INSTITUTION OF VICAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20787, 2 February 1931, Page 10

INSTITUTION OF VICAR.

PARISH OF ST. LUKE'S. THE REV. R. C. COATS. The Rev. R. G. Coats was instituted vicar of St. Luke's parish, Mount Albert, by Archbishop Averill at the morning service yesterday, before a large congrega tion. The Rov. J. M- Beaufort, headmaster of King's School, was chaplain to the archbishop, and Archdeacon MacMurray also officiated.

Mr. Coats, who was born in Christchurch, began his work in the Church in 1901, when he went as a layman to Melanesia io take control of the Melanesian Mission's training college. Two years later he was sent as a lay missionary to Guadalcanal', in the British Solomon Islands, but a breakdown in health caused his return to New Zealand. After service as the first organising secretary and lecturer for the mission in New Zealand Mr. Coats was appointed lay curate at St. Michael's, Christchurch, and in 1910 was ordained deacon by Bishop Avcrill in the Napier Cathedral. After holding curacies at Napier, a iron and Caversham, ho was appointed vicar of St. Michael's and All Angels' parish at Anderson's Bay and lator at Wakatipu, Quecnstown. After spending over threo and a-half years at the last-mentioned placo Mr. Coats studied for a year at the Otago University and later took charge of St. John's parish at Invercargill. Following a period as locum tenens at the Kingsland parish ho was appointed vicar of the Parish of Epiphany, where lie remained for nine years. Last year he paid an extended visit to England, during which he acted as chaplain to Archbishop Avcrill at the Lambeth Conference.