee comprising the former Governor-1 General of New Zealand (Viscount Bledisloe), the High Commissioner for New Zealand in London (Mr. W. J. Jordan), and some five other prominent New Zealanders. His Lordship proposes returning to New Zealand about the middle of January, 1940.

During the Bishop's absence the administration of the diocese will be in the hands of the vicar-general, the Yen. Archdeacon Bullock, and all correspondence should be addressed to him at St. Peter's Vicarage.