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Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 March 1940, Page 6

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ANCIENT TILE FROM WHITBY SET UP IN TINUI CHURCH. MEMORIAL TO PARSON ANDREW. Something unusual in the way of Centennial memorials has been set up in the Anglican Church at Tinui. It takes the form of a stone tile, of uncertain age. which once formed part of ihe roof of Whitby Parish Church. The tile was presented by the vicar and churchwardens to Mr James Andrew when he was in Whitby last year, visiting the ■ home of his family, and will serve to strengthen the link between the church in Tinui and that old church in England, so ricn in history. The first clergyman to hold services in this district, was the Rev John Chapman Andrew, M.A.. better known in pioneer New Zealand history by the affectionate title of "Parson” Andrew.

From his holding, lea Station, at Whareama, he journeyed far and often, visiting, baptising, and holding services wherever he went. This he did continuously, without other remuneration than the joy of spreading the Gospel, from 1867 to 1899, when a parish was officially formed with the Rev John Sykes as the first minister. It is only fitting that in this year some memorial should be set up to this pioneer who so dauntlessly set about giving to this new country the faith of the land of his fathers. And again fitting that such a memorial should come from his old home of Whitby, where his father had at one time been Vicar.

The tile bears the coat-of-arms of St Mary’s Church, Whitby, executed in bronze by Frank. Covacs, R.A., London.

Speaking at the dedication service, the Bishop of Wellington, the Rt Rev Herbert St Barbe Holland, stressed the necessity for the realisation of a sense of continuity in the church. It was something which men in the past had felt constrained to hand on to those coming after. In their believing and their living they had built up character —their own, and the nation’s. They had laid true foundations. But. said the Bishop, what was the good of foundations if we did not build on them? Were we building today or were we living on the spiritual capital of our forefathers? The service was an inspiring one and many present caught a new vision of their part in a church militant, and ultimately triumphant, over the forces of evil so strongly pressing in upon this generation.