ROSLTN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17065, 25 July 1917, Page 6

ROSLTN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

The annual _ report of the session sets forth that during the past year there had been a deepening interest in' the things that are vital and a notable liberality in relation to those things which, though secondary, were necessary for the due equipment of the Church visible and militant. Messrs Magnus Whitefield Johnson, John Kelly and John Smaill have been inducted, and Mr William ordained and inducted, into the office of the eldership in the congregation ; and Messrs Samuel Cunningham and John Daniel Randle have been inducted, and Mr John Broad ordained and inducted, into the diaconate. The baptisms for the your numbered five, the deaths four, the disjunctions 11, the admissions to membership by profession 11, and by cert : ficate 14. The communion roll stood at 294, as against 284 last year, and the attendance at communion averaged the highest in the history of the congregation. The war had been constantly presented by the pulpit as a great spiritual opportunity, and there had been much longing for a deepening of the spiritual life of the congregation. The session congratulated Mrs J. H. Kerr, Miss Agnes Vernon, and Mr Robert Crawford on having won .the long-eervice diplomas presented by the General Assembly to those who had . completed 25 years of continuous servico as Sabbath school teachers. With deep reverence for the memory of the departed and deep svmpathy for the bereaved, the session reported that the following men, whoso names were on our roll of honour, had during, the year made the supreme sacrificc;—John Cameron Crawford, Stanley Hutson Crawford, John Hudson Barr, William Maclcish Durant, William Robert Monro, Alexander Monteith Prain, John Noel Robertson, and Ernest Robert Paterson. The choir, under Mr Ritchie, continued to maintain the high level of praise, spiritual and art'stic. Mr Anderson and his devoted staff were most heartily congratulated on the marked prosperity of the Sabbath school, very specially in the infant department, and the leaders of the Bible classes on the success that attended their efforts. The development of the Junior young women's Bible class was particularly gratifying. The men's literary t ociety had awakened a breath of intellectual and social fellowship which was much valued. The activity of so manj ladies in patriotic work, home and 1 foreign mission work, parish work, social i service, in sewing, collecting, beautifying j the church, ministering in manifold ways, j was warmly recognised. The session re i corded its high appreciation of the worlc j done by the minuter. Of his pulpit work j it could not speak too highly, and his pus j toral visitations were carjied out with the : utmost faithfulness. |

The deacons' Court reported that, as the result of a special effort by the ladies (including a donation of £I<X) by Mrs Begg), the manse is now free of debt. An auto' mat : c blower for the organ has also been installed.