THE CHURCH

Southland Times, Issue 19720, 28 November 1925, Page 12

THE CHURCH

GENERAL NEWS AND NOTES. FROM PULPIT AND PEW. The Rev. A. C. Wedderspoon will conduct the services at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church on Sunday. The Rev. Paul S. F. Tso, who is in charge of •the Chinese Mission of the Epiphany, Melbourne, is a native of Macaw, near Hongkong, of which colony his father was Governor. At a congregational meeting held in the Winton Presbyterian Church on Friday, November 20, it was unanimously decided to extend a call to the Rev. Henry Hogg, of Waitahuna. Church anniversary services will be celebrated in St. Peter’s to-morrow. The morning service will be conducted by Rev A. Mcßean, aand the evening service by Rev. J. H. Haslam. There will be special music at the evening service. A Christmas fair will be held in the St. Paul’s School Hall, Dee street, on Wednesday and Thursday next. There will be ten well laden stalls, a Christmas tree, and afternoon tea and supper rooms. The proceeds will be in aid of the steeple fund. All members and adherents of the Winton Presbyterian parish are requested to make a special effort to be present at the services to-morrow, Sunday, November 29, to sign the call to the Rev. H. Hogg, of Waitahuna, as this will be the last opportunity before the call is presented to the Presbytery. The Bolshevist religious persecutions still continue. According to a paragraph in the Church Times—“lt is reported from Riga that the Metropolitan Melchizedek and six of his priests have been condemned to terms of imprisonment ranging from two years to six months. The Soviet has also announced its intention of constructing an observatory on the dome of S. Isaac’s Cathedral, Leningrad, and of converting one of the Donskoi monastic churches into a crematorium.”

The happy relations which exist between the Church and Labour are evidenced by the fact that a series of Labour services were held recently in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York. The Labour Committee, a subdivision of the general committee for completing the Cathedral, under the chairmanship of John P. Coughlin, secretary of the Central Trades and Labour Council of the American Federation of Labour, recently pledged a sum sufficient to build a unit in the nave of the Cathedral, and has already raised a considerable amount toward that end.

On its passing in the form of a bill next year, the second revision by the Church of Ireland of the Book of' Common Prayer becomes statutory. The preface for the new prayer book has already been passed by the General Synod. Most of the changes are already in use, since those authorised up to 1920 are embodied in the 1921 edition of the prayer book, and those authorised in 1921-1925 are now available in a pamphlet just issued. The revision makes no modification in doctrine or in the ritual canons; its aim has been to adapt rubrics and services to the requirements of the present time, and to enrich the prayer book by the addition of new forms of devotion.

“Noble as you are, you have isolated yourselves from the people you want to serve,” said Mahatma Gandhi, when addressing a large company of missionaries and Indian Christians in Calcutta. He mentioned thafr the missionaries went to India under the shadow of a temporal power and that created an impossible bar. He added—“l, as a true friend, as I claim to be, of the missionaries in India and so many Englishmen in India and to-day in all parts of the world of so many Europeans, I miss that receptiveness, I miss that humility, I miss that ability, that willingness on your part to identify yourself with the masses of India.”

For months past the ladies of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church have been busily at work for the Grand Christmas Fair which is taking place on December 2 and 3. Quite a number of enthusiastic members have been meeting at various houses once a week, diligently working for the art stall which should display, as a result, an exceptionally beautiful assortment of fancy articles admirably suited for Christmas gifts. The ladies of the bag and apron stall have been equally energetic- and a large assortment of these articles will be on view. Each stall will be laden with good things at reasonable prices. The Rev. J. Lawson Robinson will declare the fair open, and a good attendance is hoped for, also favourable weather. The funds are to go towards erecting the tower, and already its foundations have been strengthened, so it will not be long before the expected tower will be a reality.