BAPTIST TABERNACLE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22108, 14 May 1935, Page 11

BAPTIST TABERNACLE

TRIBUTES ON JUBILEE

GREAT WORK OF CHURCH | ASSISTANCE TO UNION ft The jubilee week of the Auckland Baptist Tabernacle was opened with a meeting last night, when congratulatory messages were brought by the Rev. John Laird, president of the Baptist Union of New Zealand, and the Rev. M. W. P. Laseelles, secretary of the union. The Rev. Dr. Alexander Hodge, minister of the Tabernacle, presided over a large attendance. Reference to the great work the Tabernacle had carried out over the past 50 years was made by Mr. Laird, who said that, as president of the Auckland auxiliary, he also brought the greetings of the sister churches in the Auckland province. "The Tabernacle has always been a tower of strength," he said, referring to its training of .students and its generous gifts to the general funds of the church. Although Baptists comprised less than 2 per cent of the population of the Dominion, the Tabernacle was one of the largest churches in Auckland.

Mr. Laird pointed out that other denominations in the city valued greatly the spiritual and social work of the Tabernacle. If it was true that a church should be measured not by what it gets but by what it gives, then the Tabernacle was a truly great church. Only recently it had purchased the section on which the new church at Point Chevalier had been built, and it had always assisted greatly its sister churches. Mr. Laseelles mentioned that in the past 10 years alone the Tabernacle had given over £24,000 for home and foreign mission work. It had always supported the work of the Baptist Union, the Baptist College and the Manurewa Home, in addition to a number of missionaries on the foreign field. The jubilee functions will be continued with a special musical evening to-night. A programme, entitled "Hymns and Tunes of Long Ago," has been specially prepared to illustrate the developments in the musical side of church worship. A reunion of old members will be held on Thursday evening, and further functions will be held on Saturday and Sunday.