Christmas Sermon

Last Christmas, the Rev. Canon Wi Te Tau Huata of Te Kuiti held ten services between midnight and noon. With a driver, he started at Paeroa and worked west and south until he returned to Te Kuiti. Over 600 people attended the services, and at one place no fewer than 89 communicants attended a service held at three o'clock in the morning.

At one place, no one turned up. He talked about abandoing the service but his companion asked him: ‘What's wrong with you?’ That question taught him a lesson. He conducted the service and preached a sermon, his congregation being his sleeping companion.

People in the neighbourhood heard the service in progress and assumed that the building was full. When they saw the preacher and his companion coming out alone after the service, they literally cried with shame. Services held in that centre on subsequent dates became the best-attended on the circuit.