CHURCH ENTERPRISE.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 April 1932, Page 6

CHURCH ENTERPRISE.

The opening of the new St. Andrew’s Church in New Plymouth to-day is something greater than an indication that the number of local Presbyterians has outgrown the capacity of the former church building. As a dignified and permanent public edifice St. Andrew’s adds another architectural feature to the attraction of the town. Its construction shows also that the belief in their church and in the future of the new land in which it was being established that was so characteristic of the early settlers of Taranaki is by no means dead. On the contrary, to-day’s ceremony will publicly endorse the achievement of an effort which like the establishment of the Presbyterian cause in New Plymouth eighty years ago, could only have been made by those of stout heart and long vision. Fortunately the day has gone when the enterprise of one branch of the Church universal would have led to jealousy and ill-will on the part of others. The Presbyterians in New Plymouth to-day will be assured of the goodwill and good wishes of many members of the community who do not subscribe to the dogmas of their Church. The justification for the new building, and for the forward steps in church policy of which it is the most important example, is that they will increase and multiply the church’s opportunity for service. Whatever _ the clash of creed the churches of the Dominion are at least united in their desire to serve the people and to bring about better and wiser social conditions. To make such a desire produce results means careful, quiet and often inconspicuous labour and selfsacrifice. It is only on special occasions, such as the ceremony at St. Andrew’s today, that the public is invited to examine, so to speak, the progress made by any particular section of the Christian Church. Those to whom the destinies of the new church are entrusted will be the first to admit that each such day of reckoning must be regarded as but an inspiration for greater efforts to come. To the congregation of St. Andrew’s to-day will be a day for warm congratulation. It is also the commencement of new responsibilities, which, will be lightened by the certainty that it can depend upon the goodwill of the whole community in its movement forward.