SCENE AT CHURCH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17949, 29 November 1932, Page 4

SCENE AT CHURCH

VISIT OF RIVAL SECT DISTURBANCE AFTER SER3VION A wordy demonstration, which culminated in the summoning of a policeman, occurred outside the Mount Eden Baptist Church, Auckland, on Sunday evening, when the congregation, emerging from the door after the service, were confronted by about 10 militant members of a sect named the Company of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who called upon the church people to “admit their emus and accept the truth.” Members of the congregation were stopped, on their way out. by several men and women, who asked them to accept tracts, for which a. contribution of 3d or 6d was asked. “We are right! You are wrong!” was the burden of their oration, as they pressed their theological views upon the amazed congregation. In excitable voices the 10 Jehovah Witnesses forcefully arrainged the preacher, the Rev. R. Stewards, with whose sermon, “iiillonial Dawnism,” the first of a series of addresses on “The Old-time Religion and Modern Substitutes.” they heartily disagreed. They called upon the congregation to depose their minister, one of them saying lie was “doing no good” and was “living on the fat of the land.”

The argument became so heated that somebody went for - a policeman. (In his arrival, the constable pleaded with the disputants to take their differences ■elsewhere, lie told them they were not legally entitled to invade the church property and counselled them to leave immediately.

After a vain attempt to convert, the policeman to their particular theological interpretation, the disturbers saw they were making little progress and took their departure, shouting as they went, “Well, we have delivered our witness!” Several of the older members of the congregation were so disturbed as a result of the incident that they had to he supplied with escorts to see them home.