The City Mission

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 226, 13 December 1927, Page 13

The City Mission

j TINIEST CHAPEL IN AUCKLAND WILL BE CON- j SECRATED TO-MORROW BY THE ARCHBISHOP I | GOOD SHEPHERD AND FLOCK The Chapel of St. Francis at the Auckland Anglican City Mission headquarters in Wellesley Street, is undoubtedly the smallest in the city. It is 18 by 20 feet only. The chapel will be consecrated to-morrow evening by the Primate, Archbishop Averill. At a pincli the chapel will hold 40 people. Thirty-five at service, however, is nearer the mark. The mis, sioner, the Rev. Jasper Calder, has long felt the necessity for a chapel. No longer will he be disturbed in the midst of a baptism by his office telephone. Not infrequently this has actually happened in the past. The chapel is a monument to the industry and self-sacrifice of members of the mission. Everything, whether for utility or adornment, has been freely given. The representation of the Good Shepherd, for instance, behind the altar—and there could be no more appropriate reproduction—was painted by a lad who attends the mission. The red-brick font contains a clam shell taken from the reef at Nukupu Island where Bishop Patteson, the martyred Bishop of Melanesia, was murdered. It is the gift of the late Rev. L. P. Robin, a former missionary in Melanesia. The alms dish is of unique interest as it contains historic wood from the tree beneath which the Rev. Samuel Marsden preached his first sermon in New Zealand. There is wood, too, from the Boyd, the crew of which vessel were murdered at Whangaroa in the early days of this country. A piece from Alt Saints’, one of the splendid examples of the Selwyn churches, ife symbolic of this interesting phase of Auckland Anglican Church history. The altar of oak is the work of Mr. C. Norman, foreman of the Men's Guild. The frontal, Dossal curtains of cream brocaded satin, wing curtains of cloth of gold, and side curtains of green tapestry, have all been given. It is hoped that the first stained glass window will, also be ready for consecration with the chapel. The second will not be ready for some time yet.