CHURCH LIFE IN PATEA.

Patea Mail, Volume XLIV, 6 August 1920, Page 2

CHURCH LIFE IN PATEA.

A GLIMPSE OF THE'EARLY DAYS. (By Anon.) When Knox Presbyterian Church was erected in the early days, it was onsidered a very handsome addition to the edifices of Patca. With the addition of a vestry at .the back, it stands ro-day exactly as it was put up, with this difference: that a beautiful cross, which used to adorn its highest point has disappeared, and another piece of limber has taken its place. Presbyterian places of worship arc known all over the world as sombre-looking buildings, but in the ’seventies and 'eighties in this country men had become tolerant in religious matters. We hear a lot about church union nowadays, but there was a freer mixing of the denominations forty years ago than there is to-day. The good points of each were more apparent then, and men of different religious views were respected accordingly. Most of the men who founded Knox Church were men who had travelled a good deal, had come through the trials, and the brotherhood of man seemed to be apparent in the kindly feelings which really existed between all classes of men. Each man seemed to be known to every other man, and the Christian name was more often used than now, when it is more customary to’ use the handle to his name. Well, there were three other churches in the place, two had crosses on them, and one had not. The now manager of the church that was being erected wanted to show as friendly a spirit as possible to the other churches, and after much discussion and deliberation they decided to fall in with the majority, and put a cross at the front of the new sacred edifice. That would make three churches with crosses and one without. There was only one precedent that could be found for a Prggbyterian place of worship having a cross on it, and when some of the big guns of the Church came up to open the building and visit the place at different intervals, they made strong protest against what they called the innovation, but ihc managers and adherents were adamant. ‘The cross had been put up with the kindliest feelings, and was the emblem of their faith, and they wished to throw precedent to the winds. For decades that cross reared its symbolic head heavenwards, but a new body of worshippers in the course of lime came into existence, who knew not that the cross had been erected in the cause of church unity and tolerance by men who were seers, and who saw in the distance the day when all Churches would bo united, and the old symbol of the united religion which is known throughout the world, would have a place on every church. Wo know not when, or we know not how, the cross disappeared, but it is not there now, to fulfil the mission it set out to accomplish, but with Church union in the air, might it not, in memory of the great breadth of view of the founders of the church be replaced with all due decorum and respect, and without' any great sacrifice on the part of anyone. Speaking of the churches in Patca, it is interesting to note that they were at their greatest strength in the late 'seventies and 'eighties, and that some of the outstanding preachers of that time were tho Revs. Fairclough, Luxford, Thomson, Whitehousc, and Father Tom McKenna.. These men exercised a great influence in the community, and the churches were filled sometimes to overflowing, so that the large halls of tho town had to be taken to accommodate the people.