PATRONAL FESTIVAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 124, 27 May 1937, Page 14

PATRONAL FESTIVAL

ST. AUGUSTINE'S CHURCH

St. Augustine's Church, Peione, was crowded last evening on the occasion of its Matronal festival service. The choir was augmented by members of the choirs of St. James's Church, Lower Hutt, and St. Alban's Church, Eastbourne. Among the, clergy . present were Archdeacon J. i->. Russell (Oamaru), the first vicar of Petone, and the Revs. H. E. K. Fry and T. F. Fagg (Lower Hutt), C. R. Kreeft (Eastbourne), E. McLevie (Roseneath), J. R. Neile-(lsland'Bay), and A. S. I. Kenney, present vicar of St. Augustine's. •,■,!_ a , The sermon was preached by Archdeacon Russell, who took for his text Matthew 28:20, "Lo, I :am with you alway, even unto the end ox the world " The preacher outlined the circumstances under which St. Augustine carried the gospel of Christianity to England in A.D. 597 and of how he was upheld in all Tiis undertakings by the presence of Christ. The Archdeacon went on to speak of the _ circumstances in which St. Augustine's Church, Petone, came to be built and of how the same presence of Christ had been with the members of the Church in. its earliest days and was with them still. After the service a large number of past and present parishioners met in the schoolroom. The vicar, after reading apologies for absence and telegrams of greetings from old parishioners, spoke briefly qf the happiness afforded by the presence of Archdeacon Russell and such a large gathering of past parishioners. Mr Fry conveyed greetings from the neighbouring parish, and Archdeacon Russell recalled in a happy speech incidents in the early life of the church. He mentioned many of those who had helped in the work of the church and urged the parishioners to go on and win fresh souls.