DIVINE SERVICES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 28, 3 February 1941, Page 5

DIVINE SERVICES

MORNING AND EVENING

St. James's Church was;. crowded at the morning service; at which those present included the Mayor (Mr. J/ W. Andrews) and Mrs. Andrews, the Hon. W. Nash arid.Mrs. Nash, Sir Alexander Roberts and Lady Roberts, Colonel T. W. McDonald and Mr. W. T. Strand, former Mayors of Lower Hutt, Mr. H. E. Combs; M.P., Mr. and Mrs. B. S. Knox, and a number: of former councillors. The service was conducted *by

the Yen. Archdeacon A. L. Hansell, a former vicar of the parish, and the . present vicar, the Rev. H. E. K. Fry. The lessons were read by Mr. Andrews and Mr. Strand. Mr. Fry preached from the text in the Epistle to tlie Hebrews, 11:10, "A city which hath 'foundations whose Builder and Maker is God." He. spoke of the hope and encouragement which the Christian Church had found after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romah^aiapes-unS^ifTJtus in thenar--70 AOA;//&Afti&A, thbujgiftfpf the. Eternal: City/which was being built wp in the hearts and minds and wills of men. ' No^ if ever, said the preacher, was the time to realise the value of eternal things,, as those in the Homeland were realising the value of the spiritual over the /material. Their wonderful spirit was a." challenge to all in other parts of the Empire. - Speaking, for the churchwardens, the vestry, and the parishioners, Mr. Fry prefaced his sermon by congratulating the Mayor and citizens on the great progress made by Lower Hutt in the past fifty years. Thanksgiving was offered for the work of the pioneers and all others who had given their best service; to the community. A CITY OF PURE GOLD. A phrase from Revelations 21:18, "The city was pure gold," was taken as his text by the Bishop of Wellington (the Rt. Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland), who was the preacher at the combined service arranged by the Lower Hutt Ministers' Fraternal Association in the grandstand of the Recreation Ground in the evening. The Bishop recalled that when he last preached from the same text it was on the occasion of the extension of the city .of yCoventry, whose magnificent cathedral -now no longer existed. Lower Hutt ! was ' now entering upon a new" phase in its history. It was a tinjfe of opportunity and responsi-bility-rtwo things which could "not be escaped. A city was not a City merely because it had received its charter and the name of city. The city described in Revelations was founded by God. It was a holy city, a city of pure gold which time could not tarnish. The people of Lower Hutt had the opportunity, of-creating, such a city, one in which God" had a' controlling interest. Now was. the chance to try God's way of creating a new world. That should' .be the aim.of the people of Lower Hutt in'the coming years—to build a city of pure gold. The life of a city was but an extension -of family life, into which the bitterness of party politics should not enter, "said the Bishop. Everything depended 'on whether God was taken seriously or not. It meant the difference between a city of gold and one of clay. The city would be pure gold if the Mayor, councillors, and citizens really dedicated themselves to God.

Ministers who took part in the service were the Revs, J. T. Macky, E. W. Batts, R. Simpson, K. A. Bell, F. J. Parker, J. E. Lopdell, H. E. K. Fry, and Captain P. Smith (Salvation Army). Mr. Fry attended the Bishop. The singing was led by the Salvation Army Band.