THE MARSDEN CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 11992, 1 June 1914, Page 6

THE MARSDEN CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS.

Christmas" Day will bo tho hundredth anniversary of the first Sunday ori which divine servico was hold in New.Zealand, and it is proposed to mark the event by a special series of commemorative services, and gatherings . Tho centenary celebrations will commence on Friday, December Ith. when there will be a large public meeting in tho Auckland Town Hall. On Christmas Day there will be a celebration of the Holy Communion at, or near, tho Marsden Cross, when the Bishop of Auckland, all the Maori clergy of the Diocese, and as many of tho other clergy as can bo spared from thoir parishes will be present. A special feature of tho celebrations will be tho Church Congress to be held in Auckland on February Bth, 9th and 10th ,invitations to which have been sent to tho leaders of the Anglican communion throughout the world, and specially to tho leaders in Australia. Tho subjects Bet down for discussion include: Tho Old Testament, the Now Testament, in Relation to the Person of Christ, The Biblo and Evolution, The Ministry, Re-Union, Modern Heresies, The Church and tho Family, Men's Duty, Missionary Work and Problems. The Congress will sit in the mornings from 10-12; in the afternoons from 3 —5, & in tho evenings from B—lo..'' After the Congress, on tho evening of Wednesday, February 10th (about midnight), a special steamer will leave Auckland to take any members of the Congress, or others desirous of going, to Russell and other places of interest in connection with the landing of Marsden and tho establishment of Christianity in New Zealand. In order to bring tho Celebrations within the reach of everybody in New Zealand, special services will bo held on Christmas Day in every Anglican Church throughout the Dominion. In addition it has been resolved to appeal for a special thanksgiving fund of £20,----000 for educational purposes, and a further sum of not less than £30,000 for augmenting tho stipends of the clergy. It is to be hoped that the celebrations will bo of a national character, since- our occupney of New Zealand is in a large measure due to tho labours of Marsden and other early missionaries. But for theso labours it is doubtful if the Treaty of Waitangi would ever have been signed, and in that case tho Dominion would, in all probility, have passed into the hands of France. And Marsden has a peculiar claim on tho gratitude of those outside tho Anglican communion, seeing that, though ho was a devoted son of the Church of England, he was/ nevertheless, always ready to give liberal help to the work of other religious bodies. He advanced £750 towards building a Presbyterian Church in Sydney, and ho presented the Wesleyans with a valuable piece of land on which to erect :i church at Windsor. Marsden and his companions laid the foundations of a great work—a work for God, and a work for England. It is for us, their descendants, to show our gratitude by helping to the best of our power the extension of tho work so well and truly laid ono hundred years ago.