MISSION AT ST. PATRICK’S

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 November 1930, Page 10

MISSION AT ST. PATRICK’S

• FINAL SERVICES HELD. The Marist Fathers’ mission conducted by the Rev. Fathers McCarthy, Spillane and Joyce, S.M., which was held in St. Patrick’s Church over the week- end, concluded last night. The sermon on “The Divinity of the Church” was taken by the Rev. Father J. Joyce. . In a short address following the sermon, Father T. J. McCarthy, after leading the huge congregation in the renewal of their baptismal vows, thanked the priests of the parish foi the assistance they had rendered to himself and his colleagues. He had 21 years of missionary work in Australia and New Zealand, he said, and he had never known a parish better served by its local priests than St. Patrick s. The missioners only reaped the harvest from what the priests of the parish had been sowing for years. Very Rev. Father J. Long, Administrator of St. Patrick’s, offered the sincere congratulations oL the whole parish to the missioners for the wonderful work they had achieved. The attendances every night had been astonishing and he could not but feel gratified at the triumphant success which the mission had accomplished. A word of thanks was also due to the local Press, and especially to the “Star,” for the extended reports given of the sermons during the mission.

Extra seating accommodation had to be provided to hold the vast crowd that were present at the church last evening, and a beautiful effect was struck during the renewal of baptismal vows when all the electric lights were extinguished, and each person in the congregation held a lighted candle.