PALM SUNDAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 April 1941, Page 4

PALM SUNDAY

FESTIVAL AT ST. MATTHEW’S. A pageant in Biblical history, celebrating the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem, was the feature of Palm Sunday service at St. Matthew’s Church yesterday morning. Six hundred children from the district Sunday schools and some of the day schools, with Boy Scouts and Cubs and headed by the robed choir, marched with palms held aloft into and through the church while they and the large congregation sang the Processional, “All Glory, Laud and Honour.” During the service, at which the Ven. Archdeacon E. J. Rich officiated, the choir sang the march-chorus from “Olivet to Calvary,” a Passiontide cantata. A feature of the service was the congregational singing of hymns and psalm. C.E.M.S. CELEBRATION. As a prelude to an annual gathering of the Churchof England Men’s Society to be held this week, twenty-two members presented themselves at the choir steps, and in reply to questions asked by the officiant, solemnly renewed their vow of faith, service and fellowship in the cause of God and the Church. It was in every way an impressive act of devotion. This was followed by a service of music suited to the sacred season of the church year. It was a fitting finale to the celebration of Palm Sunday. The selections included the anthems, “The Lord is my Strength,” and “They have Taken Away my Lord”; the choruses, “Fling Wide the Gates,” “From the Throne of His Grace,” and the quartette, “God so Loved the World” from Stainer’s “Crucifixion,” the “Olivet to Calvary” march-chorus, and the duet, “Love Divine,” from Stainer’s “Daughter of Jairus.” At the conclusion, the Archdeacon paid a merited tribute to the Choir, stressing the fact that their music centred on the theme and motive of love, an ideal which embodied all that the Empire stood for and for which our men were giving their life and service. They felt, he said, the most precious thing in life was threatened. Most fittingly the music ended on a note of triumph such as the whole Empire looked to gain.