THE GOLDEN RING.

Otago Witness, Issue 3993, 23 September 1930, Page 59

THE GOLDEN RING.

PAGEANT OF THE MOTHERS’ UNION.

Six hundred members of tlie Mothers’ Union, many children, and a choir of 200, took part in the pageant of the Mothers' Union staged in the Royal Albert Hall on six occasions at the end of July. It was a splendid spectacle, and one that will be remembered for many years by the vast crowds that saw it. It was Mr Henry Millar who produced the wellknown pageant/ “The Gift,” in the Jubilee year. It was Mr Millar who produced this present pageant, “ The Golden Ring.” He was also responsible for “ The Vision,” a pageant-play’ produced in Hall earlier this month by the ' Society for tire Propagation of the Gospel. The story was a simple one, but it provided an opportunity’ to illustrate the work of the Mothers’ Union throughout the last 50 years. About 200 performers had blank verse to speak, and it shows the thoroughness of the work put into the play that practically everyone of the performers was a trained elocutionist, and

hardly a word was lost in that great auditorium. The marvellous colour schemes, too, must have needed a vast amount of thought and preparation. , The scene is a huge colonnade which stands at the head of a wide flight of steps leading to the arena. The steps on which 10(H) performers could be grouped

appear to be of white marble. The.whiterobed Spirit of the Mothers’ Union enters and gives greeting to all assembled. There follow 200 members of the choir, dressed in white and gold. They cross the arena in two lines and take their places on the

upper steps. A middle-aged woman enters. She ie troubled about her daughter, who is entering womanhood. " Can you not teach her life’s stern facts for me? ” she asks the Spirit of the Mothers’ Union. The girl with a group of her companions is dancing in the arena. Presently she comes to her mother, who asks her to stay with her awhile. The girl replies:—

But, mother dear, It is such joyous fun to sing and dance Amid the flowers. There is nought else to do But dance, and dance, beneath God’s golden sun.

It is to teach the girl the great but sweet responsibilities of life that the subsequent visions appear and dissolve. Says the Spirit:

The lowest sins, Greed, Sloth, and Love of Self. Sorrow and pain, not happiness, is there When “Love of God and Home” is cast aside.

A dissipated woman appears, followed by five ragged and starving children. Behind these steal the figures of Want, Crime, and Misery. The scene changes and a group'enters led by the Spirit of the Home. There follows a Happy Mother with three well-cared-for children, each with a Guardian Angel. The mother sings, and the-Girl stands spellbound. Again the Spirit speaks:

Full fifty years ago the time was ripe And Mary Sumner launched a great Crusade For Holy Marriage—Holy Motherhood. How God has blessed it, what it means to-day I call the fruitful years to testify.

There enter five groups of 10, each with a speaker, each group representing one decade of the first 50 years of the Mothers’ Union. Each group is dressed in a different colour—green, wine colour, blue, pink, and grey. “ To-day ” is a single figure robed in shining white. The leader of each group speaks in turn. There is the “ seed-time,” the " hopeful years of new endeavour,” the period when “ England ” gives place to “Empire,” the time when “ the low morality of wartime claims great vigilance to stem the tide of sin,” then “ the glorious Harvest Home the years attest,” when “ the Central House of God is dedicated.” Finally, “To-day ” tells of the work in progress and there enter to music and the singing of the choir a procession of workers representing all the departments of the union, led by a group symbolical of the five continents. Then the Spirit says:

Come, I will show you that sweet loveliness And joy of childhood that your heait may yearn Ever to be its guardian and friend. Come forth, O children; dance for our delight.

Children clothed in green, pink, yellow, lavender, and blue dance in the arena. There follow’ groups representing the countries where special missionaries are working:—lndia, South Africa, China, Persia, and Central Africa; and then the great company representing the remaining countries where the Mothers’ Union is established, each group with a flag:— Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ceylon, Egypt, and the Sudan, West Indies, Bermuda Mauritius, Malay States, Spain, Portugal. Holland, Germany, France, Madagascar, Palestine. Japan, Korea, and the United States. .

They form up as a cross in the arena. The Spirit speaks again: As the great earth goes spinning on her way Adown the ages, through the mists I see Encircling her, a shining golden ring— The golden ring of prayer and thanks to God.

The Girl has learned her lesson. She says: Great mother of mothers, here I dedicate Myself, my future, whatso’er befall, To your high purpose. Lead me where you will.

Like two golden snakes, the members of the choir trail down from the marble steps and form a double ring round the multi-coloured cross which represents all the countries of the world. The ringed cross in the great arena and the multitude on the marble steps then turn toward the colonnade, where, in a niche in the centre, a vision of the Virgin Mother and Child appears. While a hymn is sung the performers stand facing the vision with arms upraised. Slowly the vision fades as the hymn ceases. The spirit's final words are these: Behold a vision dawns before mine eyes— From this imperfect world a new shall rise, If every generation keep alight The flame of our endeavour burning bright. So shall the shades of evil flee away, And darkness vanish in Christ's perfect day.

To the music of a march, the groups then pass from the arena. The Mother and the Girl and the Spirit of the Union are the last to leave.