NEW UNITARIAN CHURCH

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 485, 19 April 1909, Page 6

NEW UNITARIAN CHURCH

OPENINC SERVICES. The new.Unitarian Free Church which is situated in Ingestre Street was opened yesterday. Special services were held both in. the morning and evening. Formerly the services in connection with the church took place in th© large Masonic Hall, and three years havo now passed since Dr. W. Tudor Jones, Ph.D., F.R.G.S., became the first minister. During that period he and Mrs. Jones, who have been assisted by a small band 01 workers, have directed their attention towards obtaining, a suitable buildingVfor the purposes of a church.- Within the past year they havo received contributions totalling £1700 from friends in England and New Zealand, which must bo added to the sura of £750 ; previously collected, besides funds from, the ladies of the congregation accruing from' a bazaar. . 'From every point of view the now building is said to bo equal to any similar building of the samo sizo in' Australasia; A sloping floor brings the preacher.in full j-iew.of the'congregation, and the pulpit, which was constructed locally of rimu, is artistic in design as well .as substantial. . Before the church was opened yesterday morning, Dr.' Jones addressed a few words of welcome to members and'their friends. Afterwards the doors wore opened by Mrs. Walter Fell, who had. done much towards securing the building. The silver key, which was presented to her by the architect; was inscribed: "Unitarian Free Church. Opened April 18, 1909, by Mrs. Margaret R. Fell." On tho other side was an engraving of the front of the building* Special hymns composed by Dr. Jones, Miss Mary E. Richmond, Air. J. Gammell, 8.A., and Professor H. Mackenzie, M.A., were sung at tho services. . In,tho morning tho children were assembled, and each was presented with a motto card bearing an appropriate text from tho Biblo. y Items were contributed at the evening service by Mr. Claude Allan (solo),.and Misses Kennedy, Mr. Kennedy, and Mr. Cohen (string quartet)/ ' , ■' ,'.: .-. ■'

During the course of his address in tho morning, when about 300 were present, Dr. Jones gave a sketch of the rise and progress of the Unitarian Church in Wellington:. It had, ho said, started,from small beginnings until to-day it comprised 200 members. Liberal religion had expanded from a small stream to a wide and deep river during, the past fifty years. The movement in which they were taking part was world-wido in tho universities and among the liberal section of various Catholic and Protestant bodies. Liberal religion was not a system of negations: it means, no less than freedom to search for truths in whatever quarter it could bo found, and the only authority before which its supporters.'. bowed was not that of any preacher- or tradition, , but the authority of .; conscience. Dr. Jones then warned his people against conceiving that knowledge of itself was religion. Ho emphasised tho deepest need of carrying tho results of knowledge to the depth of life and experience. It was through grasping the principles of freedom and truth, and goodness in their direct 'bearing on their lives and tho light of the world that they could solve, so far as it oould be solved at a 1 1 ,,, tho riddle of existence. The kind of search to which he refeiTed was something quite different from mere verbal belief in a creed or dogma. It meant no less being true to the final conviction of one's own being than the creation of a new life and tlio unfolding of capacities which were previously dormant. The now building was to be dedicated to the things of the intellect, and more so to the things of tho Spirit. The words of Emerson wero quoted in conclusion— .

We love the venerable house / ■ ' Our fathers built of God. In Heaven nre kept their grateful vows, Their, dust endears the sod.

"Our new church and its message for NonZealand," was Dr. Jones's subject, in the evening, when the building was crowded to excess. The Unitarians; said tho preacher, believed that neither knowledgo nor experience- of the past was sufficient to-day, They stood for nothing less than a renewal of Christianity to recover the religion of Jesus Christ from the accretions which had gathered round it,_ and to present it before the modern world in ITio term and under tho conditions of tho |day. As knowledge was , required in order to do that, tho Unitarian Church would hayo its doors open to anyone who had an opinion dealing with tho higher life of man, however that opinion might bo intellectually presented.- The time had arrived when religion once more must satisfy tho whole.man. Religion was not somothing meant for invalids and weak people: thoir Church was meant for the creation of heroes and heroines. Tho conditions of tho Unitarian Church put a harder problem in front of its members than those of any other Church; so it was not to be understood that' ho was calling his people to an .easy-going kind of life. In return, they would find that on that road greater strength, happiness, and blessedness could bo obtained than on any other \road of which ho knew. Ho insisted tiiat his people must create opinions and convictions lor themselves. Tho scionces wcro tho handmaids of religion. In conclusion, Dr. Jones siid: "During my ministry I havo had to fato difficulties both from insido and from outside. But nobody can kill this piece of work. I bolievo that God is in this busiand that every 'kind of opposition to it must molt like snow in the sun."' / ■■■ '■ \ ' . . ■':■■""-' ■■: ■'■■■■