“END OF AN EPOCH.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 3 December 1928, Page 6

“END OF AN EPOCH.”

CLERGY OF KENT. LONDON, Oct. 5. There was a touching scene at Lambeth Palace, on Wednesday, when the retiring primate and Mrs Randall Davidson held a reception to sav goodbye to people of Kent. Over 1000 of the clergy and churchwardens of the country, with their wives, were present, and Dr and Mrs Davidson, who shook hands with, all, were obviously deeply affected. After tea in the old guard room the guests went into the beautiful oaken library, where the archbishop delivered what was perhaps his most moving address. “It is not an easy thing,’ ’lie said “when you come to the end of an epoch, to say a word of greeting and farewell. For the end of an epoch must needs be a moving thing, and it is not easy to find the right words, for more reasons than one. If it is not an easy thing, it is not necessary, because there is no one here who does not know and understand what is passing through the mind of my wife and myself as we bring to an and gloriously happy and interesting years.” Speaking of his- successor, the Archbishop of York, the primate said that lie was a. man of great experience. “You will welcome him, and you will not be disappointed. He is a younger man than I am, and I hope lie will be able to do much more than I have been able to do of late yeans. Twenty-five years is a large slice in the life of a man or woman. It is a. large slice in the long long story of the diocese, and when I look back on those years of diocesan life it is strange and solemn and humiliating to feel how many have, been

the changes during that time, and how much share one lias had in trying to do the right thing. AYe have an imperishable link while life lasts. My wite and I go off now, in many ways, sorrowfully, from this home to private iile, but not a life that- will he dissociated from the Kent the diocese, or the -people we love. \Ve have worked together- for 25 years without a hitch or drawback of any kind, and now wlien the 25- years are closing and tlie freshness goes, there remains the most sacred of all links —the link ol pride. 1 believe that God will bring to completion the work that has been going on during these busy and eventful years. AVe pass out of it as workfolk, but the work will go on. I pray you may always go forward. ’ There was silence for a few moments and then the people bowed their heads, as the archbisli-op gave them Ids blessing. Some dropped to their knees. ....