GISBORNE.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 25, Issue 12, 1 December 1935, Page 7

GISBORNE.

On December Ist the Bishop is to ordain the Rev. T. A. Moresby as priest and Mr. K. Liggett is to be admitted to the diaconate, after which he will, take up service in the Hastings parish. The Confirmation service will take place in the evening of the same day, at seven p.m. As a layman looks about him and surveys Church activities in the parish he cannot doubt the existence of considerable energy in the direction of parish affairs and the emergence of new ideas and fresh efforts to solve the difficulties which beset us betokens a healthy condition of spiritual and mental thought. It was with no light sense of responsibility and not without prayer on the part of many that the parishioners committed themselves at the annual meeting to the task of providing for all financial needs by direct giving, discarding such supplementary and wasteful efforts as bazaars, fetes, etc. No scheme partaking of the sensational is being adopted, but the parish is 1 relying upon, and appealing. for, honest, straightforward giving, week Tjy week, through the agency of the duplex system. A hundred or more new subscribers have already beeii secured, ' and the result is encouraging, but we are not

yet out of the wood, and we must obtain still more subscribers if our laudable objective is to be achieved. Concurrently with this financial departure there are plans for promoting the social side of the Churcli. The first parishioners' social was held on October 7th, and it proved a magnificent success. The object was purely social, all thought of finance being dropped for the nonce. Churchpeople attended to the number of three hundred and, most important, brought with them the right atmosphere. ■ . , This of ours is indeed a very big and a very busy parish, and it is no wonder that the clergy and the vestry, well co-ordinated team as they are; find the task of providing successfully for all needs 1 a very proper job of work. Consider for a moment the demands of our clergy. Here we have four churches, five including Wainui; junior and senior boys' and- girls' clubs, a men's club; all these with big memberships; Sunday Schools; a Children's Church (and a very bright one at that) 9.45 a.m. each Sunday; a daily radio broadcast service at 9.45 a.m.; religious instruction in the State schools; and a very large public hospital, with services, every Sunday and constant visitation during the week. Add to this, parish visiting calls on the sick and suffering, and much other parish work of an obvious nature, and you have a pretty problem for one vicar and two assistants. May they continue to receive the loyal support and the prayers of those to whom they minister, and' God's blessing withal. , Most of the difficulties which surround us would dissipate into thin air if the Church , had the support, to which it is entitled, of those many who call themselves Anglicans and who claim- the services of the Church, but who do nothing, give nothing in exchange, and are never seen in a church building. May God in His own time touch their hearts and bring them to realise the poverty of their spiritual lives.