CHURCH CONSECRATED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 116, 19 May 1941, Page 11

CHURCH CONSECRATED

ST. JUDE'S, LYALL BAY

LARGE CONGREGATION

In the. presence of. a full congregation yesterday morning the Bishop of .Wellington, the Rt. Rev. H. St. Barbe Holland, consecrated the Church of St. Jude, Lyall Bay, to the worship, of God. Assisting in the service were the vicar (the Rev. A. F. R. Parr), the Rev. F. A. Tooley (lately vicar of the parish and acting as chaplain to the' Bishop), and the Registrar of the diocese, Mr. S. T. C. Sprott. The Yen. W. Bullock, Archdeacon of Wellington, was the preacher. ■ ;

■ The service opened with'the admission of the Bishop to the building where he was presented with a petition of consecration by the churchwardens (Mr. A. E. Stone and Mr. H. R. Hicks) and also handed the key of the building. ; -

After a psalm and a hymn, the'; Bishop placed the key upon the altar and offered prayers suited to the occasion. Then, passing from one part of the building to another* he offeredfurther prayers for the portion of the work of the parish associated with each. This was followed by the reading of the sentence of consecration by the Registrar, .its signature, and the act of consecration by the Bishop. During the. hymn which followed, Mr. J. G. Glover carved in the marble altar the Cross .of Consecration as' a. memorial" of the occasion. ; Speaking to the congregation, Archdeacon Bullock reminded his hearers that He who taught them to pray "Give us this day our daily bread," bringing under these words all the economic, social, political, and civic affairs of the time, also taught them to remember j that it was .not by bread alone that man was to live. Yet, he said, ;as they knew, it .had been' remarkably easy for man to stress one side to the exclusion of the others to think iof bread, with its economic, social, and political concerns, and to exclude God from li|e. On the other hand, man could also pretend to love God and shut himself away until the people's bread was eaten with sorrow and disaster. He could not live for long a life unbalanced in either manner. OFFERED TO GOD. It was especially necessary that this should be remembered on the occasion of the consecration of a church— when it was set apart .in such a way that it can. never be used again for any secular or ordinary uses. It was offered to God as something which they had rightly earned with the work of their hands, and it was given freely to remind men and women of the whole district that man could not live by bread alone. "The troubles of the world today," the Archdeacon said, "have come about because of the desire of man to have the benefits of* Christianity withoutChristianity itself, to retain all the rewards of his foresight and the inventions of his mind while leaving God out of count, altogether. It is to the sense of a God-governed world that they have to return today, and how shall he do this unless he sets apart some part of his life for the service and remembrance of God. He has always . set apart some time, some place, and certain objects with which to remember If he did not, he would soon forget Him altogether.-That is the reason for this consecration today. It is born of a desire to bear witness always to the fact that he is not merely an earthly beingVbut* that he belongs to eternity/ The foundation-stone of tfcre church was laid on September 8, 1923, and was dedicated and opened for worship in the following March, during the ministry of the late Rev. A. T. B. Page in the parish. Its consecration followed the final liquidation of the debt which w^as incurred on the building.