REMARKABLE SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21069, 31 December 1931, Page 4

REMARKABLE SERVICE.

CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL, SALVATIONIST IN PULPIT. BANDS AND WAVING FLAGS. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, Nov. 25. For the first time in history, the Salvation Army was yesterday accorded th<* hospitality of the nave of Canterbury Cathedral The dean had offered his pulpit to General Higgins. and Salvationists came from all parts of Kent to take part in the service. It v.-as an inspiring and unique occasion. Row upon row of uniformed members of the Salvation Army formed the majority of the congregation of nearly Prior to the service 500 chosen representatives of 30 corps in the division, from as far apart as Chatham and Rye, marched, through the main streets of the city with hands playing and Salvation Army banners waving aloft. Ihen as dusk fell, they filed into the great pillared nave of the cathedral. Nearer and nearer came the fervent shouts of "Hallelujah!** until the rrrey walls seemed to re-echo the cry. The banners were placed in the porch of the west door, and the Salvationists, headed by the;r band, swept up to the very steps of the great archbishop's throne. Inside were seated a score ot clergy. Dr. Hewlett Johnson, the Dean of Canterbury, had General Higgins, of the International Salvation Army, at his side The service was a special form of evensong, ths singing being led by the cathedral choir. The hymns were accompanied by massed bands, and seldom has such hearty singing been heard in the. cathedral. The lesson was read by Major Edwards, and the dean offered special prayers, arid later, from the nave steps, pronounced the blessing. Mr. Hugh Redwood writes in the NewsChronicle:—"! doubt if the Salvationists found anything but inspiration in the set prayers. I know that there were churchmen who found the tears starting to their eyes- when the bands led the singing; when fropi the throng of uniformed worshippers the words of the General Confession rose like the thundering of tho sea; when the dean interpolated an extempore petition that as through other organisations, so through the love and devotion of members of the Salvation Army, the purposes of God might be fulfilled. 'The Army spirit was there, and the spirit of the Church was there. As General Higgins said, unity does not necessarily mean similarity, and diversity is very plainly part of God's plan in Nature. The address, a telling appeal for fuller vision on the part of the Christian Church, was based on 2 Kings, vi., 8-17, the significantly-chosen story, dramatically read by Major Edwards,- of Elisha's servant who was made to see how 'they that be with us are more than they that be with them.' "It was a service from which everybody came away exalted, hopeful, happy* I passed through Mercery Lane in the midst of the home-going crowd, into the glare of the High Street, and saw silhoutted against it a knot of waving flags, beneath which a receding band was playing, 'Joy, Joy, Joy; There Is Joy in the Salvation Army.' "