CHURCH ANNIVERSARIE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19691, 18 July 1927, Page 10

CHURCH ANNIVERSARIE

FIRST MOUNT EDEN SERVICE! THE EARLY DAYS RECALLED. The fiftieth anniversary of the fii. churcl| service held in the Mount Ede. district was celebrated at special service in St. Barnabas' Church, Mount Edei yesterday. Speaking at the morning service, tlu Rev. G. Gordon Bell gave an outline o> the history of the church. He said the Church of the Holy Sepulchre had been the mother church of the district, the Church oi the Epiphany, Karangahape Road, St. Luke's Church, Mount Albert, and St. Barnabas' having sprung from it. The first service at Mount Eden had been taken on July 15, 1877,' by Bishop Cowie and Archdeacon Dudley in a small schoolroom in the district. The evening service yesterday was taken by Canon E. J. McFarlancl.

A letter expressing best wishes for tha anniversary, sent by the Tamaki Young Maori / Party, states:—"The memories of old St. Bar&abas' bring back associations of old times, when in the days of oor grandparents St. Barnabas' was the centre of religious and social life in old Auckland, where our people of the Waikato and other districts met in peace the local natives, who had only recently been at war and strife. We wish the now in the shadow of Mangawhau, future prosperity and success." CHURCH AT PONSOITBY. SPECIAL SERVICES HELD. St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church, Ponsonby, celebrated its fifty-first anniversary yesterday. Large congregations attended both services, which were taken by the minister, the Rev. Frazer B. Barton. Anthems were rendered by a large choir, under the direction of Mr. Sydney George. The organist, Mr. W. H. Simpson, played a short recital before the service. The offering at both services, to be placed in the repairs and maintenance fund, amounted to £137. Mr. Bart-on said that of the original membership of 29, only two, Mesdames Morton and Hopkins, were still on the roll, which now stood at over 400.