THE MARSDEN CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

Grey River Argus, 2 June 1914, Page 6

THE MARSDEN CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

Christmas Day will be the hundred th anniversary of the first Sunday on which Divine Service was held in New Zealand, .and it is proposed to mark the event by a special series of commemorative services and gatherings. The centenary celebrations will commence on Friday, December nth., when there will be a large public meeting in the Auckland Town Hall. On Christmas Day there will be a celebration of the Holy Communion at, off near, the Marsden Cross, when the Bishop of Auckland. . ail the Maori clergy of the Diocese, and as .many of the other clergy ns can be spared from their parishes will be present. A special feature of the celebrations will be the Church < Congress to be ; held in Auckland on February Bth, Qth, and 10th. invitations to which have been sent to the leaders of the Anglican communion throughout the world, and specially to the leaders in Australia. The subjer** «<>t dmrn for discussion include :— The ' Old Testament ; The ' New Testament in Relation to ..the I Person of Christ, ; The Bible and Evo j lution ; The Ministry ; Reunion ; Modem Heresies; The Church and the Family; Men's Duty; Missionary Work and Problems. The 'Congress will sit in the mornings from 10 to 12 ; in the afternoons from '3 to s ; and in the evenings from 8 to 10. • • After the Congress, on the evening of Wednesday, February ioth,( about midnight) a special steamer will leave Auckland to.tak« any members of the Congress, or others desirous of going to Russell and other places of interest in' connection with ""the Landing of Marsden and the establishment of Christianity ;n New Zealand. In order to bring the celebrations | within the reach of everybody in New Zealand, special services w : ]i be held on Christmas Day in every Anglican Church throughout the Dominion. Jn addition it has been resolved to appeal .for a special thanksgiving- fund for ,£20,000 for educational purposes, and a further sum of not less than ,£30,---,000 for augmenting, the stipends <■! the Clergy. It >s hoped that the <-elebrat'ons W 'H be of a national chaTact^r, since our occupancy of New Zealand is in .i large .measure due to »he "• bours of Marsden and other early •msit-.naries. B~ut for these labours "t -s V. b f ul if the Treaty" of Waitangi wouV ever jhave been signed, /and a that Crbe have passed into the hands of France. And Maxsden has a peculiar claim on the gratitude of those outside the Anglican eomirmrnion, seeing that, ' though he was -a devoted son of tihe Church of England, he was, nevertheless, always ready to give liberal help ,tO the work of "other religious bodies. He advanced .£750 towards building a Presbyterian Church in Sydney, and he presented « the Wesleyans with a valuable piece of land on which to erect a Church at Windsor. IrA his companions laid the foundations of a great work — a work for God and a work for England. j It is for us, their descendants, to Ashow 1 our gratitude by helping to the best of our power the extension of the work so well and truly laid one hundred years ago.