Her Majesty Queen Sālote Tupou III of Tonga and her sons, Crown Prince Tungi, Premier of Tonga, and Prince Tuʻipelehake, Minister of Lands, were present to add royal splendour to a great occasion for the Tonga Mission. A representative church of pleasing architectural lines and the largest in the Central Pacific Union Mission was dedicated on Friday, August 11, 1961.
Commenting favourably on the service and the feast that followed, Prince Tungi remarked, “The Adventists have done everything properly.”
When the Queen arrived for the dedication, she was greeted by Pastor AG Jacobson, president of the Tonga Mission, and together they walked up the church driveway covered by the traditional “red carpet” of Tonga, a single piece of native tapa 100 feet long and nine feet wide, prepared for royal occasions. Beulah school children in white formed a guard of honour while the band played the Tongan National Anthem.
The Queen then proceeded to unlock the church door. Her next act, before inspecting the building, was to press the button to start the chimes ringing out loud and clear from Tonga’s first carillon tower. To the Queen, the land on which the church stands is an interesting and historic spot. The nurse who attended her own royal birth and the birth of her two princes was an Adventist who lived in the old mission house “Mizpah”, which was located on this very knoll. The nurse was Marion Young, mother of Edwin Edwards, one-time captain of our mission vessel “Lao-Heni”.
His Royal Highness, Prince Tungi, speaking in the dedication service, thanked all who had contributed in any way to the work and concluded by congratulating them on behalf of Her Majesty and the Royal Family. Pastor RR Frame, assistant secretary of the Australasian Division, gave the dedicatory address. Pastor ODF McCutcheon, the union president, offered the dedicatory prayer. Dr CM Churchward, of the Free Wesleyan Church and translator of the revised Tongan Bible, pronounced the benediction. The occasion marked the culmination of a great amount of hard labour by the president, Pastor Jacobson, and good scheming to make the union appropriations stretch to encompass the plan and the exceptionally high level of loyal support from the Nuku’alofa church members.
The work commenced two-and-a-half years ago. The first concrete was poured on July 14, 1959. Excavations for the basement took a team of 20 three weeks to complete the work, done by hand usually from four to five in the morning, in the light of electric leads from the mission office.
The denomination has every reason to be proud of the building: the solid pews donated by Elder ST Nakao, the large basement for youth work and the carillon tower. An announcement of the dedication broadcast over the new 10KW Radio Tonga stated among other details: “The building . . . complete with anterooms, covers an area of 70 by 34 feet. From the front foyer there is a stairway leading to the colonnade which runs the length of the basement.”
At the feast following the service nearly 1000 people were present. Regarded as one of the most outstanding affairs of its kind in Nuku’alofa, the banquet tables extended for 300 yards and carried literally tons of food. The British Consul and his wife, Mr and Mrs EJ Cood and many officials of government and other mission bodies were present among the visitors at both service and feast.
The week that followed showed the new interest in our work which the church dedication had engendered. Every night evangelistic meetings were held and Pastors Frame and McCutcheon preached to capacity audiences some of the important doctrines for these times. It is planned that evangelistic meetings will continue in the new church, so let us pray that this “light that is set on a hill” will shine brightly to guide the feet of many who are seeking the answer to life’s great questions.
This story has been adapted and derived from the Australasian Record, October 16, 1961.
