THE CHURCH

Southland Times, Issue 22188, 2 December 1933, Page 10

THE CHURCH

NEWS AND NOTES FROM PULPIT AND PEW. The services at the North Invercargill Baptist Church will be conducted to-morrow by the Pastor of the church, whose subjects will be, morning, “The Church in Philadelphia,” evening, “Our Lord’s Authority.” The Esk Street Baptist Sunday School will celebrate its anniversary to-mor-row. Parents and friends of the children are cordially invited to these services. The preacher will be the Rev. W. E. Lambert, morning (11 a.m.), and evening (6.30 p.m.) The Central Methodist Life Boy team will attend church parade on Sunday morning, when the Rev. C. H. Olds will give an interesting talk on “The Royal Air Force.” The evening subject will be, “A Strenuous Gospel.” The choir will sing the anthem, “I Am Alpha and Omega.” Aramaic, the language spoken by our Lord, still survives. The people who speak it are, however, dwindling in number. They are the remnants of the Assyrians, once a great people, and have their home in Iraq, where they are now looked upon as a small alien minority.

The returns to the Baptist World Alliance for 1932 show that there are 9,500,000 members of Baptist churches in North America, well over half a million in Europe (excluding Russia), almost 400,000 in Asia, close on 88,000 in Africa, and 38,000 odd in Australia and New Zealand. There are many “adherents” in addition to these numbers.

“The Man Who Came to Jesus by Night” will be the theme at St. Peter’s Methodist Church to-morrow evening. The choir will sing Jackson’s “Te .Deum” and Elvey’s “Arise, Shine.” The last Communion service for 1933 will follow and some of the Bible class members will be received in membership. The morning subject will be “The Activity of God.” In an article in a recent, number of the Outlook on Religious Instruction in Public Schools, the writer says that it is not, and never has been, a party question in the Old Country. In England and Wales (Catholic schools are not included) it is given solely by the State school teachers, and is compulsory, except that there is a conscience clause which is seldom taken advantage of. In Scotland, as he says, the religious instruction has been, and is, the regular custom in all the local educational authority schools, and is given wholly by the school teachers. He is in error, however, in saying that up to 1929 the Scottish schools ere all under the control of education boards when they were placed under the county councils and certain municipal councils. The writer was chairman of one of these school boards, and the change over took place some years before 1929.

At First Church, being the season of Advent which is observed by many Christians throughout the world, the themes to-morrow will be of an Advent nature. The monthly newsletter will be distributed at the close of the morning diet of worship. The evening service will be broadcast, and members are reminded of the custom in vogue at First Church on broadcasting Sunday to assemble in large numbers to ensure a vorthy service of praise being broadcast for the aged and infirm and for listeners-in who dwell far away from any place of worship. Dwellers in town have this privilege of spiritually helping others who are not so conveniently placed to be able to attend the public worship of God.