COMMEMORATION OF REV. C. S. VOLKNER

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 152, 1 March 1939, Page 3

COMMEMORATION OF REV. C. S. VOLKNER

very good attendance A D DRESS 13 Y IMS HOP GERARD Tut services held in St. Stephen’s Church hist Sunday, in cum i n'e in oration of the Rev. Carl Sylvius Yolkmu martyr, were exceptionally well attended. His Lordship the .Bishop or Vaiapu. the lit. Rev. G. S. Gerara. oHiciated at a Holy Communion Service at 8 a.m., and preached to the children at a Choral Eucharist at lO.'Al’ a.m. in the evening the County and Borough Councils were represented in a packed church, and the ...Bishop again preached, his text being from Genesis IV.: 9. "Am 1 my brother's keeper ?” The service took the dorm of a recital from .Holy Scripture interspersed with hymns, and showed how since the- beginning of the world Righteousness has had to stitto-r at the hands of the ungodly; 'xhtr first reading being of how unrighteous Gain slew righteous Abel. This was followed by a reading showing tin* inconstancy of the crowd, who welcomed Christ with shouts of praise on Palm Sunday and cried “Away with Him. crucify .Him’' on the following Friday. 1 lien followed a reading ol tin* death of St. Stephen, whose' persecutors laid their clothes “at the r&et. of a young man named Saul”, and also the record of how that same ycang man. as Sr. Paul, endured persecution after Ids conversion. Finally a moving account was read of the dcatlf of Carl Sylvius Yolkner, priest and martyr of New Zealand, whose decapitated body lies beneath the sanctuary floor of St. Stephen’s. [n his address. Ids Lordship drew other parallels from modern times of how in times of stress, men turned to violent deoils, and slew the righteous. Tie pleaded eloquently for more sympathy* and consideration to be shown to our Maori brothers, and pointed out how Pakeha actions were just as much to blame for -Mr. Volkner’s death, as’ were the actions of those who slew him. He asked, How many oi us were really trying to extend a iveipiug hand to our Maori brothers in their deep -spiritual needs to-day? He pointed out that none of us can ready sit on. the..fence while the greatstruggle between right and wrong gees on in this world. It is the indifferent- who are the worst- enemies of righteousness. He closed a very eloquent address with a most earnest plea to all to bo definite, and to show their colours.

After the address the C'liurehward*ens asked the .Bishop to light a lamp of Remembrance to slime ' over Mr. Voikner’s grave each year during the Church’s season; of Lent. . This was followed by prayers and thanksgiving, the singing of the hymn. “New thank we all our find"; the Benediction, and the vesper hymn. “Breathe on. me lireath or Cod". ( nfortunately- the very handsome lamp whieh was to have been dedicated and. used at this Service, was broken in transit, and a substitute had to lie used. We understand however. that the proper one will he here during the week and installed in its place next Sunday livening. It will be lit at a. commemoration service each year, and kept burning throughout- Bout, in memory of the Martyr whose body lies buried there.' and to remind us of Christ's• onII to us to he ‘‘Lights of the world in our several generations'-’.