MARSDEN CENTENARY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 30 May 1914, Page 4

MARSDEN CENTENARY.

THE CHURCH'S PROGRAMME

Christmas Day will be the hundredth 'anniveisary of the first. Sunday ou which Divine service was held in New Zealand, and it is proposed to mark the event by a special series of oommerative services and gatherings. The centenary celebrations will commence on Friday. December 11th, 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, or near, the Marsden Cross, when the Bishop* of Auckland, all the Maori clergy'of the Diocese, and as many of the other clergy as 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, 9th, and 10th, invitations to which have beMi sent to the leaders of the Anglican communion throughout the world, and specially to the'leaders in Australia. The subjects set down for discussion include: The Old Testament, the New Testament in Relation to the Person of Christ; the Bible and Evolution; the Ministry; Re-union; Modern Heresies; tho Church and the Family; Men's Duty; Missionary Work and Problem?..

The Congress will sit in the mornings from 10 till 12; in the afternoons from 3 till; 5; and in the evenings from S i until 10. ' \ , After the Congress, on the evening ' of Wednesday, February 10 (ahmit midnight;, a special steamer will leave Auckland to take.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 in New Zealand. In order to bring the celebrations s within the reach of everybody in New [ Zealand, Fpecial services will be held on Christmas Day in every Anglican -Church throughout the Dominion. In addition, it has been revived to apfor a special thanksgiving fund of £20.000 for educational purposes and a:further sum of not less than £30.000 for augmenting the stipends of the clergy. h

It is hoped that the celebrations will he of a national character, sinco British" occupancy of New Zealand is in a r> larrre measure due Vv the_ labors^ of Marsden and other early missionaries. Put for these InW<* it is doubtful if the Treaty of Waitar*si would ever *>aye been signed, and in that case the "Dominion would, in all prohahility, have passed: into the har^s of France. And Marsden has a. peculiar claim on the gratitude of those out«id«■ th« A"glican coimriunion, seeing that, though was a devoted son of +bo Church of England, he wa*s, nevertheless, always ready to give liberal help +o the work of other religious hndies. JTp, pdvaneed P750 towards building a Presbyterian Church in Sydney, and he presented the Wesleyans with a valuable oie^e of land on which to erect a- church at Windsor.. '

. Marsd&n and his companions l*nd ;the foundations of a great work, and it is for men of the'present day to show their gratitudo by helning to the best of their ability to do th« vrork so well and truly begun one hundred years ago.