Diocesan Institutions.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XIV, Issue 5, 1 November 1923, Page 323

Diocesan Institutions.

■St. Mary's Home, Burlington Road, Napier.- Matron: Nurse Carter. This is a Home -in which a splendid work is .being- done m rescuing the fallen. No one who knows the Matron and the Chaplain (the Rev. T.

Fisher) or who knows the methods of the Home needs to be told that it does all that is possible to ' ' seek and to save that which was lost." Anglican Rescue Homes do not provide a convenient maternity home to tide girls over their trouble and then send them out to face life's dangers under the same circumstances and with the same disposition as those which occasioned their first fall. Girls who enter St. Mary's stay .there long enough to get a new view of life, a realisation of the love and tenderness of God, a knowledge of the guilt of • sin, of their own weakness apart from God and of God's strength to protect them. When they leave the Home they are helped and encouraged to tread the path of virtue and to become like St. Mary Magdalen devoted followers of Jesus Christ. From the nature of the case such work does not lend itself to advertisement, but it is the duty of every Churchman and Churchwoman m the diocese to help it as being pre-eminently a work of Christ-like charity. The greater part of the Home has been condemned by the Health authorities as being unfit for use. The walls are full of dry rot and a new building must be erected at once. A larger building is required than before because the Home has recently enlarged its activities so as to take m orphaned and destitute babies. St. Hilda's Home, Otane, is endeavoring to provide. for motherless and fatherless children from three years of age and upwards but cannot take babies. We are trying to supply this need at St. Mary's but hitherto the accommodation has been hopelessly inadequate. We want £3000 at once. WHO WILL HELE? Is there any work of charity more urgent than this? "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these little ones ye did it unto Me."

St. Hilda's Home, Otane— The reputation of St. Hilda's Home (of which Miss Waller is the. matron) has spread far and wide throughout the Dominion. Government inspectors have' admitted that they "know no other home to equal it. Of course it is full, and large numbers of . applications for admission have had to-be refused and are constantly being refused, because we are determined not to enlarge it and spoil its . " home" character. Its work has earned the warm approval of charitable people of all • denominations m Central Hawke's Bay and; it receives many gifts. Legacies that have been left to it and and help that is given by those who know it, enable it to be carried on with the help of only about £200 per. annum from the Diocesan' Funds. All parts of the dio-

cese- are interested m this hon}e,:as ;it takes children, when it has vacancies, from all parts without distinction. Another £200 per .annum: from the friends of Christ's "little ones" would make it independent of diocesan assistance. There is no need to appeal for help for St. Hilda's. All we ask is that Church, people will visit it when they have an opportunity and we do not fear the rest. St. Hilda's is only the first of a number of Homes that we wish to build m various parts of the diocesie. Several otners are urgently needed. The Abbotsford Home at Waipawa will be built soon, as the gift of. the Trustees of the (Mrs) Lissie Rathbone estate, but this home will not nearly meet all our needs. We want another Home m Poverty Bay and another m the Bay of Plenty. - Surely there is enough love for Christ 's children m those parts, of the Diocese to make possible. the opening of such Homes there also. Nothing can help more the coming of the Kingdom than the Christian upbringing of the children, either m Church schools or m Christian Homes. Are our motherless . and fatherless children to be left to the tender mercies of the world and the snares of the devil and so to grow up potential vagrants or criminals, or are they to be brought up as . the children of God and become powerful workers for Christ and valiant;soldiers m His army ? We have a wonderful opportunity . to enlist them for Christ. We cannot so easily ill-' fluence children, who are being brought up m un-Christian families but these m our Homes are ours. and Christ's, to train as they should be trained. People who take little interest m parochial or diocesan affairs, people of other denominations' than our own, people of hardly any religious connection are prepared to help us, sometimes liberally, to perform this duty that has been laid upon us by our Master; and when these folk give to a Home they begin to take an interest m it and, then, to take an interest m the Church. They are brought into touch with us. Work done for the homeless, the sick, the o;utcast and the poor indirectly helps very powerfully in' the evangelisation of the careless. Christ who said "inasmuch:.. as ye have done; it unto one of the least of these ye did it unto Me," does not. allow any giver to lose his reward. His charity m helping the orphan provides a channel through which Christ can communicate with him and bestow upon him the spiritual gifts of faith also, and- the love of God gradually comes to him -through the exercise of love towards His children. The .establishment of an orphanage does not impoverish a parish, it adds; to; its wealth. Anyhow the duty of a" parish

is iiot to undertake arty financial responsibility but merely to arouse interest both within and without its own boundaries, arid to point out to- the Chapter and Standing- Committee any opportunity that exists for establish* ing* a Home. If there then appears "to" be sufficient local support and interest to warrant it, the diocese undertakes • the -work. Thousands of Churchmen are supporting non-Church institutions who • would " much rather support those of their own Church if they knew of them and especially if 'they had them locally before their eyes. •• NOTE. — A helper is very urgently required to assist Miss Waller m St. Hilda's. It is essential that such a helper should be' entirely m sympathy with the methods of the home, where all children are treated sympathetically and kindly and; every effort is made- to give them all- the joys and intimacies that they would- have m a family. Will any suitable Churchwoman volunteer or will the clergy recommend any suitable person they know? The salary 'offered is not high but reasonable and the position offers, a splendid opportunity for doing a work for Christ and His little ones. . . ...