ST. PAUL’S PARISH.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5025, 10 September 1926, Page 2

ST. PAUL’S PARISH.

COMING OF THE VICAR-ELECT. END OF LONG WAIT. News was received in Paeroa, by radiogram, on Tuesday that the Rev. R. A. Forde, vicar-elect Of St. Paul’s parish, who is accompanied by his wife and two children, is on board the Aorangi, which is due at Auckland on Sunday next. The parishioners-’ message of greeting and welcome was a,t once despatched to them, and a feeling of pleasant expectancy is abroad amongst the parishioners, who are eagerly looking forward to the ending of the fifteen weeks of patient waiting, and to welcoming their new vicar. Representatives of the parish will meet Mr Forde in Auckland, and it isanticipated that he willt arrive in Paeroa, by the afternoon express on Tuesday next. On Thursday evening the Ven. Archdeacon Cowie, the Archbishop’s Commissary, will hold a special service in St. Paul’s Church' at which the, vicar-el e ct will be inducted and placed in charge of the parish. Tn the meantime members of the Vestry find other * parishioners are busily engaged getting everything in order at the, Vicarage for tlie rccepton of the vicar and his family. On ■Saturday (to-morrow) a larder, or pantry, day will be held, and parishioners are invited to make offerings of articles, great or small, which will help to “stock the larder,” the idea, being that Mrs Forde upon going into her ne,w home shall not find herself in like case with Old Mother Hubbard of nursery rhyme fame, who went to her cupboard, but ‘when she got there the cupboard was bare.” Gifts, can be left at any time on Saturday, either at the Vicarage or the Parish Hall.

Too much praise cannot be given to the. self-sacrificing labours of the three lay readers, Dr. Gilbert Smith, Mr W. H. Blakeway, and Mr Cyril Gwilliam, by whom the. services of Mattins and Evensong have bee*n said regularly every Sunday during the whole period since the beginning- of May,' and it has been encouraging’ to them that the average attendance at the services has been maintained at about the same level as when a priest has been in charge of the parish. On the part of the parishioners generally there seems also to have been a quickening of interest in church matters, through the discipline of patient waiting, and the future is looked forward to with quiet confidence, that ■under the direction and guidance of the new vicar the spiritual life <ff the parish will be deepened and its usefulness exte.nded. From time to time, as occasion would permit, the vicars of the neighbouring parishes of Morrinsville, Te Aroha, Hauraki Plains, and Thames have visited Paerba and celebrated the, Blessed Sacrament at St. Paul’s. On Sunday next, the last Sunday of the parish being without a spiritual head, all three of the lay readers will assist in the evening service, and it is hoped that the parishioners will attend in large numbers to evidence their appreciation of the excellent work these men have done.