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The Sunday School and other congregational organizations

Besides the Vestry and the Church Wardens a number of lay groups have over the years been associated with St. Matthew’s. There were first and foremost, the Ladies’ Guild, the financial and social backbone of the congregation. Without the Guild the congregation could not have existed.

Then there was the Church of England Boys’ Society (in the late ‘20s and ‘30s), the Bush Church Aid Society (for many years presided over by Miss Jessie Lyle), and a number of mission auxiliaries. The latter maintained a close link with, and gave support to, St. Matthew’s own Missionary Rev. (later Canon) Lionel Bakewell, in East Africa for over 40 years. The Young-People’s Union existed in the ‘50s.

The oldest institution was, however, the Sunday School. Many out­standing teachers and pupils were associated with it. Initially Sunday School consisted of participating in the regular service, and a period of instruction on Sunday afternoons. Superintendents and teachers included Edmund Boulter, Mrs. Pearce (Bishop Langley’s daughter), Miss Jessie Lyle (under Whose leadership the Sunday School won the Honour Shield of the Diocesan Sunday School Association five times in succession), Miss Nora McLarty, Mr. Hilairy Dowling, Miss Cecile Hamilton; latterly Messrs. John Spicer and Geoffrey Smith. Enrolments varied but at times it reached into the high forties.

It is worth noting that of all concerns evident from reading the two chur­ch papers, the “Magnet” and the “Messenger”, over 75 years, the Sunday School, i.e. the young generation, is uppermost. That in itself is an in­dication of the continuing viability of the congregation.