A CHURCH OF PEACE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1917, 19 December 1918, Page 3

A CHURCH OF PEACE.

WELLINGTON ANGLICAN CATH-

BDRAL,

In the beginning of the political, commercial and social life of New Zealand, there was no central city in which were stoi’cd the country’s records, and where the legislators and business men foregathered periodically. It was a scattered community in those days. The capital was Auckland, the chief business centre, Dunedin, while Canterbury and Nelson and Hawke’s Bay were powerful provinces which desired recognition as such. But, one by one, the secular interests of the country —private and public — transferred their headquarters to Wellington, the geographical cerlral port. And as the secular affairs now have their direction in Hie main from Wellington, so the headquarters of the Church of England will almost certainly be transferred to Wellington. With this idea before them, Anglican Church people and well-wishers are expected to respond nobly to the appeal now being made for funds to erect a beautiful cathedral as a memorial to the men who died for freedom, and, also, as a thank-offering for peace. After the splendid responses which have been made to worthy causes during the war period, such an expectation may he regarded as an accomplished fact. The war has taught many lessons, and one of these is that the strength of a nation does not lie in its material wealth, its army or its navy, hut in the spiritual richness of its people —the eternal principles of truth, justice, and equity. A fine cathedral is more than a mass of masonry or a triumph of the architect’s and builder’s arts. It is a sign and symbol of a faith which lifts men's thoughts to the highest planes—a faith in God, which when matched with the enemy’s gross materialism, vanquished materialism. This appeal for people to send their free offerings to build a cathedral in Wellington, is a call to all churchmen and wclT-wishcrs to immortalise (his triumph, with its attendant losses and glories, in I lie capital city of New Zealand. Full particulars of the project are obtainable from the hon. organising secretary, Rev. C. F. Askew, St. Mark’s Vicarage, Wellington, to whom all contributions should he made.