New Stone Altar at All Saints’ Church

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 111, 13 May 1939, Page 15

New Stone Altar at All Saints’ Church

MEAIORIAL TO MR. A. SKERMAN An altar which is to be a permanent memorial to the late Mr. Alan Skerman, of Palmerston North, will be dedicated at All Saints’ Church on Ascension Day, Alay 18, by Rt. Rev. T. H. Sprott, D.D., formerly Bishop of Wellington. It is built of Oamarn stone, with the exception of tho top, which is of hard sandstone from Charteris Bay, Banks Peninsula. Sacrifice and adoration form the theme of the altar—the theme, too, of the late Air. Skerman’s life. The altar will bo completed earl ynext week bj' the designer, Air. F. G. Guruse}', of Christchurch, a maker of ecclesiastic art furnishings. An idea of the design of the altar was given by Air. Gurnsey. Ho believes that it will be the most imposing altar in the Dominion, being 12ft long, 3ft 3in high, and 3ft. from the back to the front. “The piers at either end have niches so that at some future date figures can be placed there,” added Mr. Gurnsey. “Also there are carved canopies which will be above the figures when they are placed in position. The whole of the front is of carved tracery and at each mullion are cherubs, and in the central panel at the front are a carved pelican and its young, which is the symbol of sacrifice. The legend is that the pelican feeds its young with blood from its own breast.” On the top there will be five carved crosses, one in the centre and one at each corner. The crosses indicate the position of sacred vessels used in the early English Church worship. The ends aro filled in with tracery. The whole altar was brought from Christchurch in 25 cases, where it was made by Air. Gurnsey, this work occupying about three months. Interviewed on the subject of the altar as a permanent memorial to Air. Skerman, Canon G. Y. Woodward (Vicar of All Saints’) paid a tribute to the activities of Air. Skerman for tho Church ovec the period from 1875 till some six years before his death in 1934. The offices he had held in the Church' were churchwarden, vestryman, lay reader, organist and superintendent oi the Sunday school (in the early days). “He was one of the greatest laymen the Church has ever had in this parish,” added Canon Woodward, who declared that the cost of the altar had been given by the communicants, parishioners and friends of the late Air. Skerman. Air. Skerman had seen Palmers ton North grow from a hamlet into a city, and it could truly be said of hia that ho was a builder of the Kingdom of God in the district. Air. Skerman used to walk from Newbury for the 8 a.m. service, staying for the 11 a.m. devotions, walking back to Newbury to take tho Sunday school, and then back to All Saints’ for the evening Canon Woodward said that Air. Skerman was a cultured churchman and an excellent lay reader, so that he kept the little church flock together when no parish priest was available to minister to the scattered members.

The new altar is being built under the great east window, and will be used for the first time on Alay 21, the Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension.