UNITY OF SPIRIT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 253, 23 September 1935, Page 8

UNITY OF SPIRIT

BETTER PERCEPTION NEEDED. VICAR’S FAREWELL SERMON. “If only we could realise the Unity of the Spirit, get outside of ourselves attd do in the spirit what we do in the body and mind, our worship would be more dignified and real. We all suffer front what I call little-minded-ness. We are all too wrapped up in our own affairs, like small parcels inside brown paper. The Church is the only influence which can break down the harriers of race, class, creed and colour.”

This comment was made by Rev. H. Whitby James, vicar of St. Peter’s Church, Terrace End, in the course of a farewell sermon to his parishioners yesterday morning, when, taking part of the third verse of the 4tn Chapter of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians as his text, he preached on “Endeavouring to Keep the Unity of the Spirit,” and emphasised the identical mission of the Cliurch in the remote hackhlock districts of New Zealand with that in the age-hallowed cathedrals of England. Mr and Airs James, with their two sons, sail for England by the Rnngitane on Friday next, after having been associated with t!ie parish of St. Peter’s since April last.

“We realise, with age, the most infinite value of those things which we have not seen, and the passing value of those things which are seen,” said Mr Jnmes in dealing with powers of perception. Life, he added, was like a river. The latter had its source in a quiet, sequestered valley, developed to a stream, then a river, taking tributaries in its stride, until it reached the sea and submergence. Life, from the first cry of the wailing babe, had similar stages of progress until identity was lost in ripe old age. This Sunday, which drew to a close his ministry at St. Peter’s, said Mr James, marked the end of an epoch in his life. His mind went back to his early days with St. David’s Cathedral in Wales, his worship by the shrine of the saint and the tomb of the uncle of the first Tudor Kings. His thoughts went back to his succeeding curacy among the miners and farmers, ail classes, in Wales, where he had realised he had to he to them God’s man. His recollections went to a later sphere of work in a very fashionable cliurcli, with its background of tradition and tremendous historical associations. There he met Rev. C. C. Harper, iormerly the incumbent of All Saints' Church in Palmerston North, and now the vicar of Ford, in Northumberland. Thus he came to New Zealand to a place which was not even marked upon the map in his possession—Tinm, on the east coast, where he spent years. That was a real ministry with tlie same Lord, the administration of the same Sacraments, and endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit with the ancient Church of AVales, which, it was claimed, rocked the cradle of tlie Church of England. It was a peculiarity of the Celtic Church that the people and the priests were on the same level.

“J would have been out here eight years on October 27,” added Air James, “and my ministry has been a varied and interesting one—full of failings, I am afraid, of many joys and of sorrow.” He said he had gone into the back-blocks hardly knowing one part of a horse from the other. To him New Zealand would always be those backblocks people who were the back-bone of New Zealand. He had the greatest admiration for these people who toiled in an isolation now happily lessened. Subsequently, said Mr James, he had gone to Hawera and then had had a very brief period with St. Peter's. He would always feel, when he returned to the Old Country, that his spiritual horizon had been enlarged by his experiences in New Zealand. Unity of the Spirit broke down all barriers, he added. There was one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Those in the back-blocks shared the Sacraments 1 with those in the most stately buildings of an older civilisation. It had been a joy to minister to the Alaori people, among whom he had god-children, and he treasured the gifts he had received from them when he left the east coast.

Concluding, Mr James said that for many years to come there should be an interchange of priests between the Old Country and New Zealand, to maintain the unity of the Church. He thought that the Old Country was to blame very largely for the present spiritual state of New Zealand. The Bishop of Wellington had declared that never in the 26 years of his episcopate had the diocese been so short-staffed as at present. The Anglican Church in New Zealand could not secure enough trained men. Mr James urged his congregation to endeavour to keep the Unity of the Spirit. There was a very good congregation in the evening, when Mr Janies spoke on a passage from Nehemiah, “and thev built the wall, for the people had a mind to work.” He dwelt at length on the significance of the words, which related to the restoration of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of breaches which had been made :n the ivalls. The vision of Nehemiah, who was not dismayed by the task before him, but set about it with firm resolution, was stressed byMr Janies, who made an analogy of this with the building up of the young church in New Zealand. He spoke of the determined manner in which the pioneers had created this new colony, and the strength of their spiritual life, urging that it be maintained in the future. He quotod an old Welsh proberg: “Without God nothing; with God everything.” Parishioners of St. Peter’s were counselled by Mr Janies to have a vision of their future church —a fine structure gracing the head of Broadway Avenue, and to prepare for the reality, as all older churches had done, by making a beginning and adding from time to time with planned perception. Concluding, Mr James said he would ever remember St. Peter’s Church, and would look forward to the fulfilment of the vision of which he spoke. After the service the vicar met the parishioners in the Sunday school hall, where the wardens (Messrs W. Coutts and G. G. Priest), voiced sentiments of farewell, to which Air James responded.