THE CHURCH

Southland Times, Issue 20675, 22 December 1928, Page 12

THE CHURCH

GENERAL NEWS AND NOTES. FROM PULPIT AND PEW. The Rev. W. J. Sinclair will conduct the services in the Centre Bush Parish on Sunday, first. It is hoped there will be a good attendance. The Rev. Vincent Le C. Binet, Methodist missionary for the past eleven years on Choiseul Island, one of the Solomon group, is spending a furlough in New Zealand. Dr. F. W. Norwood, preaching at Folkeston Guildhouse, said there were multitudes of souls whom they could reach more effectively if they were not hampered by mistaken devotion to the forms of the Church. The London Congregational Union Church extension scheme aims at raising no less than £BO.OOO to make grants and loans to new churches in the rapidly growing suburbs of London. It is estimated the population of the new suburbs is about 500,000. The Under-Secretary of State recently wrote to the headquarters of the London Missionary Society expressing, on behalf of the Coloniol Office its appreciation of the services of Mrs W. Draper at Kawimbie in the treatment of natives suffering from leprosy and other diseases. There will be special Christmas services at the Esk street Baptist Church on the Lord’s Day. The Rev. J. Carslisle will be the preacher. The subjects will be: Morning, “Christ, Who He is?”; evening, “How He Came.” There will be special singing by the choir. An old servant of the British and Foreign Bible Society, Pastor J. M. G. dos Santos, has died at the age of 86 years. He was agent for the Society in Brazil from 1879 to 1901, and was preaching a fortnight before his death. Pastor dos Santos had been a member of the Congregational Church for 70 years and a pastor of that body for 39 years. The “Christian World” states that the Rev. A. Penry Evans, late of Walter Road Church, Swansea,; received an invitation to the pastorate of Collins Street Congregational Church, Melbourne, for a year. It is a coincidence that Rev. Thomas Jones, Browning’s poet-preacher, went to Collins Street Church from Swansea. Mr Penry Evans has not yet definitely decided to accept the Melbourne invitation, but the probability is strong that he will go out for a year. The service at the .Central Methodist Church, Leet street, on Sunday evening will be of a specially musical character. In addition to the favourite Christmas hymns the choir will give a Carol service, including many of the choicest carols. They will also sing the well-known anthem, “Hear My Prayer” (Mendelssohn), the solos being taken by Masters Ralph Wesney and Rutherford Brown (“Oh for the Wings”). A short service will be held in the church on Christmas morning at nine o’clock. DIPTON CHURCH NOTES. The festive season of the year is upon us once more. Very soon the joyful celebrations of Christmas will be heard in every village, town and city throughout the whole Christian world. The church bells will ring out and people will assemble to worship, yet the gladness of Christmas cannot be shut in within the walls' of any church building. It overflows everywhere if there is a believing heart, and even the hard-heart-ed and the unbelieving are to some extent brightened by its coming. Everybody can and should say, “A merry Christmas.” But why is this season of the year so bright? Is it not because that to the world there came a “message of hope” It is not the day that we honour if we are believers, but the Christ, Who is the Pledge of God’s Love, and the Promise of God’s victory. Remembering the One Who brought that. “Message of Hope” we can rejoice. Special services of worship and praise are being held in Dipton and Fernhills churches on December 23. All are welcome.