St. Mary’s, Pleasant Point.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 4894, 31 December 1888, Page 3

St. Mary’s, Pleasant Point.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE. Yesterday afternoon the Fight Bov. Dr Grimes, Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, assisted by local clergy, laid the foundation stone of a Catholic Church at Pleasant Point. Advantage was taken of the season and the railway to. make the gothering on the occasion as large as possible by running a special train from 'Timaru, and the afternoon being beautifully fine, somewhere about 300 adnlts, accompanied by a good number of children not counted, availed themselves of the means and opportunity to attend the ceremony. Early in the afternoon traps of all kinds began to arrive at the scene, and by three o’clock there was a long string of farmers’ carts from the surrounding district resting their wheels on a' vacant lot hard by, and a good many smaller groups all over the township. The train loft town a little after the advertised time, 2.30, and ran out in forty minutes, picking up a few more passengers at Washdyko and Levels. Everything was in readiness for the ceremony. The site of the church is immediately behind the railway (passenger) station, separated from it by a roadway only, and arrivals had no difficulty in finding it, for a gay string of bunting stretched on tall scaffold poles placid all round the foundations, and other preparations in the shape.of a platform and canopy, sufficiently advertised the place. The foundations, of concrete, had all been put down, a vacancy being left at one corner to be filled with the formal “ corner stone,” a small block of dolerite bearing the year date “ 1883,” and this was slang ready for lowering into its place. - Soon after the arrival of the train a small procession was formed at Mr T. Geaney’s cottage, a hundred yards away, to escort the right rev, gentleman and his assistants thence to the site. His Lordship, in full pontificals, preceded by lads carrying the insignia of his office, was accompanied by his chaplain, /Father Briand, and Fathers Fauvel (Temnka), Bowers (Geraldine), and Foley and Brown (Timaru). After the clergy walked a bevy of children two and two, and then adult members of the church. The procession broke up on reaching the site, and the crowd pressed closely on the barriers all round the foundations, or mounted piles of contractors’ stuff lying near. There must have been a good way over 1000 people on the ground, old and young, and the light summer dresses of the ladies, -with the bunting flying overhead, made the scene a bright one. The sun shone hotly, a_ source of discomfort for men who bared their heads from time to time, and a brisk breeze from the sea scarcely tempered the heat, while more or leas drowning tho voices by fluttering the flags. His Lordship conducted a short preliminary service in the midst of the foundations and then ensued the principal ceremony of, blessing the foundation stone, for tho laying of which a handsome silver trowel was provided, and tho consecration of the future building to the Blessed Yirgin Mary. The usual sprinkling of the stone and the exterior foundations with holy water followed, and the Bishop and his assistants then ascended a canopied platform erected for the purpose, whence His Lordship delivered an address appropriate to the occasion, from the test Isaiah xxviii., 16. In the first place, however, he explained the ceremonies that had been performed, showing that each step had its solemn meaning, and that each form, and the language used, were worthy ot respect and reverence from their antiquity. The same ceremony which his hearers had just seen had been witnessed at the foundation of churches which had been the wonder of "Europe for centuries past, and would continue to be so for centuries to come, and the language, which was used in those earlier days when bishops went forth carrying Christianity and civilisation to Germany, to Ireland (since a true home of tho faith) and to England, had .been as unchanged as the dogmas expressed in it. His lordship then gave a practical explanatory address on the relation of the visible to the spiritual church, and on the history of the foundation of the church,whose unity, apostolicity, universality, catholicity and perpetuity, Were represented in the ceremony of the day, and would bo represented in the. building about to be erected and its. services. His Lordship closed a long and interesting address by pronouncing the Benediction, and announcing that contributions to the building fund would bo received by the committee on the foundation stone. He was sure they would be pleased to as Ist in erecting this visible church, which would be an honour to the place, and hoped they would all belong to the spiritual church, and love to follow its teachings and to bring others to it, so that there might bo one fold, under one shepherd. Mr Duval is the architect of the building, Mr Delaney the contractor, and tho building committee are Messrs T. Geaney, Jamoi Sullivan, T. Kinahan, M. O’Driscoll,, J. Kare, and P. Coll.