MISSIONARY SOCIETIES OF CANTERBURY

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21418, 9 March 1935, Page 3

MISSIONARY SOCIETIES OF CANTERBURY

WOMEN'S DAY OF PRAYER Commencing with the services held in New Zealand and concluding with an evening service held in Hawaii, women of 60 countries joined, yesterday, in a united prayer for missions. Begun in 1887 by the women of.the United States of America, who devoted one day for intercession for missions, the movement has gradually grown until it has become world-wide, international, interdenominational, and in-ter-racial, the women of every land and every Christian creed taking part in it. In Christchurch, the service was held in the Baptist Sunday School, Oxford terrace, where women of eight Christian denominations united in prayer on behalf of missions. The theme this year was "Bear Ye One Another's Burdens," the programme having been drafted by a Dutch baroness. The women prayed for missions: "A quickened conscience toward the world's burden-bearers; courage to stand for the right without equivocation; justice for all without respect to race, class, or creed; willingness to accept the sacrifices which may be necessary for all in the building of a better world; understanding between nations, races, classes, and individuals." Miss E. McKee, president of the Christchurch branch of the Women's Missionary Committee (comprising two representatives of each denomination), presided during the morning service, and in the afternoon the devotions were led by Mrs L. A. North. Mrs Lowry extended greetings from the women attending the annual assembly of the Congregational Union of New Zealand. During the afternoon Miss McKee gave a brief outline of the origin of the day of prayer, and read extracts to show how the day had been recognised last year by women of other countries. Addresses given by Miss Lilian Jeffreys, formerly of the British Syrian Mission, and Mrs R. Annand added interest to the afternoon's programme. especially as Christchurch women have seldom had the opportunity to hear of missions in these two countries. British Syrian Mission Miss Jeffreys told how the British Syrian Mission had really been started in 1860 by Mrs Bowen Thompson, who went to Beirut to help-the women and children whose menfolk had been killed in a massacre. To enable women to read the Bible, she had first had to teach them how to read and write, and a school had been opened. Now there are 16 mission schools, including one training college, from which many students graduate each year. As their knowledge ot the world of affairs is limited io what the missionaries tell them, the outlook of the students is rather naj-row, but they are good disciplinarians and can manage children, said Miss Jeffreys. The word evangelical is substituted for Protestant in the mission schools, and children at these schools are taught to read from the Old and New Testaments. The speaker had said that parents were told of this regulation, and she had only heard of two parents who were not willing to take the risk of their children learning of Jesus Christ. The regular curriculum is followed in the schools, and in addition, even the small children are taught the three languages, French, English, and Arabic. Syria had once known the fame of Jesus Christ, said Miss Jeffreys, and children, whose heritage should have been the same as ours, have been deprived of it because of the sway of other religions. The children of Damascus and Beirut had learned the power of prayer, and three years ago she had conducted the day of prayer in Damascus. A similar meeting was i being held in Beirut as she spake, | and she asked members to jorti with ■ her in prayer for the people there. , Ethiopia ■ Mrs R. Annand, who was the first I white woman to go down to the ProI vinco of Hosanna in Ethiopia, North

East Africa, told of her experiences 011 the way to her husband's Mission. In a train journey which took three days, she gradually climbed from the almost desert country of French Somaliland to Ethiopia, where she was received at the Mission headquarters at the capital, Addis Ababa. There she had stayed for 12 months learning the language—by no means an easy task, as the alphabet had 33 letters, many of the letters having seven different forms. After her marriage, she left with her husband for Lambuda, their wedding tour being accomplished on mules. Twenty-five mules carrying their groceries (enough for three or four months), bread baked the previous day, tents, beds, etc., left Addis Ababa for the 10-day trip. The missionaries pitched their tents each night, and had not been troubled by native thieves, for if the Ethiopian knows that the camp belongs to Europeans he will not raid it. On arrival at Hosanna, the speaker had found the pagan women dressed in skins, one cow skin being used for a skirt and another thrown over the. shoulders. Mrs Annand spoke of her first attendance at a wedding in Ethiopia. There is no ceremony as we know it, she said. It is the custom to hold a feast at the home of the bride the night before the wedding, and when the bride is taken to the bridegroom's house the wedding is regarded as having taken place. At the bridegroom's house she had been seated next to the bridegroom's mother, and as each guest came in, he or she placed a piece of butter on the head of the hostess. Ethiopians would be lost without their butter, she said, for they rub it on their bodies, anoint their head with it and as soon as a child is able to swallow, butter is melted and poured down its throat. There is much rejoicing in the birth of a male baby, said Mrs Annand, and

friends visit (he parents with gifts —not of wearing apparel, for the child seldom wear# anything—but with bundles of wood, pots of butter, or similar gifts. The speaker described the mourning ceremony in Ethiopia as one of the saddest things she had ever seen. Burial takes place as soon after death as possible, the body being wrapped in unbleached calico, or placed in a rudo box. The family and friends return from the grave mourning and wailing. They choose a spot not far from the house, and to a rhythmic measure the women wail and scratch their faces until the blood pours down to the ground. If the deceased is an important person there may be as many as a thousand mourners on the hillside, and for a poor person, there would be 50 or more. After a period of weeping, the mourners sit down, and on the arrival of fresh mourners, they arise and continue their wailing and scratching. At night they go into the house, and in the morning return to the hillside, this procedure being followed for seven days. When converted Ethiopians go to the meetings now, they sympathise and weep, but they do not scratch their faces, said Mrs Annand. There were motor-cars, camels, and mules on the streets of Addis Ababa, said the speaker, and it had taken her some time to get used to the continuous honking of the motor-car horns warning pedestrians to make way. It was a common sight to see natives running along the streets carrying sheep across their shoulders, as their forefathers had carried them in the early days of Ethiopia, the land of the Bible.