PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Evening Star, Issue 23498, 12 February 1940, Page 12

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

CENTENNIAL ASSEMBLY The special Centennial General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand will be held at Wellington from February 20 to February 23. The Eight, Eev. the Moderator, Rev. J. Lawson Robinson, will preside over the celebrations. Owing to the war many overseas representatives, including the delegate from the Church of Scotland, Professor John Baillie, will not be able to attend. Among representatives who will be present when the overseas delegates are welcomed on February 20 are the Rev. Dr John Mackenzie, exModeratbr of the Presbyterian Church of Australia: The Rev. Dr Miskelly, of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland; and Mr E. M. Jarvis, pf the Presbyterian Church of South Africa. Numerous greetings have been received, including on© from a representative of the German Confessional Church. On February 21, at 10 a.m.. the GovernorGeneral will visit the Assembly, and on

Thursday, February 22, the Prime Minister, the Mayor of Wellington, and representatives of sister churches will be welcomed. On Thursday evening, February 22, in St. John’s Church, a youth demonstration will be held, the speakers being the Rev. Dr John Mackenzie, the Rev. H. A. Mitchell, of Dunedin, and Mrs M. D. Whitelaw, of Blenheim. The cliinax of the celebrations will bo the service of commemoration and unveiling of the memorial cross on Petone beach, where, on February 23, 1840, the first Presbyterian service in New Zealand was conducted by the Rev. John Macfarlape. On Sunday, February 25, at 2.30, a memorial plaque on the Commercial Bank of Australia building, Lambton Quay, the site of the first Scots Church, will bo unveiled. From this beginning the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand has grown until it is now numerically' the second largest church. According to recent statistics, connected with the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand are (320 churches, 755 other preaching places, 54,798 communicant members, 738 Sunday schools with 34,506 scholars, 1.126 Bible classes with 14,166 members. 402 Women’s Missionary Union groups

with 9,205 members, 16 Maori mission stations with 28 workers, 27 foreign missionaries with many Native assistants, and numerous schools and homes for children and young people. The 1936 census' reports that there are 367,855 Presbyterians in New Zealand, about 25 per cent, of the total population. On Sunday, March 10, special services of thanksgiving for the blessings of the past 100 years will be held in all Presbyterian Churches throughout Ne:v Zealand. In Dunedin a service will be held in the Town Hall on March 10, at 7 p.m.. when city and suburban churches will unite in a great service of thanksgiving. The Moderator, the Rev. W. Allen Stevely, will preside and conduct the service, assisted by the Rev. D. C. Herron. The special preacher for the occasion will bo the Rev. Professor J. A. Allan, of Knox College.