HISTORIC TABLEAUX

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22540, 3 October 1936, Page 17

HISTORIC TABLEAUX

CHRISTIANITY IN ENGLAND SUNDAY SCHOOL FESTIVAL A pageant entitled " Avalon," depicting how the Gospel first came to England will be presented in the Town Hall next Tuesday evening by the Auckland diocesan Sunday schools. About a dozen schools will take part| and will depict in a series of eight period tableaux the story of the early church history of England, commencing with the traditional founding of the church in Britain by Joseph of Arimathea in A.D. 65. The beginnings of British Christianity are hidden in the mists of antiquity, but the tradition which associates those beginnings with Glastonbury, or Avalon, as it was earlier called, is perhaps the strongest and certainly the most picturesque of all the folk-lore that has sun ived from those twilight days of the nation's childhood. Groups from the various schools clad in the costumes of the period will depict in order dramatic scenes from the lives of the great saints of those early centuries —the martyrdom of St. Alban, the preaching of St. Columba to the Picts., the mission of St. Augustine, St. Oswald's battle for freedom, the school of St. Aidan at Lindisfarne Island, Caedmon, the cowherd-poet, and the missionary labours of St. Cuthbort. Appropriate hymns in which the whole audience is asked to join are introduced throughout the pageant. As the whole pageant is of the nature of an act of worship the request is made that there be no applause. The promotors are confident that all who take part in this festival or witness it will gain a fresh realisation of the age and dignity of the Church of England, and of the rich inheritance which its saints and martyrs have handed down.