A CHURCH JUBILEE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2522, 24 July 1915, Page 15

A CHURCH JUBILEE

BISHOP, SPRO'iTS SPEECH, _ (From Our Special Correspondents.} The parish of Christ Church, Wauganui,_ this week celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, but in consequence of the war the celebrations were of ,a quieter nature than otherwise ivould, have been the ease. At a, social .gathering on J'onday night, Bishop Sprott, of Wellington, aftor referring to the early history of the parish, touched on the proposal for the building of a new church to replace the present old -structure, and made some interesting remarks on tlio building of churches generally. Ho hoped a building adequate to the present and future needs would be erected. In,the colonies most congregations when building a church, considered, not dignity or beauty, but cheapness. Ho advised them when discussing plans for the iiew church not to consider how exceedingly cheap it could bo built, but how exceedingly magnificent. "If there wcro not sufficient money to complete the building, do as much, as possible, and leave the remainder for the future. The churches of Great Britain were not built at once; some took centuries to complete, and as a result people come from all tho world .over to see the magnificent structures." He' believed the people of Wangauiti could build .a church that would be one of the finest in the Dominion, and worthy of the progressive town of Wangantti. 'Jlio Bishop urged his hearers not to bo discouraged by tho war. This war has been compared with tho Napoleonic wars, which lasted 20 years.. They were 20 terrible years for Great Britain, yet in those years the Church was not inactive, and founded such great institutions as the Church Missionary Society, the society which sent Marsden out to New Zealand six months before tho Battlo of Waterloo. Then there was the National Society for the Education of tho Poor, which educated children down to the year 1870. Nonconformist Churches, too, were active during that distressful period. Would any great beneficent institution be founded during this war, an institution such that the peoplo a hundred years lienco would say, "It was founded during the great war a hundred years ago"? Tho fighting at the Dardanelles was briefly touched upon by the speaker. In bis final remarks he declared that ill that part of the fighting centred the romance of the war. Constantinople was at first a Christian city, founded by Constantine, tho first Christian Emperor. In that city thero was the famous Church of St. Sophia, which was oiie of the wonders of- the world. Its great dome was uniquo. Thero was not another like it in the whole world. That church whore early Christians used to worship was now a _ Mohammedan mosque. Ho hoped to live to see the time when once again the church would bo used for worship by Christians, and tho city once more become a Christian city. Now Zealanders and Australians should bo proud that their soldiers wore helping to reconquer that city from the Turks.