ST. MATTHEW’S HISTORY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1079, 17 September 1930, Page 14

ST. MATTHEW’S HISTORY

COMMEMORATION OF 77TH ANNIVERSARY SERVICES ARRANGED St. Matthew’s Day falls next Sunday. On that day special services will b© held in St. Matthew’s Church to commemorate the 77th anniversary of tho church. Many of the pages of Auckland’s church history have been written in St. Matthew’s, which is the second oldest Anglican Church in Auckland. The commembrative services will begin with Holy Commpnion at S o’clock and again at 11 o’clock, when the Yen. Archdeacon Simkin will preach. At 2.30 p.m., there will be a children’s flower service, and the flowers will later be taken to the Auckland Hospital and St 1 . Helens. Festival service will be held at 7 p.m., when Canon C. IT. Grant Cowen will preach. The choir will be augmented by an orchestra, and there will be a special choir recital after the service.

At 8 o’clock on Monday evening, past and present members of the church will attend a reunion in the Parish Hall. Canon Grant Cowen will preside, and a programme will be given by the choir. The Parish Hall is of historical interest, because services were held in it for 50 years. The St. Matthew’s parochial committee was formed in September, 1853, and the Rev. F. Thatcher, who collaborated with Bishop Selwyn in designing the old “Selwyn churches,” near Auckland, came from England to take charge of tho parish. Funds were raised to erect a wooden building (the present Parish Ball), and, at the same time, a subscription fund was opened for the construction of a stone church.

This fund, headed .by the name of Archdeacon Lush, was opened in 1852, and £3OO was quickly subscribed. Mr. Thatcher received £2OO from friends in England, and .the £SOO invested by the trustees yielded £33,000 in accumulations when the present imposing stone church became a reality in 1905. at a cost of £27,000. Mr. Thatcher returned to England in 1856, and vicars subsequently have been the Rev. David Jones, the Rev. R. S. Hassard, the Rev. W. Tebbs, the Rev. L. IT. Outram, the Rev. L. Fitzgerald, and the Rev. W. E. Gillam. Canon Grant Cowen took charge in 1919, when Mr. Gillam retired. CONSECRATION IN 1905 Tho Governor of NeW Zealand. Lord Kanfuriy, laid the foundation stone on April 23, 1902, with Masonic booout-K. Bishop Cowie, then Primate of New Zealand, was present. Bishop Neligan conducted the consecration service on March G, 1905. Apart from its great architectural value, St. Matthew’s has many interesting features. It is the only church in Australia and New Zealand to have an immersion font for the baptism of adults. Its consecration stone, in the rare form of the cross of St. Andrew, built into the main pier supporting the tower, was taken from the site of the ruined Abbey of St. Augustine, Canterbury. The abbey was built about the year 600 and was rebuilt by the Normans after it had declined. It was ruthlessly demolished in the reign of King Henry VIII., but the cross in St Matthew’s, placed oft Bin from the floor at the exact height of Bishop Neligan who performed the consecration, re-’ mains as it was chiselled 1,300 years ago. Beneath it lie the ashes of Mr. Gillam. Among the articles in a bottle beneath the foundation stone are a piece of oak from Canterbury Cathedra! which was built in 1184, and a piece of sandstone from the Norman Church which was built on Holy Island in the 12th century. Already, upward of £SOO has been subscribed in the new organ fund. The church is being reseated with oak, and tlie first—the Governor-Get\eral’s . seat —has been dedicated to a boy who died in Egypt. Many of the new seats will be memorials. Tho choir stalls and the bishop’s seat were rebuilt in oak as a memorial to men of the parish who died in the Great War. Much charitable work is achieved by St. Matthew’s. The Dock Street Mission in Freeman's Bay is conducted in connection with the church, the services being by the Rev. H. Johnston and young men of the Bible Class. There is a Sunday' School conducted by Mrs. Jones above a butcher’s shop at the corner of Nelson and Victoria Streets, and, at the Parish Hall on Thursday evenings, boot-repairing and hair-cutting are done for needy children. St. John Ambulance nurses are present to attend to the wants of these children.