ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVI, Issue 89, 31 March 1926, Page 4

ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH.

(Specially Contributed). Mr Parkin and the choir are to be heartily congratulated on their rendering of Stainer’s “Crucifixion” on Sunday, March 28th. Surely a church crowded to excess was a reward for their laborious preparation and an assurance of the congregations appreciation. The writer is no critic, but delights in praising such a beautiful and surance of the congregation’s appreciacal meditation on the sufferings of our Redeemer. The soloists and choir must have given everyone the impression that they sang with understanding, ana this made their cantata not simply an excellent musical treat, but a powerful presentation of the Gospel of Redemption. Who can forget the thrill of the “perish” in “God so Loved the World”; or the triumph of “Thou Art the King” although Pilate ana Rome in their pride reign in Zion and subdue the world or the Redeemer’s prayer “Father Forgive Them for My Sake ’’The pathetic appeal, ‘ls it Noth ing to You?” constantly recurs to my mind: and never shall I forget the awestruck expression on the faces of that great audience as the organ, with a weird combination of stops, realistically depicted the “Darkness Over All the Land.” The soloists—Messrs Compton and Ferbrache were splendid and the usual St Andrew’s choir—unaugmented —must have excelled themselves.