THE ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9722, 26 July 1917, Page 6

THE ANGLICAN CATHEDRAL

To the Editor “N.Z. Times.” Sir, —I wps very much impressed by the “magnificahty” of the plan tor tile proposed tempje or cathedral in "Wellington 1 This is certainly tho psychological moment for enlisting public interest in such a noble scheme 1 \Vhv we did not think of it at the beginning of the war I cannot well divine 1 "What an incentive it would have been for all young Anglicans the young clergy in particular to volunteer tor war service! To\ have their names recorded on tablets ofsgold in a memorial chapel provided for by the Mother Country would have been a spur to prick the sides of their patriotic intent, and tho sanctification of all high endeavours! I have sent the copy of the plan (which accompanied, your Saturday’s issue) to my .son-in-law, a young Anglican, now in the trenches in Erahce. If it reaches him before he becomes •‘cannon-fodder” for the Germans it must be a profound consolation to him to know that, if he never sees ins wife and children again, they, at least, can see his name deeply charactered in gold in the proposed chapel in our temple magnificat! 1 am sure if the plan ever reaches him it null find a place in his bosom beside the photo of his wife and children! Alight I suggest that Fne site for the Cathedral be Haining street? In the Old World the verv fact that the cathedrals are often found surrounded by hovels keeps the human mind duly impressed with the idea that it is,' after all, only the things of the other world that really matter ! I would suggest that the tablet, or tablets, in tho memorial chapel bearing the names of the fallen Anglicans bear the inscription: “Dulce et decorum est pro ecclesia et patria mori.” Here, I am sorry to think, is hotK a young soldier in one of our military camps contemplates the cathedral project : ‘T hear that tho building of a magnificent cathedral has been suggested at a meeting of the Anglican Synod ‘as a memorial and a thanksgiving.’ “I humbly wish to bring before the notice of the proposers that we are now engaged in a war of which the issue is doubtful.

“A thanksgiving for what? —for the rotten state of modern Christendom? • —for the ending of the to? —for a possible German victory? “A memorial of what? Of the war? —the climax of 2000 years of Christianity? Or is it a memorial of the many noble lives lost because we wasted our time at raffles, carnivals,

Bed Cross advertising displays cathe-dral-building, and tho like? As jt is, as long as this war lasts, I wish to suggest that “£IO,OOO would go considerably towards building a munition, factory as a repentance for not giving it before when wo could afford it. “£7500 would kelp to pay the employees.” May I add that I trust that the other religious denominations in Wellington with the aid of their friends in England, Scotland, or Ireland, will do for the memory of their gallant dead and “to-dics” what the great Anglican Church proposes doing fo' hers! —I am,' etc.. CHURCHGOER.