PATRONAL FESTIVAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 2956, 31 October 1925, Page 3

PATRONAL FESTIVAL.

SPECIAL CHORAL SERVICE,

A special choral service was held in the All Saints’ Church, Palmerston North on Thursday evening m honour of the patronal saint. The service was conducted by the Rev. T Feilden Taylor, while Mi’. Holmes Runnieles was at the organ. The following choirs comprised the one hundred and fifty voices: St. John’s, Feilding, St. Peter’s, Terrace End, St. Stephen’s Marton, All Saints Foxton, St. Mary’s, Ashlnirst, and All Saints, Palmerston North.

“The Souls of the Righteous are in the hands of God” was the text taken by the Rev. T. Feilden-Taylor, v.-ho stated that as Christian people we were pledged to believe in the life beyond the grave and so the proximity of “All Souls Day ie mined oiic of that great and glonous nvmy of departed to the next spiritual sphere —that great army of souls who had fought the great fight. He urged his hearers to meditate on that great company beyond the veil, some of whom were very dear to us, but remember that they were not dead, only departed. The speaker had been frequently asked whether it was right to remember the departed in prayer. “God was Love,” stated the speaker, and that was the great basic principle. God was not only Love, He had given us Love, all the good things we enjoyed come from him. He had given us our friends and our joys; He had given the ones we loved and surely we were to remember them, As love never died, how could we forget them? He pleaded with his hearers to forget the word ‘dead,’ but remember them ns ‘departed souls,’ and considered that prayer .for the departed brought them into spiritual touch with us and we with them and so made us fully realise that statement: “I believe in the Communion of Saints.” Prayer gave us a sense of companionship which was spiritual, eternal. We should not be afraid to remember the departed in prayer; by doing so we brought them to God and obtained his blessing for them. The service was as follows. Service, Burnett in F; professional hymns, “Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven” and “For All tde Saints.” Anthem: (unaccompanied), “0 Give Thanks,” solemn professional : “God of Abraham, : Praise.” The Solemn Te Deum (Dykes in F.) was sung before the 1 altar-, and the fservice concluded , with the choirs singing “Let , Saints on Earth in Concert Sing.”