MOTHERS’ UNION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 14, 14 December 1939, Page 12

MOTHERS’ UNION.

NEW MEMBERS ADMITTED. Tlio final meeting for the year of All Saints’ Mothers’ Union was held yesterday afternoon and opened with a sendee in the Lady Chapel, at which three new members were admitted by Canon G. Y. Woodward. They are Mesdames N. Clarke, C. T. Croad and T. C. Evans. Hymns appropriate to the Christmas season were sung. Canon Woodward gave a talk on the ritual and ceremonial of the Church. Ritual, he said, really meant-the way of, conducting the services of the Church. The Rubric laid it down that those tilings were to be done that were done in the second year of the reign of Edward VI. Therefore the ritual was simply carried out in obedience to the laws of the Church. Ritual was simply the good manners of worship. It belonged to ordinary life also, being the ceremonial of social life. There was also the ceremonial of national life, such as the preparations made for a royal visit. In the Church there were two divisions of ritual—the ornaments of the Church and the ornaments of the clergy. All through the Empire the feast of the Annunciation was observed by members of the Mothers’ Union as the day of their patron. The Lady Chapel was also dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. The most sacred part of a chape] or church was the altar, where the Communion was celebrated in memory of the Crucifixion and the institution of the Holy Communion on the night before Good Friday. Canon Woodward went on to detail various observances laid down by canon law, such as the liturgical colours and their significance; the cross, the symbol of faith; the candles, which were the sign that Christ was the light of the world. Flowers had no a.ncient authority, but had come to he used finite a lot in churches, and they signified life. The people were reminded | that Christ had said. “I am the wav, the truth and the life,” because the cross signified the way; the candles the truth and the flowers, the life. Many people said that it was not necessary

to worship in a church, as worship could he just as effective anywhere. This might he so, hut the ritual and ceremonial of the Church were uplifting, and the more elaborate the service tlie more uplifting was the atmosphere. Tile meeting subsequently adjourned to the Girls’ Club room, where Canon Woodward presided. A letter was received from Mrs Ashworth, thanking members for sympathy in the death of her father (Mr L. A. Abraham). A report of the meeting of the Dominion council was road by the secretary (Mrs C. E. Metcalfe) and of tho Manawatu branch, of the National Council of Women to Mrs W. Briden Jones. It was agreed to send a letter to Bishop and Mrs Holland greeting them on their return to New Zealand and expressing good wishes for their health. Canon Woodward reminded members of the children’s carol service, and Mrs : E. Dawick conveyed an invitation to ; a . social being given by tho Men’s . Club. i Songs were sung bv Mrs L. J. Ax 1 and a recitation by Billy Dawick. Afternoon tea was served by Mesdames T. Inglis, IT. Wollerman, Radcliffo and , Middlemiss.