THE CHURCH

Southland Times, Issue 22499, 8 December 1934, Page 12

THE CHURCH

NEWS AND NOTES

FROM PULPIT AND PEW.

The services at the North Invercargill Baptist Church to-morrow will be conducted by the pastor, the Rev. L. P. Bryan.

The Rev. Burns Bannerman will conduct the services in the John street, Georgetown and Tisbury Presbyterian Church. At the evening service the subject will be “The Greatest Treasure.” The anniversary services of the Georgetown Baptist Sunday School will be held on Sunday. The preacher at both services will be the student pastor, Mr Royston Brown. Anniversary music will be provided by the scholars.

The Government of Kenya is removing the clan of 700 witch doctors, who are among the chief barriers to happiness and civilization in its territory, to a district beside Lake Victoria. If any of them leave the district .Uiey will be imprisoned. Much of the crime and unrest in Africa is due to the evil influence exercised by these people. It is thirteen years since the Rev. George Budd, the able and popular superintendent of home missions of the Presbyterian Church, was appointed to that important post. In an address given by him at the missionary demonstration at the assembly in Dunedin a week or two ago, he mentioned that it was practically certain that he would not again address the assembly in that capacity in Dunedin. The news will cause regret among a very wide circle throughout the Church.

By special request Dr. Bradbury’s cantata “Esther the Beautiful Queen will be rendered by a large choir at St. Peter’s Methodist Church to-morrow evening. The cantata will take the full time of the service and is an inspiring sermon in song. The principals will be the King, Mr Robbie, Queen Esther, Mrs Berridge, Haman, Mr Blomfield, Mordecai, Mr Farley, with Mrs Mercier and Misses Bailey and Williamson assisting. All lovers of sacred music should not miss this last opportunity of hearing this delightful composition. On Sunday afternoon the scholars of the Invercargill Home Mission will hold their annual Christmas service m Everybody’s Hall, Tay street, when the Rev. C. J. Tocker will be the speaker. On Tuesday afternoon the members of the mothers’ meeting will hold then: Christmas service at the Mission Home when Mr Royston Brown, of the Auckland Baptist College, will deliver an address. The annual Christmas tea for mothers and children will be held m Everybody’s Hall on Saturday at 5.30 p.m. Donations of cakes will be gladly acknowledged.

The Salvation Army will be conducting the Young People’s anniversary meetings in the Citadel .on Sunday when special songs and items will be given by a platform full of radiant youthful sunshine in the afternoon in addition to special items. The primary prize-giving will take place. These meetings take place at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., and are to be conducted by Adjutant Thom. On Monday evening at 8 o’clock a unique and varied programme of character songs, tableawc drills, dialogues and musical items will be given by a company of well trained children.

At First Church the quarterly observance of Holy Communion will be celebrated on Sunday. The Lord’s Supper observance through the centuries has meant much to the Presbyterian mind. Its awful solemnity, its uplifting joy, its radiant conception of the Communion of Saints, in which the Church visible and the Church within the Veil are welded, draw irresistibly; but above all the words of the Lord Himself conveying a blessing come as a Divine command: “This Do.” Communion will be observed at the 11 a.m. and 7.45 p.m. diets. The 6.30 p.m. diet will be the usual evening service at which the choir will sing Blumenthal’s Evening Hymn. At St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church to-morrow the quarterly communion will be dispensed, and in addition it will be the annual Direct-giving Day. The communion will be of special significance on this occasion, since it is the first communion since the mission. At the preparatory service on Thursday evening, before a congregation which completely filled the body of the church thirty-one new members were received. The special order for admission to full communion of the Church of Scotland was used, and as the rows of candidates stood in answer to their names, and took their solemn vows, the impressiveness of the occasion was felt by all. The communion service tomorrow morning should be a memorable one. Both services will be conducted by the minister, and in the evening Mr Tocker’s sermon—“ Lost and found!”—will be based on the disaster that overtook Mr C. T. P. Ulm and his companions in their great flight across the Pacific. The choir will sing the anthem, “God so loved the world.”