NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

Evening Star, Issue 24286, 29 August 1942, Page 4

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

ADVICE ABOUT OBSERVANCE

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, August 26. Discussing the observance of the national day of prayer on September 3, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Sullivan, said that in New Zealand conditions were so different from those_ in the United Kingdom as to make it impracticable to arrange quite the same observances. It had been decided to invito all religious denominations themselves to hold anpropriate_ services in their own churches at suitable times in each centre of population. The Government would be glad if the civic and church authorities would combine to hold public services to enable the people generally to observe the day. Mr Sullivan said that the Government felt that the fixing of a suitable time was a matter that must be left to local discretion. Duo. regard, however, should be paid to the desirability of as little interruption as practicable with the working day. Provision was also being made for” observance by the armed services.

The Moderator’s advisory committee ofi the Presbyterian Church has decided to observe two methods. Firstly, congregations in individual churches will make their own arrangements for early morning and evening services.. Continuous sessions of intercession will also be held during the day at First Church, commencing at 10.30 a.m. and concluding at 6 p.m. Each session will bo for 25 minutes, and each will be under the control of one appointed person. There will be a break of five minutes between sessions. The Moderator (Rev. A. C. W. Standage) and other ministers of the Presbyterian Church will each take a period of the intercession, while representatives of the P.W.M.U., Y.M.B. classes, theological students, the Y.W. Bible and the Y.M. Bible classes will also officiate during the day. Celebrations of Holy Communion in St. Paul’s Cathedral will ho held at 7.30 and 10.30 a.m. and an Intercessory service will be hold at 3.30 in the afternoon, the preacher being the llev. D. C. Herron, minister of Knox Church. Another Intercessory service will bo held at 7.30 in the evening at which the Cathedra] Choir will be present and the preacher will bo the Rev. W. J. Hands, vicar of St. Mary’s, MorningtOn. In addition, morning services will bo held in Church of England suburban parishes. Special Masses, together with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, will be held in the Roman Catholic churches in Dunedin.

A special service for tho Jewish community will be held in the Synagogue at 5.45 ij.m.