UNITARIAN MINISTER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 478, 6 October 1928, Page 10

UNITARIAN MINISTER

THE REV. A. THORNHILL FOR SYDNEY After spending nine years in Auckland as minister of the Unitarian Church, Ponsonby Road, the Rev. Albert Thornhill has accepted a call to the Hyde Park Unitarian Church, Sydney. He will leave Auckland for his new charge at the end of December. Air. Thornhill is a former minister of the Brookfield Church, ATanchester, one of the largest Unitarian Churches in Britain, but in 1920, for the health of a member of his family, resigned and accepted the charge of the Auckland Church. During the period of his ministry the membership has increased from 90 to 200, and progress has also been recorded In other directions. By making annual tours Air. Thornhill has kept in touch with nearly every Unitarian in the North Island, and with funds given by an anonymous donor he has set on foot a movement to resuscitate the Wellington Church, which has been without a minister. He has taken an active part in the work of the New Zealand Alliance and the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, and was formerly a member of the Grafton School Committee Lately the congregation of the Auckland Church purchased a central site in Newton Road. near Upper Symonds Street, where a new church will be built. Inquiries are being made in London with a view to obtaining a successor to Air. Thornhill. After Mr. Thornhill’s departure the Rev. W. Jellie, who virtually founded the Church and was minister of it from 1900 ~to 1910. will occupy the pulpit.