BROOKLYN CHURCHROOM.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4082, 21 June 1900, Page 3

BROOKLYN CHURCHROOM.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION

The foundation of the new churchroom for the Brooklyn members of St. Peter’s parish was laid yesterday afternoon by the Bishop of Wellington. The clergy of the parish, the Revs G. P. Davys and W. M. Butterfield, assisted in the service, which was choral. In the singing tho lead was taken by the Brooklyn choir, and Mr S. B. Shortt was the organist.

It was a foundation-laying in the strictest sense, the placing of the block being the first piece of work done towards the erection of tho building. An admirable site—in a suburb where all sites are admirable—has been secured. A shallow excavation has been made, and the spoil has been placed on the western side, thus making an ample level space for the accommodation of the building. Near the south-eastern corner of this space tho ceremony took place. Some boards had been laid down for the convenience of the choir and clergy, and members of the congregation and visitors from the city portion of the -parish stood around the excavation, on its eastern and southern banks. The weather was favourable, although there was an appreciable keenness in the light breeze which came from seaward. Dr Wallis, in a brief address, said he remembered reading the other day of one of tho greatest lawyers of our time, Lord Selborne, and how, before ho built a home for himself after he was made Lord Chancellor of England, he determined to build a church for liimself and his neighbours in the place where he was to live. They that day were trying to do something of the same kind. Brooklyn was quite a small place in comparison with what it would be before very many years had passed, and they had resolved, before it began to grow Dig, to supply it with a church. And be could not help feeling that God’s blessing would rest on Brooklyn, and that it would be a better place ior having had this churchroom built in it to Goa s glory from the, very first. It would o ere no of the hignest churches in the diocese. He did not mean high in a party sense, for he was glad to know that in the Wellington diocese they did not have the party cries of High and Low Church. .And he hoped they never would have them. He-meant high in a physical sense. It was high above the work and pleasures of the city, and it should be a speaking lesson to them ot how they ought to make their work and their pleasures bring them nearer to God. Continuing, tho Bishop reminded his hearers that they had met together on a very blessed anniversary, that of the day on which their beloved yueon ascended . the throne. ‘They had boon very thankful to God for what xre had done for uaera through her. When she ascended the throne-, nearly all the thrones of Europe were threatened oy revolutions. Men, indeed, did not hesitate to say that the monarchy was not likely to have a much longer life in Great Britain. Those forecasts had, however, been falsified, and'the Queen was now dearer to the hearts of her people than she had ever been. The war in South Africa

knit her subjects in New Zealand more closely with her people at home, and increased their love and reverence for her. He hoped that there would be similar unity in tho church in Brooklyn, and that those, who worshipped in the churchroom would find not only their heavenly Father there, but brothers and sisters also, and that they .would make it a real church. They would,, he also trusted, remain connected with their mother parish. Their-churchroom, he repeated, should be, from its height above the city, a symbol to them of the devotion of their whole life to Him who was high above them.A collection made during the service resulted in the raising of a sum of £l4 13s 9d towards the building fund. Messrs T. Turnbull and Son are the architects of the churchroom; which is being built by Mr Alexander . James.. The office-bearers of St. Peter’s parish were among those, present at the service.