STAGE AND CHURCH

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 419, 30 July 1928, Page 14

STAGE AND CHURCH

TRIBUTE TO DAME ELLEN TERRY

“THAT BRILLIANT ALLIANCE” The brilliant alliance between Daru.e Ellen Terry and Sir Henry Irving, according to Canon Grant Cowen, did much to place the stage in the honoured place it holds to-day. Members of the theatrical profession in Auckland paid tribute at St. Matthew’s Church last evening to the memory of Dame Ellen Terry. There was a large congregation. “The Church can learn much frojn the stage,” said Canon Cowen, chaplain to the Actors’ Church Union, “aod the stage can learn much from the Church.” “That beloved woman” were the words the preacher used when referring to Dame Ellen, who was worshipped, he said, by the whole Englishspeaking world as “representing what ‘was best in English womanhood.” The orchestra of St. James’ Theatre, conducted by Mr. F. Crowther, played Handel’s “Requiem,” assisted by Mr. J. H. Philpott, at the organ. “Death and Life” (Parratt) was sung as an anthem by the choir, and a solo, “Into Thy Hands” (Wolsey), was given by Mr. A. Johnston.