CONSECRATION

Lyttelton Times, Volume XII, Issue 746, 31 December 1859, Page 5

CONSECRATION

OP THE CHURCH OF ■ St. JOHN THE

EVANGELIST, PERRY ROAD.

On Tuesday morning the new church of the Parish of Lower Heathcote, Ferry road, was consecrated under the title of St. John the Evangelist, by the Bishop of Christchurch.

At eleven o'clock the Bishop, accompanied by his chaplain, was met at the entrance of the church by a large body of clergy, the churchwardens, vestrymen, &c. A petition for consecration was here presented and read to the Bishop by the Rev. G. Cotterill, minister of the Lower Heathcote. The Bishop, having received and assented to the petition, proceeded, followed by the clergy in their robes, up the body "of the church, and having taken his seat at the north side of the communion table, the service appointed for the occasion was performed; prayers being read by the Rev. G. Cotterill; the lessons by the Rev. James Wilson; the Rev. H. Jacobs assisting at the communion service. A very able and earnest discourse was delivered by the Bishop on the duty of Christian love, taking for his text the 54th verse of the 13th chapter of St. John. The Bishop enlarged upon the duty of an active self-denying love, and using the occasion, urged that the carrying out the full idea of the duties of Christian parishioners was one of the means of uniting a community in the bonds of that love without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before God.

A collection in aid of the building was made after the sermon.

We understand that the Rev. J. Cotterill is about to resign the duties of the parish of Lower Heathcote.

The church was built after a design by Messrs. Mountfort and Luck; it would perhaps be difficult to describe the style of architecture. The interior is pleasing, and both roomy and convenient. There is a prospect of the curacy being partly endowed by a liberal gift of land now in the possession of an absentee proprietor.