StAugustine's-Hamilton_Parish-Pulse-Nr3_Nov-2014

ALL THAT ACTIVITY IN THE CHURCH! As most will know, the final two windows in the sanctuary are to be installed before ANZAC Day 2015 and in preparation for this to happen, the reredos has been moved. This allows the stained glass artist to make accurate measurement and also get an overview of the east end of the church.

There has been much consultation before a final design was approved and we are all very appreciative of the persistence of those who had the final carriage of these duties. The artists’s drawing was displayed at the back of the church for many weeks to allow comments from parishioners. It has been reassuring to see that the design is in keeping with the other windows throughout the church. The reredos, designed by Mrs Olive Withy and given by the Ladies Guild in 1920, has been moved behind the pulpit. The story of the windows and reredos are known to most, but Dr John Campbell, our very own historian, has recorded it in ‘A Guide to the Jewel Box, The Story of St Augustine’s Church, Hamilton 1920- 2000’ thus –

“At the east end of the Church the central window was to be filled with stained glass so that the rising sun would fill his ‘temple of silence’ with the Glory of God. “A general design was agreed upon and a Melbourne firm ordered the window from Germany in 1919. This was to be a fitting move to end the ‘enmities of twenty generations’. There was an outcry – a memorial window in a memorial church being made by the very people against whom we had been fighting! Arguments became heated. The Rector (The Rev John Brodie Armstrong) was adamant. An ex-serviceman threatened to throw a hand-grenade through the window when it was installed. “In a heated debate the Rector resigned, his Council refused to accept this gesture and won the day and the order was cancelled. A reredos was designed by Mrs Olive Withy, working for our architect at that time, to cover the window …” And so we come, 95 years later, to 2014 and the original intent will be honoured finally. There will undoubtedly be a celebration when the windows are unveiled and we have “the rising sun … filling his temple of silence.” A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to “honour thy father and thy mother,” she asked, “Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?” Without missing a beat one little boy answered, “Thou shall not kill.”

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