CHURCH SERVICES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 95, 22 April 1940, Page 13

CHURCH SERVICES

\ AKAROA CELEBRATIONS

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, April 21. Ceremonies in Anglican and Roman Catholic churches continued the Akaroa Centennial celebrations today. The celebrations were attended by large numbers of visitors, who drove over from Christchurch, as well as-by those who had stayed in town overnight. At the Onuku Maori settlement towards Akaroa Heads the chief event of the celebrations of the Anglican Church was held in the afternoon. This took the form of the reopening of the Maori church, which has been restored after being closed for twelve years. Onuku is the village from which the Maoris were first summoned to attend the ceremony of hoisting the British flag 100 years ago. The ceremony, attended by about 800 people, following other services earlier in the day. . I In the morning, Archbishop West- ! Watson, preaching in St. Peter's Church, Akaroa, referred to the history of the Anglican Church in Akaroa since the establishment of the first mis-, sion 88 years ago. After another brief service in the afternoon, relays of men carried a torch lit at the altar candles ,of St. Peter's three miles to Onuku. There the Bishop of Aotearoa preached, other church dignitaries present being Archbishops West-Watson and Averill, the Rev. J. Lawson Robinson, Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly, and the Rev. M. A. Rugby Pratt, connexional secretary, of the Methodist Church. A large number of visitors was at Akaroa specially to attend the Roman Catholic South Island celebrations, beginning with a Mass of thanksgiving in" the morning, attended by more than 1200 people. An address was given by the Rev. Dr. Kennedy, the oldest surviving former parish priest of Akaroa. He referred to the bringing of the faith to Akaroa by the priests, with the.. French settlers in 1840. Archbishop O'Shea, Bishop Liston, Bishop Whyte, and .. Bishop Brodie, and Dr. Geaney, provincial of the Society of Mary, were present. In the afternoon Bishop Brodie led the congregation on foot a mile from, the church to the.old French cemetery, where prayers were said for the. dead and the Benediction was pronounced by i Archbishop O'Shea. A combined service of thanksgiving was held at the war memorial, where Mr. J. Lawson Robinson, Presbyterian Moderator, gave an address.