LONELINESS IN CITY

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31001, 5 March 1966, Page 2

LONELINESS IN CITY

Church Army’s Assistance (From Our Own Reporter) TIMARU, March 4. The loneliness of persons living in the heart of Christchurch, was referred to by a Church Army mission worker (Sister F. G. Cl.ilds) yesterday. Sister Childs, who will be commissioned on Sunday evening for the work of the Kensington-Otipua parish, as assistant tn the vicar (the Rev. J. W. Branthwaite), has been concerned with the problems of people in all walks of life for 32 years. For the last 11 years, she has been a counsellor at St John’s parish in ChristchurchBom at Ashburton, Sister Childs, whose brother. Captain W. A. Childs, is a Church Army evangelist at Belfast joined the Church Army in 1934. After two years’ training she went to All Saints’, Hokitika, as parish assistant until 1939. She worked in a children’s home in Wellington, at All Saints at Ponsoriby, and was in Karon until 1954. when she joined St John's in Christchurch. Sister Childs said the nature of St. John’s parish had changed considerably over the last decade. It had become less and less residential, it had a lot of elderly people, and many residents lived in rooms. Because of the type of accommodation offered, the population was a “floating” one. Persons were living surrounded by people, yet were quite alone, said Sister Childs.

The tempo of modern life was such that there was too little time for the “human touch” and less time to appreciate persons as individuals.